An engineer has claimed missing flight MH370 was put into a holding pattern for 22 minutes in a possible breakthrough in the mysterious seven-year search for the plane and its 239 passengers.

Richard Godfrey said he made the discovery after tracking the Boeing 777 jet with a revolutionary technology called WSPRnet.

The aircraft went missing after it set off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Beijing, China on March 8, 2014.

The missing Malaysian Airlines jet disappeared with 239 passengers and crew on board and has not been heard from since, although there have been numerous theories about what happened to the jet.

Theories for the disappearance have ranged from something as benign as technical failure to as sinister as mass murder-suicide by Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, the captain.

Richard Godfrey claims to have made a discovery after tracking the Boeing 777 jet with a revolutionary technology called WSPRnet (
Image:
AFP/Getty Images)

According to AirlineRatings, Mr Godfrey now claims that he followed the coastline of Sumatra, an island belonging to Indonesia, and found that the aircraft was put into a holding pattern for a lengthy amount of time, Star Online reports.

He said that by using a set of tools he can track an aircraft anywhere and at any time currently or going back as far as 2009. Speaking about his findings, the aerospace engineer said: “What I found out, without looking for it, was that MH370 entered a race track holding pattern at around 19:12 UTC.

“I was surprised to discover that not only did MH370 enter a holding pattern but that the holding pattern lasted for around 22 minutes until 19:34 UTC."

He added: “The Inmarsat satellite BTO and BFO data matches perfectly the timing, position, and track at the 1st Arc [18:28 UTC BTO and BFO], during the SATCOM call [18:40 UTC, BFO only] and the 2nd Arc [19:41 UTC BTO and BFO].

The aircraft went missing after it set off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Beijing in 2014 (
Image:
X01282)

"On entering the holding pattern MH370 was 150 nm [nautical miles] from the coast of Sumatra and 40 nm from the 2nd Arc.”

The latest development raises questions as to why Captain Shah, the flight's pilot, or the person who was in control of the jet would have put it into a holding pattern.

“If the pilot’s goal was to make MH370 disappear without a trace, then why waste fuel with a holding pattern and why not head directly to the most remote area possible of the Indian Ocean without deviation," the engineer wondered.

“The analysis by Victor Iannello and Yves Guillaume of the Microsoft Flight simulator data found on Zaharie Shah’s extensive home flight computer set up is a smoking gun.

Mr Godfrey now claims that he followed the coastline of Sumatra and found that the aircraft was put in the holding position (
Image:
airlineratings.com)

"Zaharie Shah simulated a single flight from Kuala Lumpur via the Malacca Strait to the point of fuel exhaustion in the southern Indian Ocean.

Professor Charitha Pattiaratchi commented: “The only possible conclusion from an oceanographic and recovered debris perspective is that MH370 lies in the southern Indian Ocean.

"A total of 33 pieces have been found by 16 unrelated people in six counties with most being identified as being from MH370 or a Boeing 777."

Mr Godfrey aims to complete his tracking to its flight's resting place by the end of this month.

The last search of the plane was carried out in 2018 by marine robotics company Ocean Infinity with unmanned underwater vehicles covering nearly 50,000 square miles but nothing was ever recovered.

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