MH370: Who is Mike McKay, Kiwi oil rig worker who reported seeing burning aircraft?

MH370: The Plane That Disappeared is a three-part new documentary on Netflix that analyses the above-mentioned airplane, which mysteriously vanished on its trip from Malaysia to Beijing with 239 passengers on board.

A man named Mike Mckay claims he saw the Malaysia Airlines airliner catch fire, which may have been the last terrifying glimpse of Flight MH370. In fact, multiple people on land or at sea reported to have seen Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 before it vanished on March 8 after taking off after midnight from Kuala Lumpur.

Also Read: Why did MH370 victims’ families think the government hid key details?

Who is Mike McKay?

New Zealander Mike McKay is a Kiwi oil rig worker, who is working on a rig operating in the Gulf of Thailand. As per various reports, McKay was assigned to the Sona-Mercur oil rig in the waters some 186 miles southeast of Vung Tau, a Vietnamese coastal town outside of Ho Chi Minh City.

According to sources, Mckay was so sure he had seen the tragic plane burst into flames that he allegedly sent an email to his employers pleading with them to tell authorities.

“Gentlemen. I believe I saw the Malaysian Airlines flight come down. The timing is right,” he wrote.

He continued by saying, “I tried to contact Malaysian and Vietnamese officials days ago. But I do not know if the message has been received. I am on the oil ring Songa-Mercur off the coast of Vung Tau. The surface location of the observation is Lat 08 22’ 30.20” N Lat 108 42.22.26” E. I observed (the plane?) burning at high altitude at a compass bearing of 265* to 275*”

Also Read: Who is Jeff Wise, author of The Plane That Wasn’t There: Why We Haven’t Found MH370?

McKay is operating on the oil rig Songa Mercur off the coast of Vung Tau, Vietnam’s southeast coast. This would place the aircraft close to where a Chinese satellite has detected a potential crash site.

On March 12, he claimed in an email to his employers that he saw flames in the sky that rapidly went out.

“From when I first saw the burning (plane) until the flames went out (still at high altitude) was 10-15 seconds. There was no lateral movement, so it was either coming toward our location, stationary, or going away from our location,” he wrote. “The general position of the observation was perpendicular/southwest of the normal flight paths.”

Also Read: Where are flight MH370’s black boxes?

Doan Huu Giasaid, the deputy general director of Vietnam‘s air traffic management, apparently verified receipt of Mr. McKay’s initial email.

In fact, the network said that in response to McKay’s complaint, Vietnamese officials sent out planes last week to look for the airliner. However, a search by an aircraft sent by the Vietnamese navy yielded no results. Le Minh Thanh, a Vietnamese naval official, told the network that although the jet searched the region mentioned by McKay, it showed up nothing.