KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 — The curious overflight of the Beijing-bound Flight MH370 past Penang island before it disappeared over the Indian Ocean could possibly be to allow its captain a final look at his hometown, according to a senior pilot.

Simon Hardy, a senior Boeing 777 captain with a major commercial airline, had spent six months analysing the flight data of the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared on March 8 last year before he came arrived at the theory for the unexplained manoeuvre, British paper Daily Mail reported today.

“I have done the same manoeuvre there, to look down and get a great view. Somebody was taking a last emotional look at Penang,” Hardy was quoted saying.

The idea came to him from Ayers Rock, the giant natural feature and landmark in the heart of Australia, he told the British tabloid.

“I thought of this at 5am, went downstairs and researched where the air crew were from,” Hardy said, whereupon he learned that MH370’s pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, was from Penang.

He noted that, after flying along the Malaysia-Thai border, MH370 performed a sharp u-turn towards Penang, one of three turns made in quick succession.

“Someone did a nice long turn and looked down on Penang,” Captain Hardy told the Daily Mail, adding that this “last emotional look” provides “perhaps the only clue to the perpetrator”.

The plane is thought to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean far off the west coast of Australia.

The Australian Transport Safety Board, which is leading the underwater hunt for the missing plane, has conducted searches for debris at that location, but Hardy thinks they’re looking at the wrong place.

The real location according to the pilot, is about 100 nautical miles away, where he believes the plane was deliberately landed on the water, before sinking intact close to a trench at sea, explaining why no wreckage has been found.

According to the Daily Mail, Australian investigators have been in touch with Hardy and described his theory as “credible.”

David Learmount, a flight safety specialist who edits Flight International magazine spoke in support of Hardy’s theory.

“Despite worldwide interest in his work, nobody — yet — has suggested his calculations are anything but logical and mathematically sound,” the Daily Mail reported.

On March 8 last year, MH370 with all 239 passengers and crew on board vanished en route to Beijing shortly after departing from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Despite extensive searches, no debris from the plane has yet been found.