As the investigation continues into the fate of Malaysian Airline flight 370, theories, both plausible and impossible, have arisen.
The things that we know for sure: Ten days ago, on March 8th, a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing seemingly disappeared, losing contact with air control and failing to show up on radar. The number of passengers totalled 227, with the addition of 12 crew members. About 40 minutes into the flight, a crew member, presumably the co-pilot, was in radio communication with air-traffic controllers, ending his message with a fairly standard “All right, good night.” Two minutes after that message, the plane’s transponder was turned off, making it difficult for air-traffic control to identify the flight path and destination. The flight missed a planned check-in about 15 minutes later, and would not be identified for another hour, when it was detected by military radar, hundreds of miles off the planned course. That radar detection was the last anyone has seen of the plane.
Now, almost a week and a half later, the plane is still missing. One of the notable theories is that the flight was commandeered or hijacked. The scant evidence investigators have found could indeed point to a takeover of the flight, but there is no hard evidence to prove that theory. Investigators are currently checking the background of every passenger and crew member, searching for any motive or past ties.
Another theory points to the mechanics of the plane failing, but recent news from the Thai military has found that the plane made an intentional turn off-course, suggesting that this maneuver would have to be made by someone operating the controls of the plane.
With something as large as a Boeing 777 seemingly disappears without a trace, there are those who are bound to make some rather odd suggestions. Aliens hijacked the plane. The plane crashed on an unknown island, strikingly similar to the show Lost. One former pilot has put forth the idea that the pilot flew directly behind another aircraft of similar size, while cutting off communication, so that the two planes would show up as a single plane on radar. Even if the “where” questions is eventually answered by the search, the “why” and “who” mysteries will still remain to be solved.
Contributing to the lengthy nature of the search is the fact that the improvised route taken by the flight covers numerous countries and areas, including oceans. The search area is currently reported to be the size of Australia. But the more time passes without a conclusion, the more outlandish the theories may become.