Cockpit inferno may have drowned missing Malaysia Airlines plane

British lawyers have reportedly claimed that the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 may have crashed after a cockpit blaze raged through the plane.

In 2011, the flight deck of an EgyptAir plane caught fire after a short circuit in the crew's emergency oxygen unit while on the ground at Cairo airport.

However, no one was hurt in the EgyptAir plane incident.

According to Daily Star, it is feared the Malaysia Airlines plane had suffered a "blow-torch-style" blaze similar to EgyptAir plane, while Legal firm Stewarts Law, which specialises in plane crashes, believes this also drowned MH370.

Lawyer and pilot James Healy-Pratt said that they believed in the simpler explanation that there was probably a form of electrical fire leading to a rapid decompression.

He said this type of wiring fault can cause a blowtorch-type fire that will melt aluminium in seconds, adding that this resulted in the turn-back and the aircraft disappearing over the Indian Ocean.