How a giant Boeing 777 could just disappear without a trace is, in itself, an extraordinary piece of news. However, the vanishing has also (unsurprisingly) given birth to a plethora of fantastical theories of what happened to the jet.
The ever-expanding, multi-national search is now entering its 11th day and while there are countless perfectly plausible outcomes being explored, there are countless other people letting their creative juices flow as they voice their own somewhat less likely thoughts on what happened to the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
At risk of being made to look rather foolish should any of these ideas prove to be true, here is a quick rundown of some of the more inconceivably wonderful brain nuggets to have graced social media and online forums.
1. Illuminati
Numbers. People love to draw upon the significance of numbers whenever any major tragedy strikes. So here you go: the missing plane was the 404th Boeing 777 to have been manufactured. ‘So what?’ I hear you ask, well as a keen Reddit user pointed out: “An HTTP 404 error means not found, which in this case is oddly appropriate for the status of the aircraft, or just a coincidence. Coincidence, I think not!” What conspiracy this implies is unclear… but it is a conspiracy nonetheless.
2. They are living on an island with a polar bear
Comparisons with the hit US TV series Lost were inevitable from the moment the news broke. Theories that the plane went off course, crashed, and the inhabitants are now fighting their own inner demands and a magical island became prevalent as quickly as people could type them out.
3. Aliens
The A word was never going to take long to rear its extra-terrestrial head. Swathes of social media users have touted it as the only possible explanation. And in case you are struggling to conceptualise just what that look like, don’t worry, someone has made a very useful, thorough and educational video below.
4. Bermuda Triangle take II
One Bermuda Triangle seems implausible – the conspiracy theorists’ favourite polygon gets enough bad press for any missing item as it is, but now people are suggesting that there could be a second such phenomena in the South China Sea, meaning that flight routes are going to have to become yet more convoluted. Again, the tenacity of people in the pursuit of their theories must be admired as one Twitter user takes the effort to show just what the mysterious triangle might look like.
Mystery solved – that’s what a triangle in the sea would look like…
5. Courtney Love knows where it is
If all the above somehow fail in the attempts to find Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 then authorities need look no further than the Twitter timeline over Kurt Cobain’s former partner Courtney Love. As shown below, she has kindly taken the time to point out exactly where it is. Phew!
Courtney love cracks it! (via Twitter)