The conspiracy theories surrounding missing flight MH370

IT’S been three days without information and the internet is imploding. Armchair detectives are saturating forums with bizarre theories. Here’s what they think.

IT HAS been three days without any information on missing flight MH370. The internet is imploding. Armchair detectives are saturating forums with wide-ranging theories about what happened.

In the age of information, not having answers instantly is like being stuck in a hole for months without water. Hell on Earth.

Oil slicks, stretching for metres across the ocean, gave us the first glimpse of hope. The spotting of an orange object, thought to be a life raft, got Twitter buzzing like crazy. A door floating in the South China Sea made plane watchers convulse in excitement. But one by one, all of what we thought was a scrap of a clue to help us solve the mystery has been dismissed. News_Image_File: Where is flight MH370?

So what do we know about the missing flight?

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, also marketed as China Southern Airlines flight 748, went missing over the South China Sea on Saturday morning local time. The Boeing 777-200ER was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew members. The flight departed at 00:41 MST on the 8th of March and air traffic control lost contact at 01:30 MST as it flew over the Gulf of Thailand. It was cruising at 35,000 feet and the skies were clear. No distress signal was deployed.

Here are the conspiracies from the strange, dark corners of the web. News_Image_File: Conspiracy theorists unite!

Terrorist attack

This is the number one theory. Authorities disclosed information two passengers were travelling onboard flight MH370 with passports stolen in Thailand and authorities are investigating “additional suspect passports”. Information also has been released regarding five passengers who checked in with luggage but did not board.

This morning, a terrorist group claimed they were responsible for the attack by sending an email to Chinese media. Chinese Martyrs’ Brigade, unheard of before now, wrote: You kill one of our clan, we will kill 100 of you as pay back.” Authorities say it is most likely a hoax.

The fact terrorism has not been entirely discounted by authorities, has led to more speculation.

The plane’s disappearance also coincidentally happened just a week after knife-wielding assailants killed 29 people at a train station in Kunming, China. The killings have been linked to China’s Uighur Muslim minority group.

News_Image_File: Heading for Kimmy.

It’s in North Korea

It is easy to blame the most secretive nation in the world — and that is exactly what some theorists have done. The plane had enough fuel to get to North Korea, the government would allow the plane in, and the North Koreans have done it before.

One reddit user thinks it is so clear it is North Korea, as they are simply “bat sh*t crazy”.

“There’s no telling what crazy logic they might have for taking a plane. They literally have no grasp of reality and have been caught red handed kidnapping foreigners, making sh*t up and generally being douches.”

The missing hour

Some publications initially questioned the veracity of the timeline of events. Malaysia Airlines originally said the plane took off at 12.41am Malaysian time, and at 2.40am it disappeared from radar in Subang, Kuala Lumpur.

A spokesman then confirmed the last conversation took place at 1.30am between the flight crew and air traffic control in Malaysia, but reiterated the plane did not vanish from air traffic control systems until 2.40am.

After mass confusion and many conspiracy theories sprouting from the timeline discrepancy, Malaysia Airlines updated the public record to state the last time of radar tracking at 1.22am and the last contact at 1.30am.News_Image_File: Some believe there is no point searching.

The plane is in a secret airport

Conspiracy theorists say terrorists could have cut the transponders, dropped below the radar and flown the plane to an isolated airport somewhere in Vietnam — left over from the Vietnam War. The plane had at least seven hours worth of fuel on board and this theory is supported by the lack of wreckage.

The theory goes further with the possibility the plane could have been ‘cloaked’, technology that uses a hexagonal array of glasslike panels to bend light around an object.

There are suggestions this theory could be linked to the 20 passengers on board who worked for Texas company Freescale.

Citizen news site, Beforeitsnews.com said: “It is conceivable that the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 plane is “cloaked,” hiding with hi-tech electronic warfare weaponry that exists and is used. In fact, this type of technology is precisely the expertise of Freescale, that has 20 employees on board the missing flight”.

Why would they want the plane? Apparently to use as a weapon of mass destruction, 9/11 style.

News_Rich_Media: Hidden plane

The phones are ringing but no one is answering

Some media outlets are claiming relatives are calling the phones of their loved ones who were on the plane, but although they hear ringing no one is picking up at the other end.

“This morning, around 11:40 [am], I called my older brother’s number twice, and I got the ringing tone,” said Bian Liangwei, sister of one of the passengers. She then called again at 2pm and said she heard it ring another time.

According to obscure media reports, 19 families have signed a statement saying they had called their family member’s mobile phone and heard it ring. They are pleading with the authorities to release more information.News_Image_File: The moment the flight vanished.

MAS spokesman Ignatius Ong dismissed the reports, saying he had personally called one of the phones and failed to connect.

“I myself have called the number five times while the airline’s command centre also called the number. We got no answering tone,” he said.

This “truth” feeds the theory that the plane has in fact not crashed, and may be parked and waiting to be used as a weapon of mass destruction.
News_Image_File: Stuck in ‘delay’. There was a censored passenger on the flight

One version of the passenger manifest has been circulating on the web with Passenger 84’s name blurred out.News_Image_File: The ‘secret’ passenger.

Luckily, a reddit user uncovered the “truth”:

“Apparently on Chinese social media (i.e. netizens), there is a photo of a passengers list which includes all passenger names and information. On this picture, the name of passenger 84 is blurred out. Apparently the rumour among the netizens is that Passenger 84 is Uyghur, an ethnic group in China.”News_Image_File: Revealed. Although it has been released by the airline.

Unfortunately for them, the official version released by Malaysia Airlines did not have anyone’s name blurred out.Back to the drawing board.News_Image_File: Did I mention aliens? Aliens

When something like a commercial jet vanishes into thin air and no explanation makes any sense and the government is hiding something and the Deep Web has no answers and the airline won’t share the “truth”, there is only one possible conclusion a logically, sane-minded person can come to — ALIENS.

The truth is out there.