Fact Check

Do Photographs Show the Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight Floating in the Ocean?

Sometimes the answer is spelled out right before your eyes.

Published July 20, 2009

Credit: malaysiaairlines.com (malaysiaairlines.com)
Credit: malaysiaairlines.com
Claim:
Photographs show the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 floating in the ocean.

The following images have been circulated via Facebook and other social media sites with captions identifying them as pictures of "crashed" Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared over the South China Sea on 8 March 2014 with 239 persons (227 passengers and 12 crew members) aboard:

"Is this a real photo of the missing Malaysia plane?"

"I was looking through my Facebook feed, and found that somebody posted a link to an article proclaiming that Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 had been FOUND. It showed an airliner that was intact, floating in water with people standing on the wing."

In fact, the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER from Flight MH370 has not yet been located, and no determination has yet been made whether the aircraft crashed (either at sea or on land) or managed to land somewhere.

The first photograph is one that was submitted to the New York Times on 15 January 2009 and captures a US Airways jet that made an emergency landing in the Hudson River.

The second shows a Lion Air Boeing 737 airliner that careered off a runway and crashed into the sea in Bali in April 2013.

Sources

"Reader-Submitted Photos: Jet in Hudson River."   The New York Times. 15 January 2009.

Alexander, Harriet. "Narrow escape for more than 100 airline passengers as plane crashes into sea in Bali."   The Telegraph. 13 April 2013.

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.