MH370 shot down in US-Thai military drill, book claims

British newspaper Mirror, quoting a new book, said in a report that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 may have been accidentally shot down during a US-Thai joint military exercise in February. Mirror reports, the book 'Flight MH370: The Mystery' makes the incredible allegation that the passenger jet was shot down by US-Thai strike fighters as part of a training drill that went horribly wrong. But 2-and-half-month after the Boeing 777/200ER aircraft vanished carrying 239 people from 14 nations relatives say the UK published work is ‘too soon’ and ‘too insensitive’. The book also claims search parties were deliberately sent in the wrong direction as part of a cover up. However, the book’s author, Nigel Cawthorne, believes there may never be a clear answer. In the book Cawthorne took stock of the happenings and circumstantial evidences when the ill-fated plane disappeared and tried to fathom the fate of the plane that vanished on March 8: “Did they die painlessly, unaware of their fate? Or did they die in terror in a flaming wreck, crashing from the sky in the hands of a madman?” Cawthorne describes how a man, while working on an oil rig in the ocean at about the same time the plane’s transponder went off, saw a burning plane and how this was right near the military exercise. He claims that these countries may have then sent searchers in the wrong direction in order to cover their tracks. “After all, no wreckage has been found in the South Indian Ocean, which in itself is suspicious,” he adds. The book says the drill was to involve mock warfare on land, in water and in the air, and would include live-fire exercises. It adds: “Say a participant accidentally shot down Flight MH370. Such things do happen. No one wants another Lockerbie, so those involved would have every reason to keep quiet about it.” Cawthorne, who lives in London, says on his website that he has written more than 150 books, including the ‘Sex Lives’ series, which examines the private lives of popes, US presidents and ‘Great Dictators’. His book on MH370 says the failure to find wreckage is ‘in itself is suspicious’ and that even if the plane’s black box is eventually found, it may not be the original black box. “Another black box could have been dropped in the sea 1,000 miles from Perth while the search was going on in the South China Sea,” it adds. Cawthorne also raises more doubt into the plane’s disappearance, claiming it could have been located if its tracking software had been upgraded - something that costs just £6 per flight. - The Mirror