A New Zealand oil rig worker at Songa Mercur oil rig spots an burning airplane in the sky and reports this, then after a while the plane stopped burning. Moreover, the worker didn't report that the plane was actually falling from the sky.The Wire - Oil rig worker story. I verified the coordinates of the oil rig, and it is definitely possible that this worker saw the plane. With a formula, you can calculate the maximum distance to horizon: Formula. Using a altitude of 35.000 feet (h= 10 668 meters), the maximum distance to horizon is 369 km. Using the longitude and latitude of the last known location of MH370 and the oil rig, I estimated the distance to be 551 km, which is too far for the plane to be seen from the oil rig. However, the plane was heading towards the oil rig. After MH370 disappeared, the plane climbed to 45.000, which takes some time and MH370 should have moved closer to the oil rig, such it became visible to the oil rig.