A Breakdown Of Viral MH370 Theories: From Discovery On Google Earth To Twitter Voicemail
There is still no trace of the missing Flight MH370, but new allegations and theories have emerged over the past week.
By Tang Ruxyn — 20 Mar 2018, 01:01 PM
Four years after the disappearance of Flight MH370, several new theories about the missing plane that have emerged in the last week have been taking the Internet by storm
The Boeing 777 aircraft, which had 239 people on board, vanished en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on 8 March 2014.
With whereabouts of the plane still unknown, the Malaysian authorities have resumed search efforts in January to locate the missing aircraft in the Southern Indian Ocean, one year a year after the official search by Malaysia, Australia, and China was called off in January 2017.
While the official search operation is likely to end in June, there are new twists in the case after new claims and theories surfaced on the Internet.
1. An amateur crash investigator has claimed to have found the missing plane while searching on Google Earth
Australian mechanical engineer Peter McMahon sent his findings, images he believes are photos of the wreckage of the missing aircraft, to the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau (ATSB).
It was reported that McMahon, who claims to have been going through Nasa and Google Maps images since the plane disappeared, apparently tracked down the plane near Mauritius.
The 64-year-old has also accused the US officials who was sent to Australia to oversee the findings of MH370 of concealing information, according to media reports.
"They (US officials) have made sure that all information received has been hidden from the public, even our government, but why.
"..(they) do not want it found as it’s full of bullet holes, finding it will only open another inquiry," McMahon was quoted as saying by Daily Mail.
2. The authorities in Malaysia and Australia have rubbished McMahon's claims
Bernama reported the MH370 Response Team as saying that reports on 'MH370 found on Google Earth' were "unfounded and baseless".
MH370 Response Team head Datuk Seri Azharuddin Abdul Rahman also added that verified and accurate reports and news relating to the missing plane should be obtained from the official MH370 website.
ATSB has also dismissed McMahon's claim, saying that the Google Image which has gone viral is actually an old picture.
"The images sent to ATSB by Mr McMahon, were captured on 6 Novevember 2009, over four years before the flight disappeared. Spurious claims such as these must be particularly upsetting for the family and friends of those lost on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370," a spokesperson from ATSB told Newshub.
3. Meanwhile, a viral voicemail on Twitter sent netizens into a frenzy after some people began speculating that it was linked to MH370
Here's a brief recap of what happened on Twitter, which sparked allegations that a mysterious voicemail is linked to the missing Flight MH370.
1. A Twitter user @strayedaway tweeted on 13 March that he received a voicemail that allegedly contained military code. His account has since been deactivated.
2. @strayedaway said in another tweet later that the message translates to "Danger SOS it is dire for you to evacuate be caution they are not human SOS Danger SOS".
3. In a separate tweet, he claimed that someone took photos of him at 3am, with flash.
4. It was said that he received a message, which allegedly sounded like a threat, from another twitter user. The message, which was written in Bahasa Indonesia, reads: "akhiri posting yang baru saja anda bagikan tentang rekaman di ponsel anda" (End the post you just shared about the recording on your phone).
4. It has been alleged that the decoded message from the voicemail contained a set of numbers. These numbers, when used as coordinates, pointed to a location within the area in the radar where flight MH370 was last seen.
Following the claim, there have been various discussions on social media as netizens came up with many different theories on what could have possibly happened.
5. While the original Twitter thread can no longer be accessed, a Facebook user has shared screenshots of the tweets and included a video of the voicemail
At the time of writing, the Facebook post has gone viral, receiving more than 166,000 shares on Facebook since it was first published on 18 March.
6. Quite a number of people believe that the voicemail is connected to the missing flight, however, many others have also started to debunk these allegations
What do you think of these MH370 theories that have blown up on the Internet? Let us know in the comments section below.