MH370 wing find confirmed: Bizarre conspiracy theories that could explain what happened to the plane – and those onboard

Dozens of theories abound about the plane - some more plausible than others

French police officers carry a piece of debris from a plane in Saint-Andre, Reunion Island. Air safety investigators, one of them a Boeing investigator, have identified the component as a "flaperon" from the trailing edge of a Boeing 777 wing, a U.S. offi (AP)

MH370 is one of the most significant aviation disasters of all time, so it is perhaps inevitable that conspiracy theorists are desperately clinging to the air of mystery surrounding the disappearance of the Boeing 777 - even after officials that a recently-found wing part belongs to the aircraft.

Since the plane disappeared during its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March 2014, possible explanations – some more plausible than others – have circulated.

Official onvestigators have said the plane’s last known location was near Phuket Island, Thailand, and that it could have disappeared in one of two flight corridors. One stretches north between Thailand and Kazakhstan, the other south between Indonesia and the southern Indian Ocean, according to the BBC.

Based on this information, here are some the current conspiracy theories being put forward about the flight.

The wing was planted by panicking authorities

After a number of legal cases were launched against Malaysia Airlines and the government by victims' families, some have argued that the wing part was placed on Reunion by the Malaysian authorities.

Were officials worried that they have not been able to offer the loved ones of the 239 people on-board many answers, and thought planting a wing was their best option? It seems unlikely.

The CIA took MH370 to a US military base in the Indian Ocean

One of the most common conspiracy theories is that MH370 was flown to the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, which is under British control but is home to a major US military base.

Chinese blogger He Xin argues that the CIA diverted the plane in order to seize a “special person” or “special object”, and said this would explain why passengers’ phones were ringing after the plane vanished.

Agents then dismantled, burned, and dumped in the sea, Xin claims.

However, US officials has rejected any suggestion that it landed on the island, and responded: “There was no indication that MH370 flew anywhere near the Maldives or Diego Garcia.

“MH370 did not land in Diego Garcia,” officials stressed, according to Reuters.

MH370 set on fire

One explanation is that a fire consumed MH370 – but only on the inside.

This theory would explain how the plan flew such a long distance from its planned route.

An aviation expert told Reuters that the plane would not have “dropped like a stone” but would have glided from 35,000ft for around 10-12 minutes after running out of fuel.

At that point, it would have plummeted into the sea – with the same force as if it had hit concrete. An explosion would follow this, ripping off the wings and leaving the fuselage to sink to the ocean floor.

Russia is behind it

President Vladimir Putin, who has become increasingly unpopular with the West of late, has been blamed for the disappearance of MH370 by Jeff Wise, a private pilot and science writer.

Wise, who has written a book outlining his theories on MH370, said thePresident told Russian special forces to hijack the flight, and fly it to a spaceport in Kazakhstan.

Asked why Putin would plan such an operation, he told the broadcaster he had “no idea”.

MH370 and MH17 are the same plane

Around six months after MH370 vanished, MH17 plummeted to the ground in war-torn eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board died.

Some have sensationally claimed that photographs from the scene show that the planes were one and the same, but have failed to explain why anyone would do this, why almost 600 families have been left grieving.