Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 – Conspiracy Theories Myths

Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 was departing from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew members vanished and ended up somewhere in Indian ocean. This made everyone have different opinions and many conspiracy theories to arise. Let us discuss some of the common claims.

• • Conspiracy Theory – Hijacking:

    Fact: No, it isn’t

    As there is no confirmatory news given by Malaysian government regarding the disappearance of the plane. Many assumptions started to arise. The possibility that the plane was hijacked was the news that spread like wildfire. Even without any confirmation, the plane was considered to be hijacked by other countries due to various reasons.  Some stated that the aeroplane was hijacked and took it to the remote island. After this assumption, many researches have identified more than 600 runways where the plane could possibly land. Air traffic specialists estimated that it would be in the Indian ocean and examined their existence.

    

  • Conspiracy Theory – Electronic hijacking:

    Fact: No, it isn’t

    This allows the hijackers access to the already factory installed flight management system. This is not a direct cyber attack, instead this is more like a software oriented hijacking as it requires all the security details. This theory was first mentioned by the former prime minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad. He mentioned that Boeing and some agencies have the capacity to take over the control of airlines. But another argument that topped is spoofing of the satellite data. In this the aircrafts controls can be managed by the people in the first class. Some people  believe that they may have fed the false data to the satellite communication system to easily bring it to their control. This gave the false frequency to manipulate the pilot to go to different place.

    

  • Conspiracy Theory – Fire:

    Fact: No, it isn’t

    As there is no evidence of the airplane, many assumed that the disappearance was due to the fire accident. The fire in the cockpit, cargo compartment, landing gear or the tyre made the pilot to do the emergency landing at the nearest suitable place, but may have landed on water. This is the usual occurrence to happen during plane accidents.

  

  • Conspiracy Theory – Terrorist attack:

    Fact: No, it isn’t

    After an aircraft disappeared there are a lot of assumptions to find the cause. The main thing to strike in our mind is the terrorist attack. Some agencies reported that it may be the act of terrorism. From the famous terrorist like Bin Laden to even the unknown terrorist are said to hijack the plane. One of the stories circulating all over Reddit is that it may be hijacked by North Korea.

  

  • Conspiracy Theory – Shoot down hypothesis:

    Fact: No, it isn’t

    Conspiracy theorists suggest that  Malaysian Airlines was captured in the British Indian Ocean territory or it may be hijacked to land in the base directly. Diego Garcia located in the middle of the Indian ocean may have secretly shot down the Malaysian Airlines. The American commentator speculated that the aircraft may have shot down. There are some occurrences where civilian aircraft have been shot down. While some say they are fired by the malaysian airforce, the officials said it was detected on the radar and took no action as it was a friendly aircraft.

  

  • Conspiracy Theory – Phantom cellphone hypothesis:

    Fact: No, it isn’t

    Many assumed that they may have landed in the island or the unknown place, this is because the passenger cellphone was alive and ringing. As many relatives and friends tried to contact the passengers after the disappearance of the plane, they speculated that they were alive after hearing the ring. But later on, it is explained by the wireless analyst that the network may still search for its connection even after the mobile is destroyed.

    

  • Conspiracy Theory – Crashed vertically:

    Fact: No, it isn’t

    The mathematician professor after going through various theories came to the conclusion that the plane may have crashed vertically into the sea. When the plane hits the sea horizontally, it will give the same impact as crashing through the concrete. There are no remains of the plane found in the Indian Ocean. As the plane is not found out over a certain period, hitting vertically into the sea will be the only choice to keep it intact.

  

  • Conspiracy Theory – Supernatural forces:

    Fact: No, it isn’t

    As there is no physical evidence of the Boeing 777, there are a lot of theories to arise. In this creative world, there are certain people who consider that this aircraft may have been sucked by the wormhole or black hole. This theory gained considerable attention but lost its popularity as the probability of the occurrence is low. Even though 9% of the people believed that there is supernatural force to cause this disappearance. Abducted by aliens and time travellers are some of the extreme conclusions to come up with.

  

  • Conspiracy Theory – Acquisition of freescale staff:

    Fact: No, it isn’t

    After the disappearance of the MH370, a variety of social media posts and email stated that the four passengers among all the others got their patent rights approved before the accident. Some people assume that this may be fabricated and there is no evidence  that the four investors are on the passenger list. If they were pronounced dead, their share would revert to freescale as presented in the email.

  

  • Conspiracy Theory – Cyberattack:

    Fact: No, it isn’t

    Many questions arise after the disappearance of the flight, that is whether the Malaysian Flight  370 can withstand the cyberattack? It is a matter of debate, as stated they are confident in the robust protection of flight critical systems and in the security. While supporters of this theory stated that the actual software in the plane may be different from the software on which Teso had tested its app.

    

  • Conspiracy Theory – MH17 and QZ8501 connections:

    Fact: No, it isn’t

    There are coincidental activities which grabbed everyone’s attention in the year 2014. On 17 July 2014, Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was shot down, some believed that the original plane to crash was Flight 370. However it is considered to be mere coincidence by many theorists. Then this was dismissed as this theory arises as both planes belong to the same airlines. In the second case many similarities were found, that is in the Indonesia Air asia Flight and the Malaysian Flight 370. Both planes lost their control with air traffic control in the same way. It is doubted that this may be done by Chinese Intelligence official or a hacker.