Even Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un have been implicated in conspiracy theories about the disappearance of MH370 (Picture: Getty Images/AP)
Malaysian Airlines flight MH370’s disappearance has sparked a decade of searches, speculation and conspiracy theories.
The Boeing 777 vanished along with its 227 passengers and 12 crew members as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
It had veered far from its northbound flight path just after crossing into Vietnamese airspace, instead flying west towards the Indian Ocean.
Military radar lost contact with the aircraft over the Andaman Sea, and from there its path is unknown.
Despite Malaysia, China and Australia launching a massive underwater search spanning 46,000 square miles and costing £102 million – the most expensive in aviation history – flight MH370 has never been found.
That search was called off in 2017, and subsequent private attempts to find the aircraft have also proved fruitless.
Various people have claimed to have found the missing aircraft.
Officers carrying debris from an unidentified aircraft that washed ashore on the Indian Ocean island of Saint-Andre de la Reunion, owned by France, in 2015 (Picture: Raymond Wae Tion / EPA)
One man believed he found the plane when he spotted the blurry outline of a aircraft in the Cambodian jungle after spending hours searching on Google Maps.
Last year, retired Australian fisherman Kit Oliver, 77, said his deep-sea trawler had pulled up what appeared to be part of the wing of a commercial airplane roughly 55km southeast of Australia in 2014.
Debris of the plane has been discovered as far as away as Madagascar, the east coast of Africa and in the southern Indian Ocean 1,500km west of Australia.
In total, 41 pieces of the plane have been recovered.
But the exact fate and final destination of the plane, and why it appeared to vanish into thin air, have never been definitively determined.
As the 10th anniversary approaches, and Malaysia proposes launching a fresh search, the passengers’ families have been given fresh hope of finally discovering what happened to flight MH370.
Many different explanations for the mystery have been proposed.
Suicide or revenge attack
One of the most common theories is that the flight’s captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, crashed the plane in an act of murder-suicide.
Captain Ahmad Shah, the pilot of missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370
The theory goes that he locked his co-pilot out of the cockpit and turned off the communications system before deliberately crashing the plane to kill himself, along with everyone else on board.
This is what an independent group of aviation experts, some of whom were called in to help the official search for the plane, believes.
According to them, the ‘troubled and lonely’ pilot ‘deliberately depressurised the cabin’ by flying to 40,000ft in order to ‘slowly kill everyone on board’ by depriving them of oxygen.
He then crashed the plane into the Indian Ocean after locking himself in the cockpit, according to Ewan Wilson, founder of the defunct Kiwi Airlines, in 2014.
Just a year later, a pilot deliberately crashed a Germanwings plane into the French alps, killing himself and 149 others in a murder-suicide.
However, an alternative theory along the same lines is that MH370’s cabin lost oxygen, suffocating everyone as the pilots searched for somewhere to make an emergency landing, crashing before they could do so.
Hijacked by Russia or North Korea or an unnamed passenger
Others agree MH370 was intentionally diverted off its flight path at the very spot where it would be out of range of both Malaysia and Vietnam’s radar systems, and would not have been visible from the ground.
But they doubt it was for suicidal intentions.
Instead they believe the flight crashed in a botched hijacking.
Even media mogul Rupert Murdoch jumped on the claims, suggesting the flight had been flown to Pakistan where it was hidden ‘like Bin Laden’.
Aerospace expert Jean-Luc Marchand claimed in a lecture last year the manner of MH370’s sudden disappearance indicated it had been ‘performed by an experienced pilot’.
Map reveals location of MH370 debris (Picture Metro.co.uk / Datawrapper)
Others take this theory to a geopolitical level, arguing North Korea performed a repeat of its 1969 hijacking of Korean Air Lines YS-11.
That plane and its 49 passengers were taken to North Korea before the country returned 39 of them to South Korea two months later.
In another theory, MH370 was stolen by Russia and flown to Kazakhstan on the orders of Vladimir Putin, according to discredited expert Jeff Wise.
Wise was part of a panel assembled to find the truth of MH370’s disappearance.
After discovering three Russians had been aboard the flight, all sat near an electrical hatch, Wise argued that they had remotely controlled the flight from below the deck
However, Malaysia Airlines former crisis director Fuad Sharuji dismissed this, saying: ‘Anyone who gets into the hatch can disable the transponder and disable the communications systems.
‘But it is impossible to fly the aircraft from the avionics compartment.’
Shot down by the USA
Prior to the plane’s disappearance, Captain Zaharie Shah had listed the small island of Diego Garcia – 4700km northwest of Australia – on his flight simulator.
The island is owned by the UK and houses a US military based.
Royal Navy on a beach on Diego Garcia at the end of World War Two (Picture: LPhot Chris Sellars / UK Ministry of Defence)
One theory states that the US armed forces shot down the plane fearing it had been hijacked by terrorists for use in a kamikaze attack on the island.
However, Malaysian officials said police and the FBI had found no evidence the captain planned to hijack the flight after they closely examined his flight simulator.
The final MH370 report on the investigation into the disappearance said ‘there is no evidence to suggest any recent behavioral changes for the [pilot].’
Taken down by terrorists
Suspicion that the flight had been downed in a terrorist attack emerged within a day of its disappearance after it emerged two passengers had boarded using stolen passports – one from Austria, the other from Italy.
‘The world is speculating whether the stolen passport holders were terrorists’, said Interpol, an international police organisation that maintains a database of stolen passports.
Malaysian authorities confirmed they were liaising with FBI over the suspect passengers.
But the theory was dismissed when the two passengers’ real identities became known.
Both were Iranians seeking a new life in Europe, including 18-year-old Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, who hoped to join his mother in Germany.
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Life insurance scam
Malaysia’s police chief refused to rule out the possibility of an elaborate insurance scam the days of the disappearance.
Khalid Abu Bakar said at the time: ‘Maybe somebody on the flight has bought a huge sum of insurance, who wants family to gain from it or somebody who has owed somebody so much money, you know, we are looking at all possibilities.’
Families of the passengers on board missing flight MH370 were still waiting for compensation despite Malaysia Airlines receiving more than $200 million in insurance for the loss of MH370 and, four months later, MH17.
It also received $2 billion in state aid for a major restructuring.
Time travel
For some, the thought of tragic technical failures or horrific human acts are too much to bear.
Instead they turn to the supernatural, proposing the existence of another ‘Bermuda Triangle’ where planes and ships vanish through time warps and black holes, leaving open the possibility for MH370 to return with all 239 people safe and sound.
Need support?
For emotional support you can call the Samaritans 24-hour helpline on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org, visit a Samaritans branch in person or go to the Samaritans website.
If you’re a young person, or concerned about a young person, you can also contact PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide UK. Their HOPELINK digital support platform is open 24/7, or you can call 0800 068 4141, text 07860039967 or email: pat@papyrus-uk.org between the hours of 9am and midnight.
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