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Retired Pilot Discusses Mystery Of Missing Malaysia Airlines Jet

NEWPORT BEACH (CBSLA.com) — A retired pilot discussed the Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

"It is the biggest mystery," Ross Aimer, an ex-Boeing 777 pilot, said.

Aimer said any emergency, even a fire, could have caused the pilot to take a sharp left turn, aiming for what would have been the closest airport he was familiar with to land the plane.

"Anytime you're in the airplane, you're thinking, 'If I need to put this airplane down, where am I gonna put it down?'" Aimer said.

KCAL9's Stacey Butler said there have been reports that the flight was carrying highly explosive lithium-ion batteries, which are banned in the United States.

Aimer said if that's true, the fire theory may not be farfetched.

"Lithium-ion batteries are very volatile and once they catch fire, you can't put them out," he said.

Aimer said if the pilot called for help on his high frequency radio, it likely never went out.

"It's very sporadic. They may have called on HF and nobody heard them," he said.

Thailand's military said Tuesday that they saw radar blips that might have been from the missing plane, but didn't report it because they couldn't confirm if it was actually Flight 370.

Malaysian police are looking into the possibility of hijacking, terrorism or mental health issues of those on board.

"At this moment, because we don't have any solid evidence, we can't discount anything," Aimer said.

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