Authorities have slammed an Aussie engineer’s claims that he had found pieces of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 off the coast of Mauritius using Google Earth images.
Peter McMahon, a 64-year-old mechanical engineer, told the Daily Star Online he had pinpointed the very location of the crash site, roughly 16 kilometres south of the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.
McMahon also claimed the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau (ATSB) told him the images could, in fact, be the missing aircraft.
The ATSB has since told Newshub that McMahon contacted them via Facebook and its general inquiries email in 2016 and 2017 respectively, but at no stage did the ATSB suggest his evidence could be the missing flight.
“The images sent to ATSB by Mr McMahon, below, were captured on 6 Nov 2009, over four years before the flight disappeared,” the ATSB told Newshub in a statement.
McMahon previously said American authorities had been making sure all information received about the missing flight had been hidden from the public.
He also claimed the remains of the plane were “full of bullet holes”.
“Spurious claims such as these must be particularly upsetting for the family and friends of those lost on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.” said the ATSB.
Earlier this month, Malaysian officials flagged June as the likely end date for the missing flight.
The current mission, in partnership with a Texas-based company and their ship Ocean Infinity, will finish their 90-day search then.
