'Lonely and sad' MH370 pilot might have been behind Malaysian Airlines plane's disappearance: report

A leading theory on why Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished on March 8, 2014, doesn’t point to a hijacker, pilot error or a mechanical failure – but to the captain of the plane.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah.Credit: Facebook

In a meticulous new report published by The Atlantic, William Langewiesche, a former national correspondent for the magazine, gives credence to that theory.

Friends of Zaharie Ahmad Shah, who was the captain of MH370, told The Atlantic that the 53-year-old pilot was depressed and lonely, engaged in one-sided flirting with young women on Facebook, and spent much of his non-flying time pacing empty rooms inside his home. One close friend of Shah even said he believed the pilot crashed the plane.

MH370 deviated from its planned route at 1.25am local time, more than 40 minutes after take-off. Then the flight went on a westward path across Malaysia, rather than north to its final destination of Beijing.

Such a sudden deviation would have been noticed by the plane’s 200-plus passengers. Langewiesche reported that Shah likely depressurised the cabin to subdue any rebellion.

"An intentional depressurisation would have been an obvious way – and probably the only way – to subdue a potentially unruly cabin in an aeroplane that was going to remain in flight for hours to come," Langewiesche, who is also a pilot, wrote.

The cabin masks have about 15 minutes of supply at altitudes below 13,000 feet, according to The Atlantic, but MH370 stayed at a cruising altitude of 40,000 feet for at least an hour.

Meanwhile, Shah could simply put on one of the four oxygen masks, which have hours of supply, available in the cockpit.

In the final minutes for MH370’s passengers, they likely put on the oxygen masks and were asphyxiated.

MH370 deviated from its planned route 40 minutes after take-off. Credit: AP

"The cabin occupants would have become incapacitated within a couple of minutes, lost consciousness, and gently died without any choking or gasping for air," Langewiesche wrote.

"The scene would have been dimly lit by the emergency lights, with the dead belted into their seats, their faces nestled in the worthless oxygen masks dangling on tubes from the ceiling."

Crisis support can be found at Lifeline: (13 11 14 and lifeline.org.au), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467 and suicidecallbackservice.org.au) and beyondblue (1300 22 4636 and beyondblue.org.au)

This story first appeared in Business Insider. Read it here or follow BusinessInsider Australia on Facebook.