A demand for answers surrounding the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 and the fate of its passengers has not stopped since it went missing nearly a decade ago, inspiring a Netflix documentary series earlier this year.
The redeye flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing took off on March 8, 2014, with 239 passengers and crew on board. But shortly after takeoff, the flight vanished from radar screens and was never seen again.
With the recent interest in UFO sightings, several social media users began sharing unusual footage of what looked like an aircraft surrounded by flying orbs, attributing it to the missing Malaysian plane.
The Claim
A Reddit post, sent on August 7, 2023, on the subreddit r/UFOs, which received 4,900 upvotes, included what looked like ultraviolet footage of a plane encircled by three moving dots. It was followed by another clip appearing to show the same phenomena.
Reddit user u/Voelkero, who uploaded the video, suggested "someone here might have information about when this was taken and where."
A number of the comments underneath the video suggested it could be linked to Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. A post on "X," formerly Twitter, posted on August 8, 2023, included the same footage and stated: "UFO video uploaded in 2014 showing 3 orb UFO's taking Malaysian Airlines MH370?"
The Facts
Despite some speculation that the footage is of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, the video was debunked several months ago.
Fact checkers at FRANCE 24's Observers team in March investigated the film, which appeared in a TikTok that repeated the same allegations.
Observers found that the original footage was linked to a video from May 2014 that made no mention of MH370, only "Airliner and UFOs."
Speaking to video analysis experts, it found that later uploads of the video began describing it as a simulation of "what the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may have looked like." One editing expert said the video was "likely a graphic creation."
An analysis by HoaxEye, included in the same article, also noted that the second part of the footage could be traced to a military satellite, NROL-33, which wasn't launched until after the disappearance of MH370. It points out the call sign of the craft in the bottom left of the video, which can be partially seen in the footage posted on Reddit.
Even subsequent attempts to share the video as proof of UFO interference with MH370 have included the same call sign information.
Newsweek previously investigated other bogus claims about MH370, including photos incorrectly attributed to the missing aircraft.
The Ruling
False.
The video shared on Reddit is not footage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. It was posted online in 2014 with no reference to that aircraft (although subsequent uploads of the same video began to mention the missing plane).
One of the clips in the video included film captured by a satellite that wasn't launched until after MH370's disappearance.
Update 8/15/23, 9:15 a.m. ET: This story was updated to adjust NROL-77 to NROL-33. HoaxEye determined that the satellite stated was NROL-33. While it's not entirely clear from the image what the number is, the fact remains that when the original footage was posted it was not attributed to MH370. Only uploads subsequent to the original made that attribution.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
