Islanders in the Maldives may be the key to answering the mystery of MH370’s disappearance.
The Boeing 777-200ER lost contact with ground control in March last year, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
All 227 passengers and 13 crew are believed to be dead, although no sign of the plane or remains have been found.
Search for the aircraft and its passengers have been ongoing and are focused on the sea floor around 1,600 kilometres from Perth, Australia.
Maldives residents say MH370 may have flown over them, 5,000km from current search site http://t.co/orWFUT9QKv pic.twitter.com/yVe2xvY4xl
— The New Paper (@thenewpaper) April 6, 2015
However, families from Kudahuvadhoo, in the Dhaalu Atoll say they saw the jet on 8 March last year and it was flying low enough for them to make out the red and blue marking, similar to that of the missing Boeing.
A number of members from the 3,500 community said they saw the plane and say they’ve even given statements to police of the sighting.
Speaking to a journalist from The Australian, Abdu Rasheed Ibrahim said he saw the plane flying towards him over the water, but didn’t realise its significance at the time.
He said he wasn’t aware that a plane was missing and he went straight home to tell his wife.
“This is the biggest plane I have ever seen from this island.”
Abdu Rasheed Ibrahim
It wasn’t until he started seeing pictures of the plane on the news that he put two and two together.
“I believe I saw the plane. I strongly felt those people who were searching should come here.”
Another eyewitness said the plane was particularly memorable because it was flying so low over the island, unlike any before.
The witness said the island usually gets a number of seaplanes flying low, but not major commercial aircraft.
He said it was so close he could make out plane doors clearly.
Do Maldives hold key to MH370? http://t.co/CRnFnWb8zR
— The Courier-Mail (@couriermail) April 5, 2015
Meanwhile, eyewitness reports could be confirmed by a ‘acoustic signal’, which was picked up in the area at the same time of assumed crash of the MH370 jet.
A scientist from Curtin University in Australia said they couldn’t rule out that they two could be linked.
Last month, Malaysia Airlines officials commemorated the one-year anniversary since the plane went missing, with a private remembrance in Malaysia,