Marc Dugain -- the former head of Proteus Airlines and an established French author -- has gone public with his theory that the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft did not go down anywhere near where authorities and rescue teams have been searching for a possible wreckage.
In a six-page article published in French glossy Paris Match, Dugain said he is convinced that the Boeing 777, which had 239 people -- mostly Chinese and five Indians -- on board crashed near the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.
Britain has a military base on the tiny island which has been let to the Americans.
"It's an extremely powerful military base. It's surprising that the Americans have lost all trace of this aircraft. Without getting into conspiracy theories, it is a possibility that the Americans stopped this plane," he told France Inter, according to a translation by The Local.
The US has denied that the aircraft, which mysteriously vanished from all radars on March 8, ever came close to Diego Garcia on its flight between Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Beijing in China.
The official report on MH370 said its passengers most probably died from suffocation as the cabin ran out of oxygen, leaving it to continue on auto-pilot until it ran out of fuel and plunged into the Indian Ocean.
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