Residents in the Maldives report seeing a low flying aircraft on the morning that Flight MH370 went missing. The jet was described as being white with red stripes, similar to the Malaysia airline livery, and flew over the island of Kudahuvadhoo making an incredibly loud noise as it flew low across the sky.

Residents claim the plane flew towards Addu Atoll near the southern tip of the Maldives.

This sighting fits the theory proposed by Chris Goodfellow, that suggests MH370 suffered a catastrophic on board fire, and turned back for an emergency landing at Langkawi International Airport, as this airport was nearer than Kuala Lumpur and offered a easier approach. However it is then possible that the aircraft flight crew were overcome by toxic smoke and the aircraft flew on over Langkawi in a south-westerly direction to  the Maldives.

Maldives – possible track taken by MH370

Extrapolate the direction of travel westward from the point the aircraft was last “seen”, through Langkawi, and this puts the aircraft in the vicinity of the Maldives at approximately the correct time. Chris suggests that search efforts should be concentrated to the west of the Maldives.

However, if this theory was correct, would not the aircraft be picked up firstly by radar at WMKL as it passed overhead, and then by military radar from the joint RAF/USAF installation on Diego Garcia (FJDG), to the south of the Maldives?