An Indonesian fisherman has claimed he witnessed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 crash into the sea between Indonesia and the Malaysian peninsular about five years ago.
Rusli Kusmin said he and three other fishermen said the flight resembled a kite when it hit the water at about 7.30am on March 8, 2014, Free Malaysia Today reported.
The man, aged in his 30s, said he had initially seen the plane descending as if the pilot was planning to land in the Straits of Melaka.
"The plane came from the north, moving towards the south," he told a consumer group-organised press conference where he swore on the Quran.
"There was no explosion, nor were there any loud engine noises.
"As it landed, there was thick black smoke all around with the smell of acid in the air. It resembled a kite, leaning from left to right."
Mr Rusli said they were about 2km away from where the plane crashed but it had sunk by the time they arrived at the site.
They couldn’t record the coordinates because they didn’t have the technology but Mr Rusli said the onboard GPS system showed an image of an aircraft underneath them.
The fisherman never found bodies or debris despite searching the area for two days.
Mr Rusli also claimed to have told authorities in Indonesia and Malaysia on returning to land in 2014, when he was asked why he was only going public with this information now.
Jacob George, the president of Consumers Association of Subang and Shah Alam (Cassa), the organisation which organised the press conference, said he had received death threats.
Those making the threats were warning him about challenging the common thought that the pilot of MH370 was suicidal.
MH370 vanished while carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and is presumed to have crashed in the far southern Indian Ocean.
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