Not just MH370: four other baffling aviation mysteries and the conspiracy theories they spawned
- The disappearance five years ago of a Malaysian Airlines flight bound for China is the biggest air travel mystery in years, but there have been several others
- From a Philippine-bound plane that vanished in clear skies in 1962, to Amelia Earhart’s disappearance in 1937, we recall four of the most puzzling
Five years ago today, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 with 239 people went missing while bound from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Despite a multinational search – the most expensive in aviation history – authorities have still not solved the mystery as to why, 40 minutes into its six-hour flight, the airliner changed course and flew towards the southern Indian Ocean.
The disappearance of the Boeing 777, and the inconclusive search for wreckage of the jet, have prompted some to fill the gaps with conspiracy theories.
One of the most outlandish is that MH370 was hijacked to harvest the organs of Falun Gong members aboard. Falun Gong is a spiritual movement banned in China, and 153 of the people on board MH370 were Chinese citizens.
Australia-based writer Ean Higgins advances a fresh theory in his book The Hunt for MH370, claiming the flight’s captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, brought the plane down so he and his mistress could assume stolen identities “in an obscure but pleasant Asian country”.