NewsMH370uk newsmalaysia airlines

MH370 Officially Declared An Accident But Malaysian Government Says Search 'Still A Priority'

Conspiracy Theorists Won't Welcome This Official MH370 Conclusion
Jack Sommers
|

Nearly 11 months after MH370 disappeared without a trace with 239 people aboard, its loss has officially been declared an accident.

Malaysia civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said that the search for the Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared on March 8 last year "remains a priority".

SEE ALSO:

In a recorded message broadcast on Thursday on Malaysian television, Azharuddin said: "It is with the heaviest heart and deepest sorrow that we officially declare Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 an accident."

He said all those on board are now presumed to have died.

The announcement fulfills a legal obligation that will allow compensation claims to proceed.

The plane is presumed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean off the coast of western Australia. The hunt resumed in October after a four-month hiatus with more sophisticated sonar equipment.

The Convention on International Civil Aviation's definition of "accident" includes "the aircraft is missing".

Azharuddin said the investigation by the safety team and Malaysian police were ongoing but both were limited by the lack of physical evidence at this time, particularly the flight recorders.

"At this juncture, there is no evidence to substantiate any speculations as to the cause of the accident," he said, adding that an interim report detailing the progress of the safety investigation will be released soon.

The loss of MH370 has been subjected of wild conjecture of conspiracy theories and the latest announcement ddi not convince those who always claimed something there was a more sinister explanation.

MH370 conspiracy theories

Malaysian Airlines Conspiracy Theories
Iran downed the jet(01 of07)
Open Image Modal
Rumours abounded after it emerged that the tickets for two passengers who used stolen passports to travel on a missing Malaysia Airlines flight were booked by an Iranian man known only as “Mr. Ali", according to the FT.But one of those travelling has been identified as a 19-year-old Iranian, almost definitely headed to Germany to seek asylum, with no links whatsoever to terror networks. Besides, it would be baffling as to why Iran would want to hijack a plane almost entirely compromised of Chinese passengers. China is a key ally of Iran. (credit:Getty Images)
North Korea downed the jet(02 of07)
Open Image Modal
It's a theory swirling only in the realm of the Twittersphere and Reddit, but HuffPost UK has had a number of emails asking us to investigate the theory, pointing out the jet did have enough fuel on board to reach the hermit nation (allegedly) and that the North Koreans do have form when it comes to plane hijacking. Again, it seems like an odd scheme when it would alienate Pyongyang's only international ally, China, and mainly hinges on the "but those North Koreans are crazy" school of thought. (credit:AP)
Chinese separatists downed the jet(03 of07)
Open Image Modal
This one is kinda understandable, because the 'Chinese Martyrs’ Brigade' claimed they were responsible for the attack in an email to Chinese media. The message read: "You kill one of our clan, we will kill 100 of you as pay back.” This is almost certainly a hoax to stir up trouble, in the aftermath of the Kunming train station massacre where 29 people were killed. Chinese officials blamed that on separatists from north-west China's Uighur Muslim minority. (credit:Getty Images)
A single Uighur terrorist downed the jet(04 of07)
Open Image Modal
This was touted on Chinese social media, Weibo, with pictures of the air passenger list showing one name scrubbed out, which netizens said was a "Uighur" name. But it's a hoax, the full air passenger list has been posted on Reddit, and it hasn't got a name scrubbed out. Easy one, that. (credit:Getty Images)
Mobile Phones of the victims are still ringing (05 of07)
Open Image Modal
This one's made many mainstream newspaper outlets, and has a good basis in truth, relatives swear they have called the phones and heard them ring. Malaysian officials are investigating this, but at a press conference in Beijing, spokesman Ignatius Ong said one of the numbers that had been passed on to the airline's command office in Kuala Lumpur did not receive an answer. "I myself have called the number five times while the airline's command centre also called the number. We got no answering tone," said Ong. (credit:Getty Images)
The plane was hidden by US military technology for unknown nefarious purpose(06 of07)
Open Image Modal
This is one touted on Beforeitsnews.com, an "alternative" site big on stuff like UFOs, which reports: "It is conceivable that the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 plane is “cloaked,” hiding with hi-tech electronic warfare weaponry that exists and is used. In fact, this type of technology is precisely the expertise of [Texas-based company] Freescale, that has 20 employees on board the missing flight”. Again (there's a theme here) it doesn't say why. (credit:Getty Images)
Mossad downed the jet(07 of07)
Open Image Modal
Alright, not many people other than complete wack-jobs are posing this theory, but it's always worth an honourable mention. Nothing practical like, say, a motive, is given by those posing this on internet forums, apart from "evil Zionists do this kind of thing". Oh, and that the Israelis once cloned passports, so that's proof enough for The Rebel, who wrote: "The finding of the use on the Malaysian Airlines flight of stolen passports is essentially confirmatory of a Zionist plot." And that's, err, all they've got. (credit:Getty Images)
Suggest a correction
|
Submit a tip