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| - Fact Check: This is NOT the underwater wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that disappeared in 2014
India Today found that the images show parts of an old aircraft that was intentionally sunk in the Red Sea.
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India Today Fact Check
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared in 2014, remains untraced to date. These images show parts of an old aircraft that was deliberately sunk in the Red Sea for ecotourism purposes.
In 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared from the radar with 239 passengers and crew members on board while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. At the time, then prime minister Najib Razak had announced that investigation and analysis concluded that the flight likely ended up in a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean.
An enduring mystery of our time, the disappearance of the flight has often been at the centre of conspiracy theories. Recently, photos of an abandoned plane underwater have been circulating on social media. Many have claimed that this was the wreckage of the missing Malaysian aircraft.
One such post reads, “Malaysia Airplane MH370 that disappeared 9 years ago has been found under ocean with no human skeleton. The plane had 239 passengers on board.” The archived versions of such posts can be seen here and here.
India Today, in its investigation, found that the images in question show parts of an old aircraft that was deliberately sunk off the coast of Jordan to create an artificial reef. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 remains untraced to date.
Our Probe
First, we could not find any credible news reports which confirmed that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was found. The fight’s disappearance caused shockwaves across the globe and the discovery of its wreckage would have made headlines everywhere.
With the help of a reverse image search and relevant keywords, we found an Instagram video that contained shots that matched the viral photos of the aircraft. The video was uploaded to the Instagram profile of Deep Blue Dive Center, a scuba-diving centre based in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba.
“Tristar Airplane Wreck Red Sea, Aqaba JO,” read the caption of the video.
According to the website of this scuba-diving company, the aircraft is an old Lockheed Martin L1011 TriStar that was intentionally sunk in the waters of the Red Sea next to the King Abdullah Reef dive site in Aqaba, Jordan.
The plane was a non-Jordanian commercial aircraft that had been out of service and remained parked at the King Hussein International Airport for several years. The Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority purchased the plane and sank it in the Red Sea's Gulf of Aqaba to create an artificial diving site.
CNN reported this in 2022. According to this article, the abandoned jet was sunk in 2019 to create an artificial reef to encourage marine life. The report added that having remained underwater for so long, the plane’s wings now sheltered numerous soft corals and the fuselage was surrounded by huge sponges populated by a variety of sea life.
We also found videos of this plane uploaded by many divers on YouTube.
It is hence clear that the photos in circulation are of an aircraft that was intentionally sunk in the Red Sea for ecotourism and are not related to the Malaysian flight that went missing in 2014.
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