A new conspiracy theory surrounding the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 claims that the plane was discovered in the deep forests of Cambodia. Over the weekend, British tabloids reported on a film producer’s claims that he discovered a plane in the East Asian nation’s Pursat Province while searching satellite photos on Google Maps.
The individual, named as Ian Wilson, believes the remains of the airliner destined for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur are in this forest, and he made the discovery in a matter of hours using Google Earth.
“Measuring the Google sighting, you’re looking at around 69 meters, but there looks to be a gap between the tail and the back of the plane. It’s just slightly bigger, but there’s a gap that would probably account for that,” he was quoted as saying by Daily Mirror.
“I was on there [Google Earth], a few hours here, a few hours there. If you added it up, I spent hours searching for places a plane could have gone down—and in the end, as you can see the place where the plane is. It is literally the greenest, darkest part you can see.”
Notably, under one of the posts on X (formerly known as Twitter), carrying British media Wilson’s version, a community post said: “It is important to emphasize that this ‘news’ is not new, it has been in circulation since 2018. To date, there is no real evidence that corroborates this hypothesis.”
Online users disputed Wilson’s claims
A few internet users were eager to refute Wilson’s allegations as well. While some argued it was old news that had already been refuted, others stated it was impossible to find the complete jet ‘intact’ in such a condition, especially in a forest, a decade after the crash.
“Why is this in the news again The plane on Google images is not MH370. It’s a random plane the satellite happened to catch flying over Cambodia. A crashed plane in the jungle would not be that intact, nor would you see it that well through the trees ESPECIALLY after a decade,” X user @TwighlightWolf250 stated.
What happened to MH370?
On March 8, 2014, MH370, a Boeing 777 airplane, vanished in the sky with 239 people on board, leaving authorities and the public throughout the world perplexed.
According to officials, either the pilot or the co-pilot shut off the plane’s transponder over the South China Sea. It was still being detected by military radar. According to data, it abruptly deviated off the path and began traveling west towards the Malay peninsula, leaving its northeastern direction.
In January 2017, Malaysia, China, and Australia called off a two-year underwater search in the southern Indian Ocean after discovering no evidence of the aircraft.
The Malaysian Ministry of Transport’s final report, published in July 2018, stated that investigators had no idea what happened to the airliner. While the investigation revealed errors by air traffic controllers, it did not rule out “unlawful interference.”
