THE mystery surrounding the disappearance of Flight MH370 has attracted heaps of conspiracy theories — from the barely credible to the wildly bizzare.
The airliner, travelling from KL to Beijing with 239 on board, went missing after leaving Malaysian air space early on March 8. It reportedly dropped off the radar south of Vietnam.
A multi-national air and sea search has been mounted to scour the South China Sea and the vast expanse of waters in the surrounding areas (and beyond) where the aircraft is believed to have gone down, but the operation has drawn a perplexing blank so far.
As efforts intensify to unravel the mystery of MH370, conspiracy theorists have been busy spinning the rumour-mill through the media and Internet.
Captured by UFOs, sucked in by a black hole, collided with a meteor, shot down by a military jet, blown up by terrorists and even hijacked by elves. These are among the theories put forward to explain — or muddle — the befuddling circumstances surrounding the incident.
Bloggers in China theorised the flight had come under attack by Uighur militants from Xinjiang. This was refuted by the Uyghur American Association which called for a halt to all wild guesses in consideration of the families who had loved ones on board.
Weird speculations of the aircraft falling victim to stock market manipulation or being hit by a meteor were rife. Theories on hijacking inevitably surfaced – as with all aircraft incidents — after two passengers reportedly boarded the flight, using passports stolen in Thailand.
While investigations could not confirm any connection between the duo and the loss of the plane, some aviation experts believe that given the as yet unexplained communication blackout between the airliner and ground control, it could be a case of “a hijacking gone bad.”
By and large, explanations given by vastly experiened pilots and avitators to shed light on all possible scenarios regarding the fate of MH370 contrast starkly with loose Internet postings both in soundness of reasoning and sincerity.
In Malaysia, social media users poked fun at the flight code, claiming MH stands for the Malay words masih hilang (not found yet).
A bomoh even said the aircraft had been “hijacked by elves” and was suspended in mid-air.
In a frenzied whacking of the Airline and the government, some bloggers claimed the probe into the missing airliner was a cover-up, an attempt to divert attention from the Sodomy II verdict and God’s revenge against the Barisan Nasional.
But as an observer rightly pointed out, all these arguments are not supported by hard evidence and are mere “faulty leaps of logic.”
The wildest theories – or insentitive jokes if you like — are that a party in the cockpit caused the airliner to veer off course and vanish from the radar screen, and that the pilots switched off the engines and purposely crashed the airliner. Ipui! What a terrible thing to say.
Many took exception to the junk reports on social media, especially those with relatives on board the airliner.
A PAS politician had to hurriedly say sorry for his comment that MH370 had vanished in a “New Bermuda Triangle” over Vietnamese waters.
Shortly after the airliner was reported missing, some bloggers even sent out reports that it had made an emergency landing in Nanking, China, under the escort of Chinese fighters.
Many believed the story. Some media bought it too. But it turned out the biggest hoax to be perpetrated in the aftermath of the incident.
Conspiracy theorists have a penchant for embellishing tales with all sorts of hypothesis, presumptions, suppositions and guesses. Because of their inflated self-belief, they not easily put off but will continue to espouse fanciful ideas despite pleas for them to stop adulterating social media.
In this respect, Malaysians are equally guilty.
A writer in a national daily put it all down to “immaturity.”
“Malaysians are immature. This is a national disaster — we should be mourning, not making jokes or spreading rumours,” he said.
The writer added that he did not think “social media is the problem but the way people use it.”
“To some people, everything that is Malaysian is not right and that whatever the government is involved in is bad. This is not true. The authorities are doing everything they can.”
The writer pointed out most people did not think about how bogus reports affected the families of the passengers.
“Malaysians love rumours, even if they don’t check the authenticity of the information, they will share it online.”
Government officials in both Malaysia and China have urged people to refrain from making loose talks about the missing plane so as not to aggravate the suffering of the families of the passengers.
Indeed, in managing a crisis like MH370, everyone should be considerate and refrain from doing or saying things that will cause more sorrow and pain.
It is the right and moral thing to do.