Fact Check: Viral photo of plane submerged in water is not of Malaysia Airlines aircraft MH-370

New Delhi (Vishvas News): A picture of an airplane submerged in water is going viral on social media with claims that this picture is of Malaysia Airlines flight MH-370, which went missing nine years ago. There were 239 passengers on board the MH-370 plane when it went missing. Social media users are claiming that the wreckage of the plane has now been found in the sea.

Vishvas News in its investigation found that the picture of the plane seen in the sea is not of MH-370 but of the Lockheed Martin L1011 Tristar airplane. This plane is present in the Red Sea. The derelict plane was sunk in 2019 to encourage dive tourism.

Claim:

Facebook user Laban Thuo posted the photo (archive link) in May and wrote, “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.”

Investigation:

To verify the viral claim, we first searched for it with the help of Google reverse image. The news about the plane inside a sea was published by CNN on July 22, 2022.

According to the report, pictures of this Lockheed Martin Tristar airplane in the Red Sea have been taken by American diving expert Brett Hoezer. “The old three-engine Lockheed Martin L1011 Tristar airplane submerged in the Red Sea is also worth a look. The derelict plane was sunk in 2019 so that people could come here. American photographer Brett Hoezer has taken many pictures of it under water. Hoeger says the jet has now become a paradise for underwater photographers. First registered in the 1980s, it has served PlanetSpotters, Royal Jordanian, TAP Air of Portugal and NoVair of Sweden. It was abandoned in the early 2000s after a final stint with LuZair, another Portuguese company. Jordanian news agency Petra says the plane was dumped in Jordan’s Gulf of Aqaba after being parked at King Hussein International Airport near the Red Sea coast and not used for several years. Its purpose was to encourage dive tourism,” the report said.

We also found pictures and videos similar to this picture on the profile of an Instagram user named Bubba Acaba. A video has been shared from this account on May 2 with the caption, “We had a memorable dive into the Tristar wreck this week. I shot this footage and took several pictures. The guests who dived with @deepbluedivecenter had a great time on site.” The user’s profile states that he lives in Aqaba and is an underwater photographer.

The keyframes of the video of the underwater plane shared by the profile are similar to the viral picture.

We reached out to Instagram user ‘Bubba Acaba’ to know more about the same. He said, “This is not the missing MH370 flight. This is Tristar.”

We further searched on Google about Malaysia Airlines flight MH-370. A report published by CNBCTV18 website on March 8, 2023, stated that on March 8, 2014, flight MH370, which departed for Kuala Lumpur International Airport with 227 passengers and 12 crew members, disappeared en route to Beijing. This aircraft has not been found to date after many missions and a lot of searches. In January 2015, all 239 passengers and crew were presumed dead by the Malaysian government.

In the investigation, we did not find any such news, which can prove that the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared nine years ago has been found. We also scanned the profile of Laban Thuo, the Facebook user who shared the photo with the false claim and found that he lives in Nairobi, Kenya. He has more than 16,000 followers.