Eleven months in, no single trace of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has been found. The aircraft disappeared with 239 passengers and crew members as it made its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing back on March 8 last year.
Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation declared that the ill-fated plane's disappearance was an accident and that all the people onboard the aircraft are to be presumed dead. This was after full-scale search operations returned without success despite several countries' assistance in thoroughly scouring the Indian Ocean, where the plane is believed to be sitting.
Relatives and families of the missing passengers are still caught in what seems to be an endless nightmare as they dread more and more about news of their loved ones. The declaration is not the answer they desire to get.
But there could be a major breakthrough that just might happen in the search if the authorities are bold enough to give it a try.
According to an oil rig worker, enormous efforts in locating the plane may just end in vain altogether as he believes that he saw what could be a burning MH370 plunge into the South China Sea, which makes the Indian Ocean the "wrong place."
New Zealander Mike McKay, 57, emailed Vietnamese officials about his sighting in the hopes of helping out the authorities in finding the jetliner. However, the move that he hoped would culminate to an investigation only led to his dismissal from his job.
The email he sent to the authorities was leaked to the public, who immediately shot questions at McKay's contractor and rig owner. This congested their communication lines and stalled their operations. So in a snap, McKay bade goodbye to his thirty-year career in the oil industry. Many immediately concluded McKay as one of the many who make up stories about the missing jet.
Although McKay was not sure that what he saw was an aircraft, he is convinced that the time he saw an object in flames crash down the South China Sea was the time the MH370 went off radar.
"I've thought about it and thought about it, over and over and while I cannot say for certain that the burning object in the sky was definitely MH370, the timing fits in with when the Malaysian plane lost contact," McKay told Daily Mail. "I have been trying to disprove that what I saw was an aeroplane ever since."
