Another suggestion is that the pilots had turned back and were attempting an emergency landing at the nearest suitable airport in Northern Malaysia , perhaps Penang International Airport or Langkawi International Airport ( Langkawi Island ) , a 13,000-foot airstrip with an approach over water with no obstacles . The emergency may have been due to an incident similar to the 11 July 1991 accident involving a Douglas DC-8 , Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 , where a tire caught fire on takeoff , and the later spreading of the fire led to the destruction of the aircraft with the loss of 261 lives . In another accident , involving a fire on a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on 2 September 1998 , Swissair Flight 111 from New York to Geneva developed a cockpit fire in the electrical wiring that spread rapidly , leading to a loss of flight instruments and control . The aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean with the loss of 229 lives , 8 kilometres ( 5.0 mi ) from shore , southwest of Halifax International Airport , Nova Scotia , where the plane was attempting an emergency landing . In the Swissair case the transponders and communications were shut off as the crew pulled the busses in an attempt to control the fire
Swissair Flight 111
Swissair Flight 111
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 unofficial disappearance theories