'Airplanes don’t just disappear,' he said. 'Certainly not these days with all the powerful communication systems, radio and satellite tracking and filmless cameras which operate almost indefinitely and possess huge storage capacities.'

'The plane is somewhere, maybe without MAS [Malaysia Airlines] markings,' he said, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.



'It is a waste of time and money to look for debris or oil slick or to listen for pings from the black box .



“For some reason, the media will not print anything that involves Boeing or the CIA,' he said.

Dr Mahathir, 88, who was Malaysia's prime minister between 1981 and 2003, said the missing flight's communication system 'must have been disabled'.

Waste of time and money: the former Malaysian PM Dr Mahathir says the air-sea sorties over the Indian Ocean by aircraft such as the Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion (above) to try and locate the remains of Flight MH370 are futile

'Or else the flight of MH370 would have been tracked by satellites which normally provide data on all commercial flights, inclusive of data on location, kind of aircraft, flight number, departure airport and destination.

'But the data seems unavailable. The plane just disappeared seemingly from all screens.

'MH370 is a Boeing 777 aircraft. It was built and equipped by Boeing.



'All the communications and GPS equipment must have been installed by Boeing. If they failed or have been disabled Boeing must know how it can be done.



'Surely Boeing would ensure that they cannot be easily disabled as they are vital to the safety and operation of the plane.'



Dr Mahathir's blog posts come after the current Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak described the location by satellite of purported MH370 debris in the Indian Ocean as 'bizarre' and 'hard to believe'.

Mr Najib told CNN he did not believe it when he first heard about the critical satellite data on which the current search in the Indian Ocean is based on.

'To be honest, I found it hard to believe,' said the Prime Minister.



'It's a bizarre scenario which none of us could have contemplated so that's why when I met the team...of foremost experts in aviation industry I asked them again and again "are you sure?"'



'And their answer to me was we are as sure as we can possibly be.'

Malaysian, Australian and Chinese authorities met last weekend to discuss the latest stages of the MH370 by ships staged in the Southern Ocean.