An aspiring pilot, who claimed to have spotted Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370’s engine, fuselage, tail and the cockpit in the Cambodian jungle on Google Maps, is set to begin a recce of the area. Pilot Daniel Boyer’s expedition is funded by Zorba Parer, director of an aerospace consultancy company in Phnom Penh.
Parer previously flew out to disprove British video producer Ian Wilson’s claims of the missing jetliner lying around 10 miles away from Boyer’s proposed crash site.
“He has already gone to dismiss Ian Wilson’s satellite sighting 10 miles away, now he will investigate mine,” Boyer told the Daily Star. “Fortunately for me I am 1,000 percent confident it’s the plane crash.
“Using detailed analysis it is a 99.9714 percent chance of being the plane using ‘percentage of error’,” he said. “The plane’s location will no longer be a mystery.”
The scheduled start date for the search was Jan. 7, and other details about when the recce would actually begin, currently remain unclear.
Parer has planned to use drone footage to video the crash site should it be discovered, the Express.UKreported.
“I have waited too long for anyone to go there… Now I am using money out of my pocket to form a contract with Zorba Parer that is now finalized,” Boyer said. “He is a professional and greatly credited aviation executive.”
In November 2018, Boyer claimed the wreckage of Flight MH370 lies northwest of Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh deep in the jungle. He backed his claim with satellite images dating back to 2015. Flight MH370 went missing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board while on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The satellite photos allegedly show white spots, scattered around what seems to be disturbed forest bed. To prove his theory, Boyer bought satellite images of the same spot. Photos from 2008 and 2011 reportedly show only an undisturbed forest.
“Objects the size of a house resembling aircraft debris don’t just end up, placed five miles deep in the jungle by humans unless of course, it was a plane crash,” Boyer told Daily Star at the time.
However, Boyer’s claims cannot be independently verified.
A woman walks past a banner bearing solidarity messages for passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, during a memorial event in Kuala Lumpur ahead of the fourth anniversary of the ill-fated plane’s disappearance, March 3, 2018. Photo: Manan Vatsyayana/Getty Images
Last year, British investigator Wilson had also set out on a journey to find the missing plane in the Cambodian jungle. However, ground search had to be called off due to the dangers lurking in the area.
The latest search comes just days after it was revealed that several plane debris that had washed up on the shores of Madagascar and found in November 2018 “most likely” belonged to Flight MH370.
The mystery behind the disappearance of the Boeing 777-200 continues, with no concrete clues as to what happened to the jet. A multimillion-dollar search for the plane spearheaded by Australia was called off early last year. While Malaysian authorities said in its final report in July 2018 that investigators were unable to determine the cause of the crash, the families of those on board the jet still await a closure.
