Pilots of missing Malaysian jet could have committed suicide, says expert

As the search of the missing Malaysian Airline passenger jet continues to remain inconclusive, experts have theorized that the pilots of the ill-fated plane could have committed suicide by plunging the jet into the sea.

The Flight MH370 flew from Kuala Lumpur on last Saturday and just 40 minutes after take off went off radar, but kept on flying for several hours as indicated by satellite signals.

A committee member of the Australian and International Pilots Association, Mike Glynn, considers pilot suicide to be the most likely explanation for the disappearance, news.com.au reports.

Glynn said that a pilot rather than a hijacker is more likely to be able to switch off the communications equipment, as suspected in a suspected in a SilkAir crash during a flight from Singapore to Jakarta in 1997 and an EgyptAir flight in 1999.

He further said that a pilot might have sought to fly the plane into the Indian Ocean to reduce the chances of recovering data recorders, and to conceal the cause of the disaster.

US investigators have strongly pointed that someone on board the plane deliberately switched off the radar tracking system, or the transponder, with a mere flick of a switch.

They have also been examining the possibility of 'human intervention' in the plane's disappearance, which might have been an 'act of piracy.'

Meanwhile, pilots of the jet, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, have both been described as respectable, community-minded men.

However, Hamid has drawn criticism after it was recently revealed that he and another pilot had invited two women passengers inside the cockpit, an act that is prohibited, during a 2011 flight from Phuket, Thailand, to Kuala Lumpur, the report added.