I’ve studied MH370’s landing gear wreckage – it’s the latest clue that could finally unlock aviation’s greatest mystery

AN MH 370 investigator has revealed how new evidence from the plane’s landing gear that could unlock the mystery of what happened. Richard Godfrey says the pilot flew around in circles to possibly check he wasn’t being followed, then landed the Boeing 777 at high speed in a bid to ensure it was lost forever. Blaine Gibson and Richard Godfrey/ MH370 Debris AnalysisBlaine Gibson, an American debris hunter, holding the crucial piece of wreckage[/caption] Blaine Gibson and Richard Godfrey/ MH370 Debris AnalysisBlaine Gibson and Richard Godfrey said the damage on the landing gear door suggests the wheels were down[/caption] The Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it vanished on March 8, 2014, sparking the world’s biggest aviation mystery.  In charge of was captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and Godfrey firmly believes he was in control of the plane throughout, ruling out other theories those on board were killed by asphyxiation. Godfrey, a British engineer, and fellow investigator Blaine Gibson have analysed the door that housed the plane’s landing gear, one of the few pieces debris to have been found. From marks they examined he says the landing gear was extended on impact and “was in a high speed dive designed to ensure the aircraft broke up into as many pieces as possible”. “The crash of MH370 was anything but a soft landing on the ocean,” he said. “The realistic possibility that the landing gear was lowered shows both an active pilot and an attempt to ensure the plane sank as fast as possible after impact. “The combination of the high speed impact designed to break up the aircraft and the extended landing gear designed to sink the aircraft as fast as possible both show a clear intent to hide the evidence of the crash.” Speaking to the 60 Minutes programme on Australia’s Channel 9, Godfrey also spoke about the route taken by the plane. By tracking the plane’s flight path through tracing radio signals, he has found the plane was flown in circles near the coastline of Sumatra, an Indonesian island. He believes he has a possible explanation about why Shah may have flown the plane in such a way. “Everyone has assumed there has been a straight path, perhaps even on autopilot, perhaps even a ghost flight,” he said. “I think there was an active pilot for the whole flight.” The theory has been put forward that Shah deliberately crashed the plane as a political gesture, after he voiced opposition to Malaysia’s then Prime Minister. “It’s strange when you’re trying to lose an aircraft in the remotest part of the southern Indian Ocean that you enter a holding pattern for 20 minutes,” he said. “He may have been communicating with the Malaysian government, he may have been checking if he was being followed, he may simply have wanted time to make up his mind where to go from here.” Nineteen of the pieces of MH370 wreckage recovered so far have washed up in Madagascar and been handed in to the authorities. The door was found at the home of a fisherman, who discovered it washed up on the shore of the Antsiraka Peninsula South Beach in Madagascar in March 2017. The fisherman admitted he never knew exactly what it was – and his wife even used it as a washing board. Several other theories have suggested the plane was hijacked while others have claimed the aircraft was down by the US Air Force or that the plane was in ‘cruising mode’ when it crashed. Former French Air Force air traffic controller, Gilles Diharce, says evidence also proves the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines Flight was no accident.  But said he believes pilot was actually attempting a “soft ditching”, a controlled emergency landing, during the flight’s final descent into the ocean.  Diharce’s theory claims that in his final moments, the pilot could have turned on the plane’s backup power system to regain control of the aircraft when both engines failed due to fuel exhaustion. RICHARD GODFREYRichard Godfrey believes his analysis of the debris could finally solve the mystery[/caption] Athena Picture AgencyThe Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing[/caption] Airlineratings.comGodfrey has used data from radios to map MH370’s route including the holding pattern[/caption]