Mr Learmount, a former Royal Air Force pilot, added: "One day, perhaps, some seat cushions will wash up on Australia's western coast or Antarctica's shore, but that won't help us find the wreck. I said in the beginning that we're unlikely ever to find the aircraft and that remains true."
Still, that hasn't stopped theories - often supported by not even the thinnest shred of solid evidence - from spreading.
There are more than 94,000 videos related to such theories on YouTube, many of which have been viewed tens or even hundreds of thousands of times.
Here are some of the most widely circulated theories:
1. SHOT DOWN
According to this theory, Flight 370 could have been shot down during a joint military exercise between the United States and Thailand in the South China Sea.
The theory is advanced in a book called Flight MH370: The Mystery by Nigel Cawthorne, a UK-based writer. The book describes the plane's disappearance as "the greatest mystery since the Mary Celeste" but suggests one possible explanation could be an accidental shoot-down.
"The drill was to involve mock warfare on land, in water and in the air, and would include live-fire exercises," Mr Cawthorne writes.
Relatives of those on board MH370 have criticised the book as premature and insensitive.
2. TERRORIST HIJACKING
With the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington approaching, conspiracy theorists have turned much of their focus to what some have dubbed the "9/11/14" theory.
This theory, again utterly devoid of proof but nonetheless widely circulated on the internet, suggests that Flight 370 did not crash but is in fact being prepared for use in a terrorist spectacular that will coincide with anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Among those throwing his weight behind this theory is Christopher Green from a group called "Alternative Media Television (AMTV)".
In one YouTube video, which has been viewed nearly 320,000 times, he suggest terrorists or even a rogue state might have hijacked Flight 370 and could now be "retrofitting this plane, arming it with a nuclear bomb for a later attack that could literally destroy and blow up an entire American city".
Mr Green accuses the media of being complicit "in the largest conspiracy that we have ever seen - the largest flight conspiracy since the September 11 terrorist attack."
3. MH17 PLANE SWITCH
The "plane switch" is among the most outlandish theories to have surfaced.
One of its main backers is Jim Stone, a self-described "independent journalist" whose website carries the motto: "Truth is reality, which lies and inventions fall to in the end."
Mr Stone proposes the theory that it was Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and not Flight 17 that was shot down over the Ukraine in July last year. He offers little in the way of explanation about who might benefit from switching the planes, or how they might have achieved it. Nor does he say what happened to the real MH17.
Nevertheless, he argues: "Flight 370 had to be gotten rid of, and people disposed of."
Somewhat confusingly, Mr Stone argues that the downed plane - which he refers to as MH17/370 - was actually shot down as part of a Mossad plot to hide "the dirty business" going on in Gaza.
Mr Stone also claims to have received "additional information" to suggest the recent plane crash which killed Eduardo Campos, the Brazilian presidential candidate, was "murder".
"They nailed both engines because the plane could fly with only one," he claims, again without real evidence.
4. ISLAND LANDING
In the days and weeks following the plane's disappearance one of the most commonly heard conspiracy theories was that it had landed on Diego Garcia, the British-owned island in the Indian Ocean that is home to a major US military base.
The theory gained so much traction that US officials were forced to deny it.
"There was no indication that MH370 flew anywhere near the Maldives or Diego Garcia. MH370 did not land in Diego Garcia," an official from the US embassy in Malaysia
told that country's The Star newspaper.
Even so, that theory has not entirely gone away, not least in China home to 153 of Flight 370's passengers and many of the most vocal conspiracy theorists.
He Xin, a Chinese blogger, continues to insist that the MH370 mystery was the result of a CIA special operation to gain control of some "special person" or "special object" on the plane.
Mr He claims the plane was forced to land at Diego Garcia, which explains why relatives believed the mobile phones of their loved ones were still ringing in the hours following the plane's disappearance.
There, MH370 was dismantled inside an aircraft hanger before being burned and dumped in the sea, Mr He argues. Like others, he offers no proof.
5. THE UNKNOWN "WEAPON"
Mike Adams, a veteran conspiracy theorist who runs a website called the Natural News, is known for his bizarre and often ludicrous articles.
"There are some astonishing things you're not being told about Malaysia Airlines Flight 370," he wrote less than 48 hours after the disaster.
His explanation for how MH370 "utterly and inexplicably vanished"? Not a hijacking nor a mid-air explosion but possibly the work of "some entirely new, mysterious and powerful force" capable of plucking "airplanes out of the sky without leaving behind even a shred of evidence".
"If there does exist a weapon with such capabilities, whoever controls it already has the ability to dominate all of Earth's nations with a fearsome military weapon of unimaginable power," Mr Adams wrote.
"That thought is a lot more scary than the idea of an aircraft suffering a fatal mechanical failure."
6. AND FINALLY: REALITY CHECK
Despite all those theories, the reality is certainly more mundane, says Mr Learmount, the aviation expert. He is convinced that whatever happened to the plane was "a deliberate act by someone on board, probably the captain".
"I know people - especially journalists - would like this weird event to have more in common with Star Wars, but actually it was probably a carefully planned suicide and revenge attack," he said.
"But will we ever be able to prove that? No."
The Telegraph
Posted by hnm
on Friday, January 30, 2015. Filed under
