Expert Believes Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 May Not Have Crashed

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A local airline expert believes the Malaysian Airlines flight that disappeared last week may not have crashed, and could be intact somewhere.

How does a Boeing 777 just disappear? If it was hijacked and landed somewhere, is it possible to hide a 100-ton jet?

"I've been on Boeings all my life, and they're just indestructible," said veteran pilot Stever Barinka.

The pilot who flew for three decades for Delta and other airlines thinks it's highly unlikely that the missing flight disintegrated in midair without the help of terrorists.

"Possibilities are extremely remote that the airplane suffered a catastrophic mechanical failure or electrical failure," he said.

If it did crash, he says he thinks he knows where it didn't go down.

"The fact that there's been no debris field tells me it didn't crash in the ocean, because I'm sure they would've spotted something by now," he said.

A more likely scenario in his mind is that the plane may have been hijacked and taken somewhere.

"To me, it's kind of reeking of some sort of hijacking, or some sort of intentional interference with the airplane," he said.

But if Flight 370 was hijacked, with just 7.5 hours of fuel on board, it had to land somewhere—then what?

Barinka says the electronics on the plane could have been taken out, making it impossible to track.

But what about the people on board, and what will the plane be used for?

The pilot didn't venture a guess, as he and everyone else shakes his head and wonders what really happened.

"It's really become very bizarre," he said.

Adding to the mystery the Boeing 777 has an outstanding safety record: Out of 7 million flights, the only fatal crash was last summer's Asiana Airlines crash at SFO.