KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 — A wreck hunter searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in Madagascar claimed the Malaysian envoy there was murdered to hinder the investigation into the plane's disappearance.
According to media reports, Blaine Gibson alleged that he was to deliver parts purportedly linked to the missing plane to Houssenaly Zahid Raza, the late Malaysian Honorary Consul to the Republic of Madagascar, prior to his death.
Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry announced that Houssenaly died on August 24 in Antananarivo, Madagascar, but did not disclose the cause of death.
Gibson, who located a wing stabiliser from the plane last year, also alleged that he was receiving death threats over his efforts to locate the plane's wreckage.
MH370 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014 while carrying 239 people and has remained missing since.
Some conspiracy theorists believe the plane flew westward after it vanished from radar and that it passed over Madagascar.
Search efforts for the plane had been concentrated in the southern Indian Ocean, however, based on oceanographic analyses, but these were called off after failing to detect any signs of the plane or the people on board. ― Bernama
