More than 9 years ago, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing, China. The plane and the 239 passengers and crew members on board were never found.
The mystery of the vanished plane has captured the attention of conspiracy theorists and aviation experts alike. Netflix released a three-part series in 2023 documenting the flight’s disappearance and the subsequent search for answers.
Now, in May 2023, some people have shared a viral photo on Twitter claiming to show the discovery of the flight’s wreckage.
“Malaysia Airplane MH370 that disappeared 9 years ago has been found under [the] ocean with no human skeleton. The plane had 239 passengers on board,” the posts read.
THE QUESTION
Does a viral photo show the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
No, a viral photo does not show the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
The photo shows a different type of airplane that was deliberately sunk in Jordan’s Red Sea. The wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has not been found.
WHAT WE FOUND
The viral photo shared on social media does not show the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which has never been found. It actually shows a different airplane that was deliberately sunk in Jordan’s Red Sea.
VERIFY used RevEye, a reverse image search tool, to find the source of the original photo.
That reverse image search led us to a CNN article published in 2022. The article includes photos of a Lockheed Martin L1011 Tristar airplane sitting on the floor of the Red Sea in Aqaba, Jordan.
A Boeing 777 airplane carried the passengers and crew on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 – not a Lockheed Martin L1011 Tristar plane.
The photos in the CNN article are attributed to Deep Blue Dive Center in Aqaba. VERIFY found the viral image shared on Twitter in videos posted to the dive center’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in early April 2023. Both of the posts' captions reference the Tristar airplane.
According to Aqaba’s tourism website, the Tristar plane was out of service and parked at King Hussein International Airport for several years. The Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority then purchased the plane and deliberately sank it to create a spot for diving enthusiasts.
Some scattered pieces of debris, including part of a wing, confirmed or believed to be from the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 plane have turned up on beaches along the east coast of Africa and islands over the years. But the exact crash site and full plane have never been found.
In January 2017, leaders in Malaysia, Australia and China announced that they had suspended the search for the plane in the southern Indian Ocean.
“Despite every effort using the best science available, cutting edge technology, as well as modeling and advice from highly skilled professionals who are the best in their field, unfortunately, the search has not been able to locate the aircraft,” the leaders said in a joint statement.
Ocean Infinity, a U.S. technology company, also searched for the airplane for more than three months but was unable to find the wreckage. The company said in 2018 that it hopes to help with the search for the missing plane in the future.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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