Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappearance theories

Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER (9M-MRO) in 2011.

The Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 conspiracy theories have emerged ever since the flight (MH370) mysteriously vanished on 8 March 2014. As of 4 April, questions about the plane's whereabouts, what brought it down and why, remain unanswered.

Rob Brotherton, a lecturer in psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London, wrote that conspiracy theories emerge immediately after any catastrophe occurs and conclusive information about why it did so remains unavailable. Andrew Leonard wrote that conspiracy theorists were encouraged by the revelation of new satellite data two weeks after the flight disappeared. Others have pointed to the lack of a satisfactory explanation for the plane's fate as a factor driving the popularity of conspiracy theories.

Although Najib Razak, Malaysia's prime minister, has stated publicly that the plane's flight ended somewhere in the Indian Ocean, no explanation for why this occurred has yet emerged as the most likely, and many explanations for its disappearance have been proposed.

Background

Many conspiracy theorists point to the official statement that the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean makes no sense. They note that a Boeing 777 does not have the structural integrity to survive crashing into the ocean, and that it would be like hitting a cement wall at terminal velocity. If Flight 370 hit the ocean, they say, it would have been broken into tens of thousands of pieces, many of which float on water (such as the seat cushions) and would be witnessed washing up on regional shores or easily spotted by search teams.

Many theorists are actually Chinese relatives of some of the Flight 370 passengers, and they have questioned the veracity of the Malaysian government's statements about the plane's demise, and organized a protest at the Malaysian embassy in Beijing with the goal of forcing the Malaysian government to reveal the "truth" about Flight 370's whereabouts. According to The Japan Times, however, there is no evidence to support these claims.

Criticism and response

Harvard professor Cass Sunstein noted that the conflicting information initially disseminated by the Malaysian government fueled the development of conspiracy theories even more.

Harvard professor Cass Sunstein, the author of the book Conspiracy Theories, in an interview on March 20, 2014, with the Wall Street Journal, argued that conspiracy theories in general often are borne out of horrific and disastrous situations, because such events make people angry, fearful and looking for a "target."

On April 2, 2014, in an interview with Robin Young, regarding the Malaysian airplane theories and other theories over the years, Sunstein stated: "The first thing is just sadness for the people who've been lost or who've lost loved ones, so it's a tragic event. The second is just notice that conspiracy theories are often a reaction to a tragic event or an event that scares people. The human mind often gravitates to trying to figure out some kind of agent or force that's behind it all. The conditions for conspiracy theorizing are, first, uncertainty or at least arguable uncertainty, and second, an acute emotional state. It can get worse if people feel powerless, so people who are drawn to conspiracy theories often feel particularly powerless."

David Soucie, the author of "Why Planes Crash", has said that the theories that have been put forth in this matter are important when there is a lack of knowledge, as the theories and notions help us to consider various possibilities. On 26 March 2014, he stated on CNN: "In an accident investigation, it's a critical part to come up with theories. Especially right now when we don't have anything. We don't have anything tangible. We don't have something to say, hey, yes – because we don't know where that airplane is and we need to find out why. If you take one theory, the airplane would be where we're looking at right now. If you take another theory, where there was nefarious intent, they're trying to avoid radars, the airplane could be somewhere else. If you say it was – whatever it is, you've got to use these theories, weigh them against the facts so you know which one to go to."

Tim Black wrote "...it's in this darkness, this near absence of knowledge [about what happened to MH370], that speculation has flourished," and in an editorial in the Chicago Sun-Times, which not only stated that "conspiracy theories fill a vacuum when facts are scarce," but also urged governments to search for the plane to debunk these theories and give victims' family members peace of mind.

Hijacking

Australian-American business magnate, Rupert Murdoch.

The possibility of a simple hijacking has been brought up by various news outlets, including ABC News and the Los Angeles Times. Speculation has mounted about the possibility of a remote island that the hijackers took the plane to, although no group has stepped forward to confirm that it was them; however, unnofficial researchers have identified more than 600 possible runways for the plane to land at. No confirmation has been received from Malaysian officials, but aviation experts are saying that a hijacking would be "increasingly likely".

Between 9 and 14 March 2014, media mogul Rupert Murdoch (right) tweeted that Flight 370's disappearance "confirms jihadists turning to make trouble for China [sic]." He later suggested the flight might have been hidden in Northern Pakistan, "like Bin Laden". These remarks were characterized as conspiracy theories by Shiv Malik in The Guardian.

Acquisition of Freescale staff

Retired Delta Air Lines Captain Field McConnell claimed that the aircraft was seized to obtain stealth knowledge of classified patents from 22 Chinese employees of Austin-based Freescale. McConnell also claimed that the company has developed a classified technology that uses paint and electronics to enable traditional aircraft to be overhauled into stealthy jets.

Diego Garcia

Conspiracy theorists have suggested that MH370 was either captured by the United States and then flown to the United States' military base on Diego Garcia or that the plane landed at the base directly. The latter theory was raised at a White House daily briefing on 18 March, whereupon press secretary Jay Carney responded, "I'll rule that one out."An image with purported EXIF information linking the location to a supposed passenger are thought to have been faked after it was revealed that the use of software package Picasa was used in manipulating the photograph.

Phantom cellphone theory

Some have put forward a hypothesis which states that the passengers are still alive but cannot answer their cellphones—sometimes known as the "phantom cellphone theory". This was based on early reports that family members of Flight 370 passengers heard the passengers' phones ring after the plane disappeared. However, it has been refuted by Jeff Kagan, a wireless analyst. In an email to NBC News, Kagan explained that the network may still produce "ringbacks" as it searches for a connection, even if the cellphone has been destroyed.

Shoot-down theory

Radio host, Rush Limbaugh.

Rush Limbaugh (right), according to CNN, proposed a shoot-down theory regarding Flight 370, which he described thus: "The jet is flying along and you have a total electronic failure, but the engines keep working. So then the crew says, 'We got to get back home. We got to get back to Kuala Lumpur. We can't fly with no electronics.' It's dark, nighttime. They fly over a bunch of unfriendly countries, and they can't identify themselves, and they're not identified, there are no lights on. There's been a total electronic failure. What if some hostile country flew up there and shot it down, and then discovered their mistake and nobody wants to admit what happened?"

Supporters have noted that civilian aircraft have been inadvertently shot down by military forces in the past, with Iran Air Flight 655 and KAL 007 being two of the most frequently cited. On the other hand, there is no evidence that this happened specifically to Flight 370. These theories have been dismissed by a Malaysian defense official, Ackbal bin Haji Abdul Samad, who said it was "highly not possible" that his country's air force shot down the plane. According to the Financial Express, the Malaysian Air Force detected the plane on radar while it was in flight, but took no action because it was believed to be a "friendly" aircraft.

Cyberattack

The hypothesis that a cyberattack may have been carried out on Flight 370 has been raised, primarily based on statements made by Sally Leivesley, a former scientific advisor to the UK government. Leivesley proposed that hackers may have changed the plane's speed, direction, and altitude using radio signals to the plane's flight management system. Whether existing security on commercial flights is sufficient to prevent such an attack is also a matter of debate, although Boeing has dismissed the possibility. A spokeswoman for the company, Gayla Keller, said that they were "confident in the robust protection of all flight critical systems and inability for a hacker to gain access by either external or internal means on the 777 and all Boeing airplanes."

While supporters of this theory have cited Hugo Teso's app which hacked into pilot training software, which Teso presented at a conference in April 2013, the Federal Aviation Administration and other major governmental bodies dismissed the significance of the app. They stated that the software on an actual plane would be different from the software on which Teso had tested his app.

Black hole or meteor strike

CNN Newsroom host Don Lemon.

Conspiracy theorists have also suggested that MH370 may have been consumed by a black hole. This theory received considerable attention when Don Lemon asked, on CNN, whether it was "preposterous" that it could have happened. Lemon was criticized for this by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, and by former Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo, who, while appearing on CNN, said that "...a small black hole would suck in our entire universe so we know it's not that."

Another theory is that a meteor might have hit the plane. However, critics have countered that this would be extremely improbable.

Alien abduction

According to Boston.com, Alexandra Bruce proposed that the flight had been captured by extraterrestrials. As evidence, she pointed to a YouTube video depicting a computer simulation of the plane's departure from Kuala Lumpur, which resulted in the simulated Flight 370 moving unusually fast. However, Boston.com journalist Jack Pickell also noted that the object in the simulation which is alleged to be a UFO is actually identified on the simulation's website as Korean Airlines Flight 672. Pickell also quoted the site's CEO as saying that the plane's apparent supersonic speed in the simulation was probably the result of a glitch in the system.

Illuminati prior knowledge

The suggestion that Pitbull and Shakira's song Get It Started displays prior knowledge of Flight 370's disappearance has been reported on by The Independent. The lines cited most often by advocates of this conspiracy theory are "Now it's off to Malaysia" and "Two passports, three cities, two countries, one day". The lyrics "No Ali, No Frasier, but for now off to Malaysia" were linked to 'Mr Ali', who was referred by the press as one of the Iranian passengers. The conspiracy theorists have linked the "two passports" to the stolen Austrian and Italian ones used by two passengers to board the plane.