Pilot of missing plane tried to evade radar, report claims

THE pilot of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 made a series of deliberate turns and speed changes to avoid radar detection before plunging into the Indian Ocean, research suggests.

Richard Godfrey, an aerospace engineer who has spent years investigating the flight’s 2014 disappearance, said his study indicated that pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah took a “carefully planned” flight path to avoid “giving a clear idea where he was heading”.

The Boeing 777 with 239 people on board, dropped off radar screens after taking off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, bound for Beijing.

The plane took an unexplained U-turn from its planned flight path and headed back across the Malay Peninsula and the Malacca Strait before vanishing.

Mr Godfrey said the plane’s final movements could be mapped using data from Weak Signal Propagation, a global network of radio signals that can trace the movement of planes.

But he said MH370’S change in movement and speed suggested it was trying to avoid leaving clues about where it was heading. “The level of detail in the planning implies a mindset that would want to see this complex plan properly executed through to the end,” he added.

Friends of the pilot said he was “lonely” and “sad”, while aviation specialist William Langewiesche wrote in The Atlantic that “there is a strong suspicion among investigators in the aviation and intelligence communities that he was clinically depressed”.

While the aircraft has not been located, 33 pieces of debris, either confirmed or likely to be from MH370, have been found down Africa’s east coast.