Any chance that the oil rig worker might have seen a missile fired in the general direction of the plane, possibly a near-miss that convinced whoever was then flying to take evasive action?
Obviously he didn't see the plane itself, unless all of this later info about a westward flight path is false.
But if so, this missile would have been fired rather early in the sequence of events to suggest anything other than a very early recognition of a hijacking. That could only have come about if the legit pilots somehow communicated the fact before the handover and radio silence, possibly without alerting the hijacker(s). The missile would have changed that dynamic.
Also, would a missile be visible further away than a burning aircraft as the oil rig observer reported? That might make it more plausible since I think we established the oil rig was about 300 miles from where the plane last made radio contact and most indications now suggest an immediate westward jog after that. So in other words, a missile fired eastward that missed or failed to have its intended result, soon afterwards seen by one oil rig worker who happened to be looking in the right direction.
Question would then be, who fired it, and why didn't they continue their attack? The other point I considered was that a smaller aircraft flying off the system somehow came to grief after a close brush with MH 370, and that one came down in the sea. I'm saying smaller only because anything larger than a private jet would have been reported missing too.