Top 10 Outrageous Theories about Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Disappearance

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport. On 8 March 2014 at 01:20 MYT, the aircraft disappeared off the radar less than an hour after takeoff. An international team has been established to investigate the incident, following International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) protocols. 5 weeks later, no sign of the jet or the passengers.

On 24 March, the Malaysian government confirmed two independently made analyses by the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) and Inmarsat, and concluded “beyond any reasonable doubt”, that the aircraft had gone down in the southern part of the Indian Ocean with no survivors. This has not stopped conspiracy theories from trying to figure what happened to the flight. Here are just 10 theories that people came up with since the disappearance.

10. Mars Expedition

This is less a theory and more rampant speculation. The user speculates that in the year 2040, humanity will be in the process of landing on the planet Mars when they discover the chassis of the missing MH370 embedded in the red rock. The chances of this happening are absolutely miniscule, and maybe the person who wrote the post has been smoking too many drugs, but it’s an interesting read that’s worthy of its own science fiction novel.

The theory derives itself from the story that hit news stands on December 30, 2013. Mars One has picked 1,058 aspiring spaceflyers to move on to the next round in its search for the first humans to live and die on the Red Planet in 2018. Now people are speculating that colonizers (Malaysian airlines passengers) went there early and bought themselves a one way ticket.

9. The Plane Had Cloaking Technology

Due to the plane transporting 20 employees from Texas based technology firm Freescale Semiconductor, theories have arisen that the plane was being used to test “cloaking technology”, hence the disappearance from the radar. Apparently, this technology would make the plane invisible to radar and almost impossible to spot with the naked eye. There are two main theories here: One is that the Chinese got wind of the technology on board and diverted the plane to get their hands on it, the other is that the US realised the Chinese may get hold of it and shot the plane down to stop that from happening.

8. Shot Down By North Korean Missile

An alternative theory has been suggested by Chinese and South Korean sources regarding Flight MH370: that it was shot down by a North Korean missile, perhaps by mistake, during the North Korean war games. This may sound politically motivated as both countries have a vested interest in presenting North Korea as reckless and dangerous in this manner. Anyway the possibility can’t be ruled out. As the Klein report below shows, MANPADS have become dangerously widespread recently due to CIA sponsored destabilization efforts in the Middle East and Europe, arousing fears that they could fall in the hands of terrorists. The only known protection -The Sky Shield laser system – has completed testing in Israel recently, but still has a long way to go before becoming operational.

7. Snowden Connection

Reddit user Dark_Spectre posted an unusual theory on the website’s conspiracy boards, related to 20 employees of the Texas-based Freescale Semiconductor who were reportedly on the flight:

“So we have the American IBM Technical Storage Executive for Malaysia, a man working in mass storage aggregation for the company implicated by the Snowden papers for providing their services to assist the National Security Agency in surveilling the Chinese.. And now this bunch of US chip guys working for a global leader in embedded processing solutions (embedded smart phone tech and defense contracting) all together..on a plane..And disappeared.. Coincidence??”

6. The Snake Theory
Maybe a collection of highly venomous snakes were released onto the plane and caused it to crash? Sadly not, as real life is not a Samuel L. Jackson movie. But one theory is that the plane was carrying a large load of lithium ion batteries, which caught fire. The releasing toxic fumes would then knock out everyone on board, or so the argument goes. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not that stupid — Boeing and battery fires do have a history, but saying that, there’s not a single scrap of evidence to support this theory.

5. Time Travel

This one is courtesy from those nutters at Reddit, who’ve been discussing their own crazy theories. The whole thread shouldn’t be taken very seriously as they’re only discussing hypotheticals, but it does make you wonder whether these people are stoned for every waking moment of the day. One in particular that strikes me is the idea that MH370 went back in time to the 1970s, made its way into American hands, who then reverse-engineered the technology to create the original 777 back in the 1980s. There’s plenty of reading material there, but just take it with a pinch of salt (ie, a bag of Monster Munch), would you?

4. It Was A Life Insurance Scam

According to The Mirror, this is a theory that the Malaysian Government has not ruled out. The idea that the plane was deliberately destroyed to get hold of a passenger’s life insurance payout is not that ridiculous if you consider that they may have got the pilot involved. It’s worth mentioning that there is absolutely no evidence for this, but if it were true it fits in well with what we know. We know that the transponder was probably switched off manually, the last communication was nothing out of the ordinary, and the plane probably changed course. It’s not hard to believe that the pilot/co-pilot deliberately crashed the plane for some financial reason. Then again, this was the plot of an episode of Doctor Who…

3. A Meteor Strike

We know from recent events that meteorites can cause a serious amount of damage, so what happened if the plane got hit by a meteor mid-flight? Well it would cause catastrophic damage to the plane, and CNN claims that there was a meteor spotted in the area. CNN does point out that it’s a very unlikely scenario for a meteor to hit such a small target, but that hasn’t stopped people taking it into consideration. To be honest, though, considering the explosion from the Russian meteorite, you’d think someone would’ve noticed.

2. The Plane Will Return… As A Nuclear Weapon

You have to admire conspiracy theorists and their lunacy, they do have rather vivid imaginations. One such theory is that the plane was hijacked by Iran who intend to transform it into a nuclear weapon. There’s no evidence for this whatsoever, just rampant speculation based on the fact that no wreckage, or bodies have been found. That didn’t stop a UKIP activist tweeting about how sensible a theory it was, though.

1. The Plane Is Hidden In Western Asia

This one comes courtesy of everybody’s “favourite” media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who has declared that the plane was most likely hijacked and is hiding where the US and China can’t find it. What’s his theory? The plane is hiding in Northern Pakistan, “like Bin Laden.” Now, considering Mr Murdoch began his professional life as a journalist, he should know better than to make wild accusations without evidence. Then again, this is the man who controls Fox News. In any case Murdoch’s theories don’t have any evidence to support them, and the distance from Southern Vietnam to Northern Pakistan is quite long — someone would’ve noticed.