Oil rig worker says he saw Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 burst into flames Skip to main content

Oil rig worker says he saw Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 burst into flames

  • By Kristin Shorten
  • News Corp Australia
  • March 13, 2014 4:30PM

Chinese satellite reveals possible crash site 3:21

A Chinese satellite looking for the missing Malaysia Air plane has 'observed a suspected crash area at sea'. Courtesy CNN/Sky News
IN what could be the last chilling sighting of missing Flight MH370, an oil rig worker believes he spotted the Malaysia Airlines jetliner burst into flames on Saturday morning.
New Zealander Mike McKay, who is working on a rig operating in the Gulf of Thailand, was so certain he saw the ill-fated flight on fire that he emailed his employers, urging them to pass the information onto authorities.
“Gentlemen. I believe I saw the Malaysian Airlines flight come down. The timing is right,” he wrote.
READ MORE: SUSPECTED CRASH SITE FOUND
“I tried to contact Malaysian and Vietnamese officials days ago. But I do not know if the message has been received.
“I am on the oil ring Songa-Mercur off the coast of Vung Tau.
“The surface location of the observation is Lat 08 22’ 30.20” N Lat 108 42.22.26” E.
“I observed (the plane?) burning at high altitude at a compass bearing of 265* to 275*”
Mr McKay is working on the oil rig Songa Mercur off Vung Tau, on the south east coast of Vietnam. This would put the plane in the same general area where a Chinese satellite has spotted a suspected crash site.

In his email to his employers on March 12 he claims he saw flames in the sky which quickly extinguished.
“From when I first saw the burning (plane) until the flames went out (still at high altitude) was 10-15 seconds. There was no lateral movement, so it was either coming toward our location, stationary, or going away from our location,” he wrote.
“The general position of the observation was perpendicular/south west of the normal flight paths.”
Mr McKay said the possible plane appeared to be in one piece.
I spotted it ... the letter written by oil rig worker Mike McKay.
“It is very difficult to judge the distance but I would say 50 to 70 kms along the compass bearing 260-277,” he wrote.
“The sea surface current at our location is 2-2.3 knots in the direction of 225-230.
“The wind direction has been E-ENE averaging 15-20 knots.
READ MORE: FINAL WORDS OF MH370 PILOT
“(We see the con trails every day) and at a lower altitude than the normal flight paths or on the compass bearing 265 to 275 intersecting the normal flight paths at normal altitude but further away.”
Michael Jerome McKay signed off with “Good Luck”.
Near the crash site? ... the Songa Mecur oil rig off Vung Tau, Vietnam.
Vietnam’s air traffic management deputy general director Doan Huu Giasaid has reportedly confirmed they received Mr McKay’s original email.
“He said he spotted a burning [object] at that location, some 300km southeast of Vung Tau,” he reportedly said.
Other Vietnamese officials have reportedly since dismissed the account after not finding anything in the water.
Searching ... a massive area is being scoured for the missing plane.
US ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff confirmed he spoke with Richard Beaton at Japanese Idemitsu Oil & Gas Co, who hired Songa Mercur to drill, and confirms Mr McKay’s email is real.
Vietnamese naval officer Le Minh Thanh told America’s ABC News that Vietnamese officials sent a plane to the area to investigate the man’s claims, but the search was fruitless.
READ MORE: WHAT ISN’T MALAYSIA AIRLINES TELLING US?
However, Strategic Aviation Solutions chairman Neil Hansford said superior Australian search aircraft should be sent to the area.
“If you go out in an aircraft with a GoPro out the window you’re not going to find much are you?,” he said, referring to the Vietnamese search efforts.
“Australia’s sent Orions up there and we fly an Orion at about 500 feet off the water and it’s got thermal imaging and everything.
Looking ... the Philippine Air Force has joined the search effort.
“If I had the training of an Australian I’d see it (from an Orion).”
Mr Hansford said Mr McKay’s account “made sense”.
“It would be quite believable that, on an oil rig at that time of the morning with a clear sky, if he looked up he would see something lower than he thought and he’s seen it on fire and he’s given an exact position,” he said.
READ MORE: WHY THE BLACK BOX WON’T HELP
“The position he’s given is in the area that the Chinese have now found, which is nowhere near where the Malaysians have been looking and it’s where the Vietnamese, because of all the confusion with the Malaysians, have stopped looking.”

On the rig, Mr McKay would have been sitting up to 100m above the water, Mr Hansford said.
“You’d see that. If you’re up on an oil rig you’re awfully high up off the water. So he’s sitting up in an elevated position and looking at a clear sky he sees something low and on fire, that’s disappearing,” he said.
“Being a mariner he knows what the latitude and longitude of what his oil rig is. He’s then looked up at the image and he’s determined how many degrees the aircraft was at from him and he’s said it’s 50-70km from him.
“An experienced person on the water would be able to use the instruments he’s got because they need to have all of that instrumentation for the helicopters coming to take them on and off the rigs.”
Do you know Mike McKay? Email kristin.shorten@news.com.au
Searching ... rescuers have scoured large areas for the missing plane. 

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