That is hard to believe but that seems to be what the last line in the article above is claiming.
If true then why only his??? I don’t know —
One last thing that I would check if I were investigators:
Any unidentifiable cell phones connecting with each other or with that Penang tower as the plane was flying overhead @~ 2:15.
The pilot may have deliberately flown as low and slow as possible over Penang so that he could make a cell call to someone.
He would likely have used an untraceable cell phone to call another untraceable one to communicate to them that the mission has been accomplished and confirm the rendezvous.