Vincent Lyne, an associate researcher at the University of Tasmania, believes the plane deliberately flew into a 20,000-foot-deep “hole” in the Broken Ridge in the Indian Ocean.

Lyne said Broken Ridge is “a very rugged and dangerous marine environment with narrow, steep sides surrounded by massive ridges and other deep holes.”

He suspected that pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah deliberately crashed the plane, adding: “It is filled with fine debris – a perfect ‘hiding place’.”

He wrote on LinkedIn: “This work changes the story of the MH-370 disappearance from a case of involuntary fuel starvation in the seventh arc during a high-speed dive to a case of a mastermind pilot executing an incredible, perfect disappearance in the southern Indian Ocean.

“In fact, it would have worked if MH370 had not ploughed through a wave with its right wing and Inmarsat had not detected regular interrogation satellite communications – a brilliant discovery also announced in the Journal of Navigation.”

He added that he believed the damage to the aircraft’s wings, flaps and flaperon was comparable to that sustained on US Airways Flight 1549 when Captain Chesley Sullenberger performed a “controlled ditching” in January 2009.

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Many experts believe that Shah is responsible for the flight’s disappearance due to alleged personal problems.

He had reportedly separated from his wife Fizah Khan and was also angry that his relative Anwar Ibrahim had been sentenced to five years in prison for sodomy before boarding the plane to Beijing.

His wife has denied the allegations and his family said he was a devoted family man and loved his job.

However, Lyne argues that the evidence suggests that the pilot intentionally crashed the plane.

He said the evidence “justifies beyond a reasonable doubt the original claim, based on brilliant, expert and very careful analysis of the debris damage by Canada’s award-winning former chief crash investigator, Larry Vance, that MH-370 was carrying fuel and its engines running when it made a masterful ‘controlled ditching’, and that it did not occur as a high-speed, fuel-depleted crash.”

He added: “What is encouraging is that we now know very precisely that MH-370 is located where the longitude of Penang Airport (and indeed the runway) intersects the track left by the pilot in command’s home simulator, which was discovered and discarded by the FBI and authorities as ‘irrelevant.’

“This deliberately chosen, iconic site is home to a very deep 6,000 metre (6,561.68 yard) hole at the eastern end of the Broken Ridge in a harsh and dangerous marine environment known for its wild fishing grounds and new deep-sea species.

“With narrow, steep sides surrounded by massive ridges and other deep holes, it is filled with fine sediments – a perfect ‘hiding place’.”