Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has said the Malaysian government believed early on that vanished flight MH370 was a murder-suicide plot, according to News.com.au. “My understanding—my very clear understanding—from the very top levels of the Malaysian government is that from very, very early on here they thought it was a murder-suicide by the pilot,” Abbott said in a Sky News documentary. “I’m not going to say who said what to whom. But let me reiterate—I want to be absolutely crystal clear—it was understood at the highest levels that this was almost certainly murder suicide by the pilot. A mass murder suicide by the pilot.” Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was carrying 239 people, including 6 Australians, when it disappeared during its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014. While the Malaysian government’s report into the tragedy said there was no evidence to support the pilot hijacking his own plane, Abbot said the government offered no alternative theories to him.

The ex-prime minister said he had “no reason” to believe that the Malaysian government was engaged in a cover-up to try and save face, but said other possibilities for the tragedy should be explored if they haven't been investigated.