KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 11): Australian authorities have rubbished "rouge pilot" claims regarding the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 mystery, saying the "pilot hypoxia" theory is still the most likely explanation for the aircraft's disappearance, The Australian reports.

The daily cited Air Transport Safety Bureau spokesman Dan O'Malley who said the authority was adhering to the theory that MH370 crashed after the pilots lost consciousness due to lack of oxygen.

"The limited evidence available for MH370 was compared with three accident classes: an in-flight upset, an unresponsive crew/hypoxia event, and a glide event (generally characterised by a pilot-controlled glide)," he said in a statement quoted by The Australian.

"The final stages of the 'unresponsive crew/hypoxia' event-type appeared to best fit the available evidence for the final period of MH370’s flight when it was heading in a generally southerly direction."

O'Malley's statement comes amid growing speculation that the flight's captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, went "rogue" and hijacked his own aircraft.

Zaharie came under suspicion after the discovery of a flight simulator at his home.

Data on the home simulator showed he had been practising flights out to the southern Indian Ocean – a finding that later tallied with the current working theory that MH370 ended its flight in this ocean off the coast of western Australia, based on Inmarsat satellite data.

Veteran fighter pilot and airline captain Byron Bailey reportedly told The Weekend Australian that many in the aviation community believed Australian authorities were "under pressure" from Malaysia to stick with the "pilot hypoxia" explanation as the "rogue pilot" theory could be "awkward" for Putrajaya.

In the report, Bailey said electronic satellite "handshake" data from the aircraft showed it was under pilot control well after communications were lost, as the autopilot would have continued the track to Beijing had the pilots lost consciousness through hypoxia.

Zaharie's family members have denied that the pilot, whom they said had an unblemished flying record of 18,000-plus hours, had anything to do with the Boeing 777's disappearance.

"As things stand today, with no tangible evidence to show, NO ONE, be you politician, scientist, aviation expert, plane crash investigator, pilot, retired pilot, media or whoever else... NONE OF YOU have a right to blame Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah for any wrongdoing," Zaharie's sister Sakinab Shah said.

Sakinab also hit out at the media for "rumour mongering", adding that the family had endured "twisted and conniving misinterpretations" about her brother.

Flight MH370 vanished from radar on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

In August, the Australian Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) confirmed that a part of the aircraft known as flaperon had been found in Reunion Island, but there has since been no further trace of debris.

All 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board are presumed dead after an official declaration from the government on January 29 last year, classifying the incident as an accident based on international aviation rules.