By Archis Chowdhury
An image of an underwater airplane wreckage is viral with the claim that it is the wreckage of the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which has been been found without a human skeleton despite carrying 239 people on board.
BOOM found this claim to be false; according to our fact-check, the viral image shows the wreckage of an abandoned Lockheed Martin L1011 Tristar airplane which reportedly sunk in 2019 to be colonised by marine life and attract divers. Furthermore, while there has been reported discovery of marine debris that was linked to the missing MH370 flight, the wreckage of the flight, along with the remains of the passengers, is yet to be found.
MH370, a passenger flight operated by Malaysian Airlines, disappeared on March 8, 2014, while making its journey from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China. Despite global efforts at searching for the flight, neither has the wreckage been recovered nor has a definite cause for disappearance been established, leading to widespread media debate, multiple conspiracy theories and a Netflix documentary.
We found several users sharing the viral image of the aircraft wreckage on Twitter with the caption, "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."
Click here, here and here to view archives of the above tweets.
The same image was viral on Facebook with the exact same caption.
You can view such posts here, here, here and here.
Fact-Check
BOOM did a number of keyword searches to look for the latest reports on the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, but was unable to find any credible report that stated that the aircraft has been found.
According to findings released by the Malaysian government, certain marine debris found in the western Indian Ocean have been established as parts of the missing aircraft. However, the airplane wreckage is yet to be found.
We then performed a Google reverse image search of the viral image of the aircraft wreckage, and were directed to an article by CNN about the underwater wreckage of a Lockheed Martin L1011 Tristar airplane, which was reportedly sunk in 2019 "to create an artificial reef to encourage marine life", and encourage dive tourism.
The article also mentions the work of underwater photographer Brett Hoelzer who has conducted multiple diving expeditions to photograph the sunken aircraft. We were also provided a link to his Instagram account, where we found multiple photos and reels of the sunken Tristar airliner.
We compared the aircraft seen in the images of the Tristar wreckage with the one seen in the viral photo, and found the exact same damage in the nose of the aircraft, suggesting that they're of the same wreckage.
Comparison of the aircraft seen in the images of the Tristar wreckage (left), and the one seen in the viral photo (right)
Also Read:Two Years On Since Flight MH370 Disappeared: What Now?
