COULD IT BE THAT FLIGHT MH370 WAS DOWNED BY A 'BLOW TORCH' FIRE IN ITS COCKPIT? BRITISH LAWYERS CLAIM MISSING JET SUFFERED SAME FATE AS ANOTHER BOEING 777 THREE YEARS AGO

A 'blow torch' fire which ripped through the cockpit of a Boeing 777 in Egypt three years ago could hold the clue to the fate of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, it has been claimed. 

Stewarts Law, which has litigated in a series of recent air disasters, believes the plane crashed after a fire - similar to the blaze on the Cairo airport runway- broke out in the cockpit. 

Since the Beijing-bound airliner disappeared on 8 March with 239 people on board speculation has been rife about whether foul play by either the pilots or someone aboard led the aircraft to disappear.

A fire which led to a Boeing 777 being written off in Egypt in 2011

But James Healy-Pratt, a member of the firm who is also a pilot said: 'We believe in the simpler explanation that there was probably a form of electrical fire leading to a rapid decompression and that then resulted in the turn-back and the aircraft disappearing somewhere in the Indian Ocean,' he told The Times.

The British law firm, which is advising families of the missing passengers, is comparing the current situation with a fire that broke out on the flight deck of an EgyptAir Boeing 777-200 with 291 passengers on board as it prepared to depart for Jeddah from Cairo airport.

The crew and passengers escaped without injury, although seven people including passengers, Egyptair staff and fire fighters suffered from mild asphyxia and were transferred to hospitals.

When the captain was preparing the aircraft for departure the oxygen levels were normal, but 30 minutes later the first officer heard a pop followed by a hissing sound underneath a cockpit window to the right.

The captain tried to put the fire out using the fire extinguisher available in the cockpit, but it was too powerful and firefighters worked at extinguishing it for over an hour.  

After an investigation Egypt's Aircraft Accident Investigation Central Directorate (EAAICD) released their final report which revealed that the fire originated near the first officer's oxygen mask supply tubing - investigators pinpointed a problem with the cockpit hose used to provide oxygen for the crew in the event of decompression. 

Following the 2011 blaze US aircraft owners were instructed to replace the system. 

It is unclear if Air MH370 was one of the affected planes. 

'In simple terms, this fault can cause a blowtorch type fire that will melt aluminium in a matter of seconds,' said James Healy-Pratt, told The Telegraph. 

'We believe that in due course, the crew will be regarded as heroes rather than villains, and we sincerely hope the Black Boxes will contain the data to back that up, and to prevent further needless loss of life,' Mr Healy-Pratt added. 

The cockpit fire theory has been supported by Chris Goodfellow, a Canadian pilot with 20 years experience, who hailed captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah as a hero, not a hijacker, in his fascinating explanation, which claims to debunks all theories about the fate of the missing jet.

He insists the only reasonable scenario is that a fire broke out aboard the plane and Shah was doing exactly what he needed to do in an emergency - get the plane to the nearest airport as soon as possible.