Neil Armstrong once stated, “Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.” There are thousands of conspiracy theories from all over the world. From fake moon landings to unexplained deaths of public figures to remote sightings of undocumented creatures, people have created the wildest and most complex theories around things they have yet to understand. When information is missing, society tends to try its hardest to fill in the blanks with explanations — even if they don’t always add up.

The Conspiracy Column is the newest column of the Park City Prospector, and I will be covering several different conspiracies for students to read and form their own opinions on. Some might seem outrageous or too much of a stretch, while others might truly make you think to yourself, “Hm, maybe this is worth considering. In fact, maybe it really does explain the missing pieces of this story.” No matter the conclusion you come to, all theories are quite intriguing. Read on to find out more about the conspiracy theories of our world- how did they come to be? What evidence is used to support them, and most importantly, could they be proven right in the future?

Our first conspiracy theory revolves around an event that took two hundred thirty-nine passengers on a typical flight but has yet to return them to their homes, almost a decade later. In 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, headed for Beijing, China, but the flight never reached Beijing. In fact, thirty-seven minutes into the journey, the flight lost contact with air traffic control on the ground and was never heard from again. The search ended and the case was closed three years later. Peter Foley was the program director for the organized search led by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, and with the help of hundreds, they managed to cover over 1,200 square kilometers (463 square miles) of the Indian Ocean floor. Foley stated, “It’s one of those things that will enthrall people until the mystery is solved. It is a mystery that must be solved and will be solved eventually.”

I find this mystery so interesting because they have yet to come close to an explanation for the mysterious plane crash. Although pieces of the plane have since been found on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, there has been no real explanation for the missing plane presented to the public. Thus, people have developed several conspiracies.

One of the popular theories is that the disappearance of the plane was caused by the pilot himself. Some believe that the flight was purposefully taken off course and flew for seven hours after losing connections with those on the ground. A few aviation experts claim that the pilot is at fault for the plane crash, as they believe he was trying to end his own life but that also resulted in ending the lives of everybody else on board. They claim this because of odd flight patterns that imply the pilot was trying to avoid being detected or tracked, which would have allowed military forces to intercept and save the flight. An aviation expert also took notice of the pilot dipping the wing over his hometown, Penang, which could’ve been a sign to represent a heartbreaking and emotional farewell to the people that lived there.

Personally, I don’t believe there is enough strong evidence to pin the entire plane crash on the pilot. I think there is so much more to the story than what has been revealed and discovered. In short, the conclusion that many people have come to about this mysterious flight is that somebody was actually in control of the plane the entire time. A fair amount of people believe that the pilot was that somebody, and the disappearance was not by accident. However, this, along with any other theory, is currently not proven, and there are no true suspects for the flight disappearance. For now, the pilot remains completely innocent, and the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 will remain a mystery.

Our hearts should continue to go out to the loved ones of those who went missing. One day, I hope that the truth of the flight is uncovered, so closure can be provided and the endless conspiracies can come to a halt.