Malaysia Airlines MH370 mystery is in the hands of the CIA, says former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad

Tech troubles hinder MH370 search0:40

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Technical troubles have hindered a resumption of the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

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Possible endpoints for MH370 based on analysis of satellite data. Source: Supplied

WHAT happened to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370? Ask the CIA but don’t blame us, says a former Malaysian prime minister.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad wrote in his personal blog today that — with the help of the Boeing’s advanced technology — the CIA or “certain parties” could have hijacked the aircraft remotely.

“It is a waste of time and money to look for debris or oil slick or to listen for “pings” from the black box,” Dr Mahathir said. “This is most likely not an ordinary crash after fuel was exhausted. The plane is somewhere, maybe without MAS markings.

“Someone is hiding something. It is not fair that MAS and Malaysia should take the blame.”

Dr Mahathir, who was Malaysian prime minister from 1981 to 2003, cites a 2006 article on flightglobal.com as the basis for his argument, which states that the CIA could activate an autopilot installed in order to prevent terrorists from taking control of the flight deck by force.

“They can land safely or they may crash, but aeroplanes do not just disappear. Certainly not these days with all the powerful communication systems which operate almost indefinitely and possess huge storage capacities,” Dr Mahathir wrote.

He also called into question Boeing’s involvement in the disappearance — particularly in light of a US patent issued in 2006 for a system that remotely locks out the aircraft’s pilot and guides the aircraft to land automatically.

Dr Mahathir also challenged the availability of satellite tracking data on the plane.

“MH370 is a Boeing 777 aircraft. It was built and equipped by Boeing, hence all the communications and GPS equipment must have been installed by Boeing.

“If they failed or have been disabled, Boeing must know how it can be done and surely Boeing would ensure that they cannot be easily disabled as they are vital to the safety and operation of the plane,” he said.

ADV Ocean Shield slips from the wharf at HMAS Stirling on May 10 in Rockingham, Australia. The Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield departed for the MH370 search area after resupplying at HMAS Stirling. Picture: Paul Kane / Getty Images Source: Getty Images

Meanwhile, a Chinese navy survey ship will start mapping the seabed off the West Australian coast this week as part of the latest phase in the search for the Malaysian airliner, officials said Monday.

Chinese, Australian and Malaysian authorities met at the west coast port city of Fremantle at the weekend and agreed that the Chinese ship Zhu Kezhen will conduct a bathymetric survey of the Indian Ocean floor as directed by Australian air crash investigators, Australia’s Joint Agency Coordination Center said in a statement.

The Canberra-based centre said the ship was scheduled to sail for the survey area on Wednesday, weather permitting.

Officials believe the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 that vanished with 239 passengers and crew on March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing veered far off course and crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.

After an initial air and seabed search failed to find any trace of the wreckage, authorities this month announced a new phase over a vastly expanded seabed search area covering 60,000 square kilometres. The new phase also involves mapping of the seabed where depths and topography are in parts largely unknown.

echnicians tie down the Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle prior to the ADV Ocean Shield slipping from the wharf at HMAS Stirling on May 10. Picture: Paul Kane Source: Getty Images

Negotiations are underway to contract powerful sonar equipment to scour the seabed for wreckage that could be in water more than 7 kilometres deep.

The original ocean floor search of an area of less than 400 square kilometres where a sound consistent with aircraft black box was thought to have emanated was conducted by a US Navy unmanned sub, the Bluefin 21, near its 4.5 kilometre depth limit.

The Bluefin 21 had continued searching an ever widening area until a communications problem was discovered last week involving the transponders on the sub and the Australian navy ship that tows it, Ocean Shield.

The centre said the Ocean Shield arrived on Sunday at the Australian west coast port of Geraldton, where preparations were underway to install spare transponder parts to both the ship and sub.

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Rolf Harris trial told how 11-year-old was ‘tongue-kissed’, 16-year-old groped by famous entertainer

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Artist and television personality Rolf Harris arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London, England. Picture: Peter Macdiarmid Source: Getty Images

A WOMAN has described the tears of relief that washed over her as they “got the bastard” and arrested Rolf Harris four decades after he allegedly indecently groped her on the dance floor in New Zealand.

Three women from different corners of the world gave evidence against the 84-year-old entertainer yesterday including one who alleged he apologised to her moments after an assault.

A New Zealand woman told the court she was working for a wine company serving sparkling wine at a function on North Island in 1970 when she was about 16 years.

She said she saw the then famous star and had asked him for an autograph. He in turned asked her for a dance and it was while they were on the dance floor of the function at a local restaurant that he allegedly assaulted her.

“In a flash, in a moment I saw the dark side of a man who I thought could be trusted,” the woman said.

“We were in a public place. He slid his hand down by back then up under my dress and put his hand between my dress.”

The woman cried in court as she recalled how she pulled away and after collecting her belongings immediately left the venue before her shift had finished. She later told her mother but did not report it to police. In 2013 when Harris was arrested the woman described her elation.

“Oh I told you they’d finally get the bastard, I was so relieved, all these years later it was unbelievable the relief I felt,” she said after she contacted an Australian media group to help find a contact for police to report the incident.

Veteran Australian entertainer Rolf Harris, centre, who is accused of indecent assault, accompanied by members of his family, arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London. Picture: Lefteris Pitarakis Source: AP

Under cross examination by Harris’ lawyer Sonia Woodley QC she reacted with anger at suggestions she had made the story up and the “twisting of her words”.

“How do you sleep at night?” she asked Ms Woodley loudly to which the lawyer replied she had a job to do.

Another witness from the UK then described how she was allegedly assaulted while on holiday in Malta with a boyfriend. She said Harris had given the couple some advice on where there was a doctor after the boyfriend cut his foot. The woman returned to the beach bar where they had encountered Harris and two men to thank him and let him know things were okay. It was at this point the woman, then 18 years old, said she saw a large framed drawing on the wall of two little boys with two rocking horses in the bar which Harris confirmed he had painted. He then invited her to a back room ostensibly to see other works.

The woman recalled how Harris had pushed her up against a wall in the room and started to kiss her. She said she initially felt flattered by a friendly kiss but then it turned “slobbery” and he put his hands over her breasts and later under her skirt, into her underwear and into her vagina and grabbed her hand and put it over his clothes onto his penis. She said the motion was all very quick when he suddenly stopped, cuddled her and said “I’m sorry” before leading her back out to the bar area.

An earlier witness from Darwin recalled 1969 when she was staying with friends as a sick 11 year old and Harris, also staying at the home, asked her how old she was.

She said she told him and he then allegedly replied “Good I want to be the first one to introduce you to a tongue kiss”.

“I just stood there, I didn’t say anything, I froze … then he walked up towards me,” she said and described the kiss which she said had affected her relationships and intimacy for years.

Under cross examination Ms Woodley asked if it was that incident that affected her relationships or the fact she had been allegedly assaulted by a cousin when she was 17 to which the woman said it was the Harris assault when she was a child.

The case is continuing.

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Four Corners says multiple authorities, including the Malaysian Military let Malaysia Airlines flight 370 disappear

Pointing the finger ... Malaysia's acting Transport Minister and Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein says Malaysia’s military was called and asked to keep an eye on MH370. Source: AP

A NUMBER of authorities, including the Malaysian military, reportedly let MH370 disappear, according to shocking new claims about the missing plane.

ABC’s Four Corner’s program quoted Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein as saying that Malaysia’s civil aviation authorities called the military asking them to keep an eye on the plane but that the military allowed the plane to glide out to sea.

The plane was deemed not to be hostile and therefore the military did not send a plane up to investigate.

“If (we didn’t) shoot it down, why send it (jet up),” Mr Hussein said.

Malaysia’s airspace as MH370 flew almost directly over the station located on the island of Penang but that it appeared nothing was done.

Anwar Ibrahim said the military had completely breached the standing operating procedures.

“The air force will be alerted and will have to then be flown to that area to either ... guide the plane to land or to leave the Malaysian airspace. They’re standard operating procedure and this was never done,” he said.

“Yeah I mean it’s a major scandal here because ... this is of course amounting to a major threat to national security.”

Happy family ... A screen capture from a You Tube tribute for Malaysian Airlines pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, posted by his family. Source: YouTube

MORE: Doubts raised over ‘ping’ validity

The program also addressed rumours that Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah’s wife had left him.

His brother-in-law, Asuad Khan, said claims that his sister Faizah had left Zaharie, taking their children with her to another house, in the hours prior to the ill-fated flight’s take off were “completely false.”

Mr Khan also denied that his 53-year-old brother-in-law was experiencing personal problems, had been upset about politics or that he was unfit to fly on March 8.

He said the veteran pilot’s marriage was not in trouble over a rumoured affair, saying that as a Muslim he was permitted to have multiple girlfriends outside his marriage.

Close family ... Ahmad Seth Zaharie, 26, with his sister Aishah Zaharie, 27, left, and mother Faizah Khanum Mustafa Khan. Source: Supplied

RELATED: Pilot’s family lash out at reporters

“Even I don’t believe it because she, she’s at home. Well the normal procedure for their ... whenever the husband fly the wife will go to another house where the younger son’s staying. Otherwise she will be alone in that big house. That’s been practised since they bought the house.”

It was claimed Captain Zaharie had received a two-minute phone call shortly before takeoff from a mystery woman, using a mobile phone number obtained under a false name.

Family tribute for Captain Zaharie Shah0:58

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Family of missing Malaysian Airlines Captain Zaharie Shah from flight MH370 pay tribute to him. Courtesy: Chumguan Phoon/YouTube

MORE: Captain Zaharie’s ‘mystery phonecall’

Mr Khan defended his brother-in-law’s right to have a girlfriend.

“That I do not know about. Even if I know I said why not? We are allowed to, as long as you take good care of your wife. Even if you ask my sister and she said she don’t care,” he said.

“He can marry another one. Why not — we can marry four. We are Muslim.”

Technical experts in the US were also working to recover deleted information from a sophisticated flight simulator Zaharie had set up on a home computer.

But Mr Khan said the simulator had not been used this year.

“I don’t think so because the simulator is not working,” he said.

“That simulator was dismantled already, the things crash. It don’t work so he got to ah reformat the drive.”

Family ties ... Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and daughter Aishah Zaharie. Source: Facebook. Source: Facebook

RELATED: Captain Zaharie’s daughter ‘was in Australia’

Mr Khan also said Zaharie had not attended the trial of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim that day, which some reports suggested proved he had been radicalised and had hijacked the plane in an act of terror.

“No. I ask my sister personally, even my sister herself informed him on what happened on that day,” he said.

The program also claimed that someone inside the cockpit began interfering with the in-flight entertainment system around the time MH370’s transponder was turned off or failed.

It also revealed that a team of up to five officers could or should have been on duty at the nearby radar operations centre at Butterworth air base looking for unidentified aircraft.

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New book says missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 might have been shot down by mistake during a military operation

THE search for MH370 in the Indian Ocean may have been a ruse to hide the fact that the plane was mistakenly shot down during a military exercise, a new book claims.

First book ... Flight MH370: The Mystery goes on sale today Source: Supplied

Flight MH370: The Mystery goes on sale today with the explosive theory, the first of doubtless many books to explore the disappearance of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, which has confounded experts since March 8.

Written by Nigel Cawthorne, who states he may be Britain’s “most published living author” with 150 books to his name, the book canvasses the idea that the plane carrying 239 people was shot down by mistake during a US/Thai military exercise.

A Malaysia Airlines flight prior to departure at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in May. Photo: AFP.

According to the theory, the mistake may have been covered up because authorities did not want any retaliatory attacks. Data that sent the search off in other directions - first to the Straits of Malacca and then on to the Southern Indian Ocean - was a ruse to cover up the reality, Cawthorne states in the book.

Cawthorne bases some of the theory on the eyewitness account of New Zealand oil rig worker Mike McKay, who said he saw a ball of fire in the sky from the rig he was working on in the South China Sea in the early hours of March 8.

“From when I first saw the burning (plane) until the flames went out (still at high altitude) was 10-15 seconds. There was no lateral movement, so it was either coming toward our location, stationary, or going away from our location,” Mr McKay told his employers in an email shortly after the incident.

Cawthorne’s theory still does not answer what happened to the wreckage of the plane.

American aviation author Christine Negroni, who wrote Deadly Departure on TWA Flight 800, is also working on a book about the missing Malaysian flight, calledCrashed, which will be published by Penguin.

A family member of a missing relative on MH370 breaks down on March 14. Photo: EPA. Source: AP

A movie about missing Flight MH370 is also in the works and could be in cinemas within months.

Rupesh Paul Productions is promoting The Vanishing Act, a film about the plane tragedy, among buyers at the Cannes Film Festival.

A poster for the movie promises to tell “the untold story” of the missing plane, but in an interview on Friday, the associate director of the movie, Sritama Dutta, said the only similarities between the thriller and the real-life disaster is that a plane is missing.

“It has got no similarities,” said Dutta, adding there have been so many developments with the actual case that it wouldn’t be practical to try to mirror it.

“We cannot keep up with the true facts, it’s changing every day.”

However the 90-second trailer for the film, posted to YouTube on the weekend, features a cast of terrified passengers aboard a turbulent MAS jetliner and recreates some of the dramatic scenarios that could have played out on board the ill-fated flight after takeoff.

Dutta said Indian director Rupesh Paul will film the movie and a multiethnic cast for it could be revealed before the Cannes Film Festival ends on May 25.

Paul presented the film idea to financiers with the teaser trailer on Saturday afternoon, according to Variety .

Paul told the magazine that he spent 20 days working on a screenplay based around a Malaysian journalist’s theory about what happened to the plane.

He said the journalist, who insists on anonymity for now, is one of the film’s investors. The film’s budget is about $3.5 million.

The trailer for the partly fictional film was shot over six days in an Aerobus parked in Mumbai, India.

Shooting the film will take 35 days and involve more than 200 actors.

Malaysia's Minister of Defence and Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein at a press conference on March 13. Photo: AAP. Source: AP

Paul hopes to shoot the film in India and the United States and plans a worldwide release in September.

His erotic movie “Kamasutra 3D” is being screened outside the Cannes competition this year.

His personal website says Paul “redefines all-round talent” and “his free spirit has been prized and puzzled by many.”

Within weeks of MH370 disappearing Australian film Deep Water, about a plane that crashes into the ocean on its way from China, was shelved because of its resemblanceto the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

The Hollywood Reporter stated Deep Water, a follow-up to Bait 3D, had been put on hold because of “uncomfortable similarities” to the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

“Out of sensitivity to the Malaysia flight situation, we’ve decided to put it on pause for now,” Gary Hamilton, managing director of Arclight Films told hollywoodreporter.com in March.

A Malaysian Airlines plane passes a Chinese Airforce Ilyushin II-76 at Perth airport during the search for wreckage off Australia’s west coast. Source: News Corp Australia

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