A man claims he saw the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 burning and crashing off the south-eastern coast of Vietnam.
Also Read: Flight MH370 Continued to Fly for 4 Additional Hours
In an email sent to his employer, the man - reported to be an oil rig worker - says: "I believe I saw the Malaysian Airlines plane came down. The time is right." The email was acquired, confirmed and shared on Twitter by ABC journalist Bob Woodruff.
.@ABC spoke with Richard Beaton w/Japanese Idemitsu Oil & Gas Co who hired Songa Mercur to drill & confirms email of Michael Mckay is real
— Bob Woodruff (@BobWoodruff) March 12, 2014
Woodruff has also revealed that the Vietnamese officials are aware of the letter but they have found nothing in the water so far.
Vietnamese officials received email from oil rig worker who says he spotted burning object off the coast of SE Vietnam @GMA — Bob Woodruff (@BobWoodruff) March 12, 2014
The wide-body jet, carrying 239 people onboard, was reported to have vanished from the civilian air-traffic control radar in the wee hours of Saturday, only about an hour into its journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
If the latest claim made by the man proves to be correct, it will possibly solve the puzzle that has perplexed family members and people worldwide on what could have happened to the plane.
The man, known as Michael Jerome McKay, described seeing what he believes to be a plane burning at a high altitude and bursting in flames. "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," he wrote.
Oil rig worker claims in employer confirmed letter-he saw the plane go down. Vietnamese say they found nothing @ABC pic.twitter.com/k8y02se9aZ
— Bob Woodruff (@BobWoodruff) March 12, 2014
The flight has been presumed to have crashed off the Vietnamese coast on Saturday, after losing contact with the air traffic controllers off the eastern Malaysia coast, though there are various other theories doing their rounds on the internet, which tend to explain the sudden mysterious disappearance of the massive aircraft.
Flight MH370 departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 00:41am (local time) on Saturday and was due to arrive in Beijing at 06:30am. Air traffic controllers reportedly lost contact at 01:30am.
Investigators are still clueless on what went wrong with the aircraft even as the hunt for it has been widened with each passing day.
There are 34 planes, 40 ships and search crews from 10 different countries searching for the missing plane. Worried family members are awaiting any progress in the search but they have been told to prepare for the worst.
But the latest claim made by the man, who says he saw the airplane coming down in flames, only tends to complicate the story that has continued to perplex the world for a week.
