By Sam Downing, ninemsn

Professional pilot Chris Goodfellow speculated via his Google+ account that “there was most likely a fire or electrical fire” on board the Boeing 777, which produced “horrific incapacitating smoke” that caused the pilots to pass out. “What I think happened is that [the pilots] were overcome by smoke and the plane just continued on … autopilot until either fuel exhaustion or fire destroyed the control surfaces and it crashed,” Goodfellow wrote. He speculated that a cockpit fire could explain why the plane seemingly turned, in order to make “a direct route” to a landing strip at the Malaysian island of Palau Langkawi. Goodfellow added that, in the event of an electrical fire, the plane’s transponders and communications systems may have been shut off to pinpoint the source of the fault. While MH370 pilots Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid have been cast as suspects in the plane’s disappearance, Goodfellow’s theory would seemingly vindicate them. “This pilot did all the right things” but “just didn’t have the time” to save the plane, Goodfellow wrote. Goodfellow posted the theory on Saturday, before Malaysia’s prime minister Najib Razak said radar data suggested the plane had been deliberately redirected from its flight path. The Atlantic writer and pilot James Fallows said Goodfellow’s “explanation makes better sense than anything else I’ve heard so far” — but others have pointed out its flaws. MH370 continued to make sharp turns after it overflew Langkawi, and “such vigorous navigating would have been impossible for unconscious men,” writes Slate’s Jeff Wise. Wise added that electronic “pings” sent from the plane would also put it at a location not possible to be reached without human intervention. Retired pilot Michael G. Fortune told Business Insider that, if MH370’s pilots had changed their destination, they would have “communicated their emergency and intentions” to air traffic controllers. Even Goodfellow himself later admitted that information revealed since he put forward his theory casts doubt on it. “There really is no point in speculating further until more evidence surfaces,” he concluded. “But in the meantime it serves no purpose to malign the pilots who well may have been in an heroic struggle to save this aircraft from a fire or other serious mechanical issue and were overcome.”