Almost 4,300 days have passed since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) vanished, taking 227 passengers and 12 crew with it, in the biggest mystery in aviation history. Researchers have put forth numerous theories about what happened to Flight MH370, but none have panned out.

New Zealander Mike McKay was working on the Songa Mercur oil rig off the coast of Vietnam on March 8, 2014 – the night MH370 disappeared. He claimed back then, and still today, that he witnessed what he believes was Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 engulfed in flames.

McKay said he was taking a cigarette break when it happened. In an email to his employers about the strange sighting, he told them that he “observed the plane burning at high altitude at a compass bearing of 265 to 275 degrees from our surface location.” Before going missing, Flight MH370 was traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

“Gentlemen. I believe I saw the Malaysian Airlines flight come down,” the Mirror reports McKay wrote. “The timing is right. I tried to contact Malaysian and Vietnamese officials several days ago. But I do not know if the message has been received.”

McKay went on to write, “While I observed (the plane) it appeared to be in one piece. From when I first saw the burning (plane? ) until the flames went out (at high altitude) was 10-15 seconds. There was no lateral movement, so it was either coming toward our position, stationary (falling), or going away from our location. The general position of the observation was perpendicular/south-west of the normal flight path and at a lower altitude than the normal flight paths.”

Was his alleged sighting of Flight MH370 taken seriously?

Someone later leaked the email, and he says he “ended up looking like a fool.” So, while McKay was unable to confirm what he saw that fateful night, he still has many questions.

“How did the flight return across the Malay Peninsula and fly over the F16 base at Butterworth and the Penang Airport basically unnoticed?” he asked. “This moved the search away from the South China Sea. Why did it take six days for the primary radar data to be released? What were the two sonar locators investigated in the Indian Ocean? Where is the metal stress reports of the part found on Reunion Is? This would tell how the plane broke up. The pilot would have tried to circle until daylight away from the flight paths of other planes. The [seventh] arc on which the plane was lost (if the data is to be believed) could put the break-up back in the South China Sea or immediately south of Sumatra. Not off the west coast of Oz (Australia).”

The latest search effort to try and locate Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 took place earlier this year. British marine robotics and maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity scoured the Indian Ocean about 1,200 miles off the coast of Perth, Australia.

Over the past 11 years, there has been no shortage of scientists, aviation experts, filmmakers, internet sleuths, and even local fishermen who have studied the disappearance of Flight MH370 and/or put forth numerous theories as to what happened

Unfortunately, Ocean Infinity abruptly halted its latest search efforts in April. Malaysia’s Transport Minister, Anthony Loke, had said the company planned to resume the search at the end of this year. It has not done so yet.