Was MH370 Deliberately Downed By Pilot? Debris Offers New Clues To Mystery

More than eight years after Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared, the discovery of its debris suggests that the landing gear was down when it hit the ocean. The debris - a landing gear door of the doomed Boeing 777 - was found at the home of a Madagascan fisherman 25 days ago, according to a report in Independent. Experts say this is the first piece of material evidence to suggest that the pilots of MH370 intended to destroy the aircraft. The crash in 2014 claimed the lives of 239 passengers.

Richard Godfrey, a British engineer, and Blaine Gibson, an American MH370 wreckage hunter, have said the plane was deliberately crashed.

"The level of damage with fractures on all sides and the extreme force of the penetration right through the debris item lead to the conclusion that the end of the flight was in a high-speed dive designed to ensure the aircraft broke up into as many pieces as possible. The crash of MH370 was anything but a soft landing on the ocean," Mr Godfrey was quoted as saying by Independent.

The piece of debris was found by the fisherman named Tataly in 2017, after it washed up on the Madagascar shore in 2017 in the wake of tropical storm Fernando.

He kept the landing gear door at his home for five years and wasn't aware of its significance. The fisherman's wife was using the door as a washing board.

The theory proposed by Mr Godfrey and Mr Gibson is based on the four quasi-parallel gashes on the door, which they say were caused by one of the plane's two engines disintegrating on impact, as per Independent report.

"The combination of the high speed impact designed to break up the aircraft and the extended landing gear designed to sink the aircraft as fast as possible both show a clear intent to hide the evidence of the crash," a report published by the experts said.

Pilots don't usually lower the landing gear during an emergency landing on water as it increases the chance of the aircraft breaking into several pieces. It can also increase the chance of the plane sinking quickly, giving survivors very less time to get out, the experts said.