A man travelling on a stolen passport on the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 was a young Iranian who has no links to terrorists.
A man travelling on a stolen passport on the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 was a young Iranian who has no links to terrorists. Reuters

Because of his email to his employer of what he saw, New Zealander Mick McKay lost his job at an oil rig. McKay claimed to have seen the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 on fire and eventually crash.

The email was leaked and word got around of what McKay saw, but his company couldn't handle the number of calls resulting from the oil rigger's witness account that it released him five days ahead of schedule, although he was paid full.

McKay explained, quoted by The Sunday Star-Times in New Zealand, "This became intolerable for them and I was removed from the rig and not invited back."

The number of calls blocked the communications of the rig operator and owner.

McKay provided his exact location, compass bearing of the jet and details of the weather on March 8, the day that MH 370 went disappeared while on its way to Beijing with 239 people on board. The compass bearing was 265* to 275*, while the surface location was Lat 08 22' 30.20" N Lat 108 42.22/26" E/.

The email also included his full name and passport which enabled media to trace his employer, Idemitsu, which runs the Songa Mercu oil rig owned by Songa Offshore, at that time off the Vietnamese coast.

In his email, McKay was quoted as saying, "While I observed the burning (plane) it appeared to be in ONE piece."

McKay's account was used by journalist and author Nigel Cawthorne, who wrote the first book on the missing aircraft, to support his theory that the plane was shot during a military exercise after it stopped communicating with air traffic controllers.

The latest theory is the plane ran out of fuel.