Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared from radars back in March 2014, and until now aviation experts and investigators have confessed that they remain in the dark about what really happened to the plane.
A sizable number of aviation experts believe that whatever happened to the MH370 plane may never be proved. However, such claims haven’t stopped the ever vocal global community of conspiracy theorists from having their say on the matter. Some of the MH370 conspiracy theories are sinister while others seem far-fetched. It has yielded more than 94,000 videos on YouTube, most of them having been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Below are the most widely publicized conspiracy theories.
1. Shot Down
This theory hypothesizes that Flight 370 could have been shot down during a joint military operation between Thailand and the United States in the South China Sea. This theory has even been advanced in the book Flight MH370: The Mystery written by a UK-based author Nigel Cawthorne. The book describes how mysterious the plane disappeared, dubbing the incidence as “the greatest mystery since the Mary Celeste“. However, the book suggests that the shot down might have been an accidental incident. However, relatives of the passengers have criticized the book as insensitive and immature.
2. Terrorist Hijacking
Following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington that happened back in September 2001, conspiracy theorists moved fast to dub the latest plane disappearance incidence the “9/11/2014” theory. Although it is a theory devoid of proof, it is widely publicized on the Internet and suggests that Flight 370 didn’t crash but was hijacked in preparation for use to launch another terrorist attack to coincide with the anniversary of the attacks that were to be held at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. One of the faces behind this theory was Christopher Green from a group known as “Alternative Media Television”. He suggested that either terrorists or a rogue state might have hijacked the plane planning to use it to launch another massive attack.
3. Plane Switch
This is one of the most outlandish MH370 conspiracy theories to have surfaced. Jim Stone, an “independent journalist” is one of the main supporters of this theory. He proposes the theory that it was MH370 and not MH17 that was shot down over the Ukraine back in July 2014. Mr. Stone offers a little explanation about who might benefit from switching the two planes or the way they managed to do so. Furthermore, he didn’t say what actually happened to the real MH17. Nonetheless, Mr. Stone argues that MH370 has to be gotten rid of. Somewhat confusingly, Mr. Stone argued that the plane that was shot down – referring to it as MH17/370 – was brought down as part of a Mossad plot to conceal “the dirty business” being done in Gaza. He also claims having received “additional information” suggesting that the plane that ended the life of Brazilian presidential candidate Eduardo Campos was in fact “murder”.
4. Island Landing
Immediately after the plane disappeared, one conspiracy theory regarding Flight 370 emerged stating that the plane had landed on a British-owned island in the Indian Ocean called Diego Garcia, which happens to be a major US military base. The conspiracy theory became so compelling that US officials had to come out to deny it. An official from the US Embassy in Malaysia said MH370 didn’t fly anywhere near Diego Garcia or the Maldives. However, He Xin, a renowned Chinese blogger insists that the disappearance of MH370 was the result of a special operation conducted by the CIA aimed at gaining control of “something” or “someone” special on the plane. Mr. He also claims that Flight 370 was forced to land at Diego Garcia, explaining claims by the relatives of the passengers on board that the mobile phones of their loved ones were still going through hours after the plane disappeared. Although Mr. He offered no proof, he said that the plane was dismantled inside an aircraft hanger, burned and dumped in the sea.
5. The Cockpit Fire
One of the most plausible MH370 conspiracy theories comes from Chris Goodfellow, a pilot. He suggests that fire that started in the cockpit forced the captain to turn to the west towards Pulau Langkawi, the nearest airstrip at that moment. Goodfellow further suggests that the loss of communication with the cockpit coupled with electrical fire as well as the need to focus on flying the plane made it impossible for the captain to radio in a distress call. According to Goodfellow, the pilots could have succumbed to smoke inhalation, something that left the plane flying for hours before running out of fuel and crashing. Although it’s a great theory, there isn’t any solid evidence to support it.
6. Alien Abduction
Approximately 5% of Americans surveyed by Reason.com think that Flight 370 was abducted by aliens. Quite a number of bloggers have highlighted the recent UFO sightings in Malaysia as evidence that the plane’s disappearance was as a result of an extraterrestrial intervention. Alexandra Bruce did an analysis of radar data and “proved” that aliens were involved. Although she mentions something unidentified in one of the footages currently available on YouTube, it is hard to conclude that the mystery is simply because of alien abduction.
7. North Korea Hijacked MH370
Shorty after Flight 370 disappeared, many conspiracy theorists started questioning the involvement of North Korea. The theorists referred to the incident when North Korea almost took out a Chinese plane that was carrying 220 passengers back on March 5th, 2014. The theorists say that the Chinese plane passed through the trajectory of a missile launched by North Korea seven minutes after it was fired. The scary incident only lasted for three days before MH370 disappeared. Although some believe that Pyongyang shot down the plane, there are some who think that it hijacked and diverted it to North Korea. Devoid of solid proof, this conspiracy theory still remains way short of what might have happened to Flight 370.
Although we have highlighted only seven MH370 conspiracy theories, there are close to twenty theories talking about what might have happened to the plane. Nonetheless, what most people believe is that the truth about the whereabouts of the plane might never be revealed, and if the time comes for us to know what really happened, it won’t be anytime soon.