The Jungle Knows the Answer?
This week, aspiring pilot Daniel Boyer offered a new twist to the missing Malaysian Airlines Boeing story, claiming that he had found the plane's nose and tail parts in Google Maps images of dense forest northwest of Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh.
He said that the white objects he spotted lying in the jungle share more than just the same measurements as a cockpit and tail of a Boeing 777. According to Boyer, a cockpit window can also be seen on the alleged nose part. Additionally, he believes to have seen a red outline resembling the Malaysian Airlines logo on the "tail," lying just meters away from what is said to be the nose.
READ MORE: Briton Vows to 'Leave No Stone Unturned' in His Search for MH370 in Cambodia
Boyer's revelations came less than a month after another avid Google Maps user, British video producer Ian Wilson, claimed to have found the MH370's crash site in the jungle some ten miles away from Boyer's sighting, citing blurred images from the mapping service that show what is believed to be the wrecked plane. His theory came into question as some skeptics suggested that it was an in-flight plane accidentally pictured by a satellite.
However, Google Maps has updated its images of the Cambodian region where lies the alleged crash site. The plane has remained at the same location on satellite pics dating from 2017 and 2015 (according to Google Maps data). This has confirmed Wilson's theory, leading him to rebut the criticism and argue that the plane he spotted sits on the ground. He is currently preparing for an on-the-ground mission to the alleged crash site.
Stowaway Hacker
In late July, the Malaysian government's chief investigator, Kok Soo Chon, said that the plane was switched to manual control before disappearing from the radars. He didn't rule out an "unlawful interference by a third party," fueling the theory that the plane was taken over remotely by hackers.
An unnamed former aviation military aviator theorized in a guest post for Forbes that a stowaway hid in an electrical and avionics closet below the main cabin before the boarding and took control of the Boeing using portable electronic devices and a considerable knowledge of the on-board mechanics.
Then he depressurized the plane and disabled the oxygen equipment in both the main cabin and the cockpit, incapacitating those on board, before finally guiding the plane into the ocean.
'Murder-Suicide'
Larry Vance, an aviation expert and former investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said in May that he believes with "100 percent certainty" that the MH370 was intentionally flown into the ocean by one of the pilots in an act of murder-suicide.
The investigator was part of an international team of aviation experts, who claimed that either the pilot, 53-year-old Zaharie Ahmad Shah, depressurized the plane, knocking out everyone on board who was not wearing an oxygen mask, then crashed the Boeing into the ocean and made it disappear forever. The statement echoed speculations of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who suggested in 2016 that it was "very likely that the captain planned this shocking event."
Malaysian Interception
An even more bizarre theory maintains that the airliner was intercepted by a Malaysian fighter plane before it vanished.
READ MORE: Scholar Advises Using Drones to Hunt for MH370 in Cambodia – Reports
"The fact a fighter jet was deployed in spite of repeated denials with the bizarre explanation that the mystery radar returns approaching Malaysian airspace were deemed as friendly strongly suggests that the radar returns were in fact deemed the opposite of friendly as now being deemed as hostile and or a threat."
"We now certainly all know the government did send up jet fighter aircraft which means the entire chain of command and control was put on high alert to deal with this hostile threat," he said in an interview with the British tabloid Daily Star.
Aerial Showdown
Rush Limbaugh, a US radio talk show host and political commentator, suggested that the plane was shot down by an unidentified hostile country.
"How about the jet is flying along and you have a total electronic failure, but the engines keep working," Limbaugh told his listeners. "So then the crew says, ‘We got to get back home. We got to get back to Kuala Lumpour. We can't fly with no electronics.'"
"It's dark, nighttime. They fly over a bunch of unfriendly countries, and they can't identify themselves, and they're not identified, there are no lights on. There's been a total electronic failure," Limbaugh said. "What if some hostile country flew up there and shot it down, and then discovered their mistake and nobody wants to admit what happened?"
Doomed Beijing-Bound Flight
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 with 239 passengers and crew on board vanished from radar screens 40 minutes into the flight on March 8, 2014 after it veered off its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
After years of extensive searching, the Malaysian government admitted in July 2018 that they did not know what happened to the plane. The investigation team noted in its report that a technical failure had unlikely occurred and that the actions of the two pilots didn't suggest malicious intent. The document, which provided no solid proof, caused outrage from victims' families, who have accused the Malaysian authorities of withholding crucial information.
Despite an extensive multimillion dollar search operation conducted jointly by Malaysian, Chinese and Australian investigators, only a few pieces of debris believed to be parts of the missing aircraft have been found at different locations, including Mozambique, South Africa and the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean.
