Malaysian Flight MH370 Found With No Skeletons Hoax
Submission 12,004
Part of a series on Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. [View Related Entries]
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About
The Malaysian Flight MH370 Found With No Skeletons Hoax refers to a series of posts falsely claiming that Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, a plane that disappeared in 2014 and was never found, was discovered in the ocean with no skeletons inside of it, suggesting something mysterious happened to the passengers revolved around a conspiracy theory. The rumor went viral on Twitter in early May 2023 along with a photograph of a separate plane at the bottom of the ocean, leading Twitter to put a community note on the original post debunking the hoax.
Origin
On May 2nd, 2023, Twitter[1] user @254_icon shared an image of a Lockheed Martin L1011 Tristar that was reportedly sunk in 2019 to create an artificial reef,[2] writing, "Malaysia Airplane MH370 that disappeared 9 years ago has been found under ocean with no human skeleton. The plane had 239 passengers on board," garnering over 132,000 likes and 15,000 retweets in a day (shown below). The user's claim is false and the plane has never been located, although some debris has been found since the Boeing 777 disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China in 2014.[3]
Spread
The rumor was shared by several other Twitter users on May 2nd, 2023, including Twitter[4] user @RoyIsThaTruth, garnering over 2,000 likes in a day. Also that day, Twitter[5] user @Noel_FCBayern denounced the rumor, writing, "How disgusting can you be to fuel conspiracy theories by using pictures of a Lockheed Martin L1011 Tristar which has been sunk to function as an artificial reef in the Red Sea," garnering over 100 likes in a day (shown below).
The claim was debunked by numerous websites after it went viral, including The Quint[6] and AP News[7] on May 3rd, 2023. Twitter also placed a community note under the original post, writing:
This is not MH370. MH370 has never been found as of 2023, this photo is a picture of a underwater Lockheed Martin L1011 Tristar that was abandoned at an airport and sunken to attract diving tourism.
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[2] CNN – Eerie abandoned passenger plane sits on floor of Red Sea
[3] Sky News – Flight MH370 debris suggests pilot lowered plane's landing gear and crashed deliberately
[4] Twitter – RoyIsThaTruth
[5] Twitter – Noel_FCBayern
[6] Quint – Malaysian Flight MH370 Found Underwater Without Skeletons
[7] AP News – No, MH370 hasn’t been found, underwater photo is a different plane
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