A woman writes a message on a dedication board for the victims of the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 airliner and the missing Flight MH370, in Subang Jaya outside Kuala Lumpur July 23, 2014. All sides in Ukraine's civil war must protect civilia
IN PHOTO: The moist towelette from a Malaysian Airlines flight, discovered on a Western Australian beach in July 2014, is unlikely to help the search of the missing flight MH370. The towelette was discovered by a WA couple. IN PHOTO: A woman writes a message on a dedication board for the victims of the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 airliner and the missing Flight MH370, in Subang Jaya outside Kuala Lumpur July 23, 2014. All sides in Ukraine's civil war must protect civilians and take what measures they can to search for the victims of downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 airliner and ensure their bodies are returned, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday. REUTERS/Samsul Said

Kiwi oil rig worker Mike McKay claims the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is misplaced. He was fired from his job after claiming he saw the aircraft “come down” in 2014, but he still stands by what he believed he had seen.

A few days after the Boeing 777 aircraft mysteriously disappeared, McKay, who had been working as a drilling fluids consultant in Vietnam since 2008, notified his employers of what he believed he saw, a burning plane he thought was the MH370. He wasn’t sure if his employers passed on his email to the authorities so he decided to email Vietnamese authorities and the New Zealand embassies as well.

His email contained the description of the jet, including the coordinates of where he was and the direction of the burning object he had seen. “I believe I saw the Malaysian Airlines plane come down,” he wrote in the email. “While I observed the burning (plane) it appeared to be in ONE piece.”

His contractor and rig owner, Songa Offshore, was besieged with calls from the media when McKay’s email leaked. McKay told the Sunday Star Times that this had become intolerable for his employers, and therefore he was removed from his job. He also contacted the New Zealand Police for Interpol upon his return home.

His observation, when investigated by the Vietnamese officials, didn’t produce successful results. According to him, officials have interviewed him to investigate his sighting, but their search moved to the Andaman Sea immediately. The international team assigned to look for the missing aeroplane and its 239 passengers and crew conducted its search in the southern Indian Ocean. It’s the wrong area to search, though, McKay said.

“Almost a year has passed, but I stand by what I saw,” the 57-year-old Kiwi told the Daily Mail. “I’ve thought about it and thought about it, over and over and while I cannot say for certain that the burning object in the sky was definitely MH370, the timing fits in with when the Malaysian plane lost contact.”

He reckoned the only possible area the plane could have gone to was down in the South China Sea. “There’s a lot about this whole affair that niggles me and I’ve considered numerous questions as to whether there has been a cover up or there has been a show of inefficiency,” McKay told the paper.

McKay reiterated that he was never definite in his email about seeing MH370 burning down. He said he “believed” that he saw the aircraft, informing officials of his sightings to help them with the search. He also never wanted to be the centre of attention so he had laid low following his alleged sacking from his job. However, by staying out of the spotlight, there were people who have questioned why he had gone into hiding. There were also conspiracy theories claiming he did not really exist and his email was just a hoax.

MH370 was never found since disappearing from radar on March 8, 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The Malaysian government recently declared the disappearance of the aircraft an accident.