Australian engineer says MH370 has been 'found' on Google Earth

Authorities investigating the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has commented on an Australian engineer’s claim that he was able to track down the missing plane on Google Earth, saying that “spurious claims” must be particularly upsetting for the family and friends of those lost on the flight.

Peter McMahon has reportedly been looking for the missing plane since its disappearance in 2014. The 64-year-old said he found what he believes is MH370 via NASA and Google Earth images.

McMahon claimed that the wreckage of the flight is located 16 kilometres south of Round Island, north of Mauritius. It is widely believed that investigators have not yet searched the said area.

Speaking to the Daily Star, he said that Americans were sent to Australia to oversee the findings of the plane. He also reportedly believes American investigators are keeping significant information hidden.

McMahon also claimed that the wreckage of the plane is full of bullet holes. He sent the information to the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau (ATSB).

A spokesperson for the Joint Agency Coordination Centre has told News.com.au that the images sent to ATSB were captured in November of 2009, more than four years before the plane’s disappearance. According to McMahon, however, the Google Earth image, which he believes shows the crashed MH370, was shot in 2014.

The Guardian reports a Malaysian official as saying that the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 by a US company will likely end in June. The report came earlier this month as families of passengers marked the fourth anniversary of the plane’s disappearance.

Malaysia’s civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told reporters at a remembrance event at a shopping mall near Kuala Lumpur that the whole world hopes to find the plane for the sake of closure. “For the aviation world, we want to know what exactly happened to the plane,” he added.

A theory on the whereabouts of MH370 is that it crash-landed in the Indian Ocean approximately six hours after takeoff. The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing went missing, along with 239 passengers and crew, in March 2014.

The main body of the aeroplane was never found amid reported extensive searches. The cause of the disappearance is still unknown.