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The amazing theory was revealed as police confiscated a flight simulator from one of the pilots’ homes.

It is feared he may have practised hijacking the plane.

Investigators probing the loss of the Malaysia Airlines aircraft, which went missing more than a week ago with 239 passengers aboard, have been left startled by the similarity to a 1968 Tintin adventure.

In the comic strip, called Flight 714, Tintin is aboard a jet in the Far East that is hijacked by the pilots and brought to a deserted volcanic island.

It makes a rough landing on a makeshift roll-out runway before gunmen surround the plane.

MH370 was on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it vanished – the same part of the world depicted in Belgian cartoonist Herge’s story.

And it mirrors fears the airliner was diverted to a secret location in the South China Sea.

Desperate relatives of passengers and cabin crew believe the plane landed safely because they have heard ring tones on their loved ones’ mobiles, rather than calls going to voicemail.

Police are examining a simulator seized from the home of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 59, at the weekend.

It has been revealed he is an “obsessive” supporter of a Malaysian opposition political party that is in bitter dispute with the government, according to his Facebook page and a friend, Peter Chong, who is a party member.

Chong said he last saw Zaharie a week before the flight left, and that they had agreed to meet on his return.

“If I am on a flight, I would choose Captain Zaharie,” he said. “He is dedicated to his job, he is a professional and he loves flying.”

Police are also investigating engineers and ground staff who may have had contact with the plane.

Zaharie, who has three grown children and one grandchild, previously posted photos online of the flight simulator he built for his home.

Fears have also been raised that Malaysian Islamist terrorists hijacked the plane to copy the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.

An al Qaida supergrass told a court last week that four to five men from the country were planning to take control of an aircraft, using a bomb hidden in a shoe to open the cockpit door.

Security experts said the evidence, from a convicted Brit terrorist, was “credible”.

Kuala Lumpur’s iconic Petronas Towers, which bear a striking resemblance to the Twin Towers destroyed on September 11, could be the target.

The search area for the plane now covers 11 countries.