MH370: Of Putin's diabolical intent and extraterrestrial conspiracy theories

From extraterrestrial (ET) abduction to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s diabolical intent, many theories have surfaced by both professional analysts and amateur investigators in the digital realm to make sense of the void that seemed to have been trails left behind by official investigators in what is regarded as one of aviation’s biggest mystery––the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Also, the conspiracy bandwagon was joined by former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir who allegedly said that flight MH370 mystery is ‘a CIA conspiracy and that someone is hiding something’. Emirates Airlines chief, Tim Clark bluntly suggested that Malaysia was not transparent in disclosing information.

A year has passed and thousands of citizens from around the globe were left dumbfounded by the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the aircraft which was carrying 239 passengers including 12 crew members onboard.

Below are some far-fetched and outlandish conspiracy theories that have been highlighted by several international news portals since March 8, 2014.

Vladimir Putin ordered the plane to be stolen

As wicked as it appears, US-based science writer, Jeff Wish proposed this diabolically -intent theory claiming the jet was 'stolen' under the instructions of Russian President, Vladimir Putin.

An aviation expert who was also part of CNN's team of analysts, Jeff, wrote in his blog that hijackers, who were probably inside the plane – and were Russians – ‘spoofed’ the plane's navigation data to create an image as though the flight MH370 went in a specific route, though in reality, the plane was rerouted to Baikonur Cosmodrome, a high profile operational space launch facility chartered to Russia by the Kazakh government until 2050.

ET abduction?

Let’s just put the blame on the extraterrestrial beings for the inability to comprehend the mysterious disappearance of flight MH370.Some claim that, aliens may definitely have had some crucial role to play in this saga. Bored with the western world, aliens have decided to finally mark their presence in South East Asia.

After going crazy without any convincing answers from the officials, some ‘far-sighted’ individuals jumped into the conclusion that flight MH370 has been abducted by ET.

A report in the National Report suggested, "since 1947, our Government has been lying to us about aliens. Everyone sees them.

“UFOs are everywhere in every nation. They are a threat to our sovereignty as a nation and as a world.” This was then extensively cited in the social media.

"CIA conspiracy and someone is hiding something"- Tun Mahathir

Former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir also alleged that flight MH370 disappearance is nothing short of a CIA conspiracy. He said the CIA possibly knew the location of flight MH370 and keeping it to themselves.

He said if the plane’s GPS system failed, then Boeing or the US government agency with their capabilities would surely be able to retrieve the whereabouts of the plane.

In one of his blog posts, he suggested that in the event of the flight being hijacked, the command of the plane could have been triggered elsewhere –remotely.

"Clearly, Boeing and certain agencies have the capacity to take over uninterruptible control of commercial airliners of which MH370 B777 is one.

"Someone is hiding something. It is not fair that MAS and Malaysia should take the blame," he said

It is in an ‘Asian Bermuda triangle’

The idea there could be a second Bermuda Triangle seems a popular one on social media. Its sudden and unexplained disappearance from radar could have several explanations, whether it be a sudden explosion or mid-air disintegration, or even a mechanical failure.

But some theorists believe it simply means the plane has entered another Devil's Triangle. Boats and planes have been known to disappear in the patch of sea in the North Atlantic Ocean, known as the Bermuda Triangle, including Flight 19 in 1945, when five torpedo bombers mysteriously vanished.

But could there really be another one?

One Twitter user wrote: "So...what is up with this Malaysian airplane thing? Is there an Asian version of the Bermuda Triangle?"

Another added: "Maybe there's such thing as Asian bermuda triangle.

The cockpit fire

A theory came from pilot Chris Goodfellow, who suggested a fire in the cockpit led the captain to turn to the west towards Pulau Langkawi, a nearby airstrip. The loss of communication with the cockpit, Goodfellow said, was caused by electrical fire and the need for the crew to focus on flying the plane rather than radioing in a distress call.

He said, the pilots could have passed out or succumbed to smoke inhalation, with the plane flying for endless hours until it ran out of fuel and crashed. It’s a great theory, except for the lack of any solid evidence to support it.

MH370 and MH17 were the 'same planes'

Another conspiracy that seemed to have penetrated into the minds of the public is the believe that both MH370 and MH17 are actually the same plane. The MH17 that has crashed in Ukraine after being shot down was in fact the missing flight MH370 and not the flight that was scheduled to Amsterdam from Kuala Lumpur.

Proponents of this theory including humansarefree.com stated that flight MH370 was hijacked and forced to land securely in a hidden location.

Some theories have outlandishly suggested that flight MH370 was flown to military base Diego Garcia ands subsequently crashed near Donetsk in Russia by American agents months after the ‘mysterious disappearance’ in a ‘false flag operation to tarnish the Russians.'

Eventually some of the happenings in the world nicely fell into theorists’ hands as Russia was accused by several countries for backing the Ukrainian separatists among others providing Buk missile launchers capable of shooting down planes at high altitudes.