Ex-Canadian pilot claims missing MH370 fell victim to fire, not hijacking

A Canadian veteran pilot has reportedly said that the reason behind the mysterious disappearance of the Malaysian Airline MH370 wasn't hijacking but simply a case of fire.

Chris Goodfellow, who has 20 years experience in flying, said in his lengthy Google+ post that the plane's sudden left turn is the key piece of evidence to establish that the plane fell victim to fire.

He said that pilots are drilled to know what is the closest airport of safe harbour while in cruise, adding that when the plane turned back, he knew that the pilots were heading for an airport, news.com.au reports.

Goodfellow believes that Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shahs of Flight MH370 was taking a direct route to Pulau Langkawi, a 3,962-metre airstrip with an approach over water and no real obstacles.

He said that an electrical fire could explain MH370's failure to communicate, because in the case of a fire, the first response is to pull the main busses and restore circuits one by one until the bad one is isolated.

He also pointed to a possibility of an overheating tyre on the plane's landing gear that could have triggered the fire.

Goodfellow further noted that a hijack code or even transponder code off by one digit would alert ATC that something was wrong and that's why the hijack theory wasn't plausible, the report added.