MH370 pilot family blast suicide smear campaign blaming captain for plane's disappearance

On the first anniversary of the plane’s disappearance, the authorities in Malaysia were today due to publish a report on the investigation into the Boeing 777 vanishing without trace with 239 people on board.

It was flying from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in China on March 8 last year.

The findings of a team of investigators from six countries, including the UK, have been shrouded in secrecy for months.

But the friends and families of the missing 227 passengers and 12 crew hope they will shed new light on one of the biggest mysteries in aviation history.

Experienced airline pilots have suggested Captain Zaharie Shah, 53, deliberately hid the plane from radar and flew it thousands of miles off course, before it came down in the remote southern Indian Ocean, to the west of Australia.

His elder sister Sakinab Shah today released a statement in response, branding these claims “disgusting” and claiming that “none of you have the right to blame Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah for any wrongdoing”.

However, the “rogue pilot” theory has continued to gather pace, with British Boeing 777 captain Simon Hardy saying Mr Shah flew a circuit around his home island Penang, off Malaysia, to take a “long, emotional look” before the plane disappeared.

He points to the route MH370 took as it turned back on itself and flew along the border of Malaysia and Thailand, saying: “It flew in and out of the countries eight times.

“This is probably very accurate flying rather than just a coincidence, as air traffic controllers in both countries would probably assume that the aircraft was in the other country’s jurisdiction and not pay it any attention.”

Mr Hardy said the aircraft flying a circuit around Penang reminded him of a manoeuvre he had performed to have a look at Ayers Rock in Australia.

He said: “As the airway goes directly over Ayers Rock you don’t actually see it very well, because it disappears under the nose of the aircraft.

"So in order to look at it you have to turn left or right.

"If you look at the output from MH370, there were actually three turns not one.

"Someone was looking at Penang.”

David Learmount, safety editor of UK aviation news website Flightglobal, also believes flight MH370 was “deliberately flown off course”.

He said: “We are no nearer discovering exactly what happened to this plane than we were a year ago but all the evidence, and I mean all, suggests the aircraft went to a spot where its computers would never have taken it.”

Even Nik Huzlan, a retired Malaysian Airlines pilot who knew Captain Shah for 30 years, believes someone in the cockpit caused the plane to cease communications and turn around from its scheduled flight path, saying “your best friend can harbour the darkest secrets”.

Speaking on behalf of his family, Ms Sakinab accused people of pouncing like “hungry starved wolves with their twisted and conniving interpretations”.

Mr Learmount fears despite the extensive underwater search, which will continue until May, the plane will never be found.

The Australian-led search has now trawled around 43 per cent of a 37,500 square mile “priority zone”, at a cost of £62million.