A decade after the Malaysian Flight 370 and its 239 passengers and crew members disappeared, rumors of the plane’s fate continue to spread online.
“Breaking News: Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Returns After 10-Year Mystery, 239 Passengers’ Journey,” read a June 28 Facebook post.
The post, which directs users to an article making the same claim, features ominous images of a plane, a flight path from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, and dozens of corpses seated inside a plane cabin.
(Screenshot of Facebook Post)
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This claim is false. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared off air traffic control radar on March 8, 2014, still has not been recovered as of July 3, 2024. All 239 passengers and crew are presumed dead.
On March 24, 2014, Malaysian Prime Minister Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that the flight had likely crashed in the Indian Ocean. In July 2015, a piece of the plane confirmed to be part of Flight 370 washed ashore in the western Indian Ocean, reported The Associated Press. More debris from the plane has since been found.
Several countries searched extensively for three years for the vessel, but officially stopped in 2017. A private U.S. company, Ocean Infinity, launched its own search in 2018 and this past March, Malaysian officials said they might renew the search for the plane.
However, the plane has been neither recovered nor “returned” intact. Online claims that the missing Malaysia Airlines flight has returned after 10 years are False.