The claim: Pictures show Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 under water
A Facebook post from May 30 (direct link, archive link) contains three images that appear to show the underwater wreckage of an airplane with skeletons in the passenger seats.
“Hot news: Underwater drone reveals location of Malaysia Flight 370 after years of mystery,” said the post, which also included the hashtag “#MH370LocationRevealed.”
The post was shared over 1,700 times within 12 days.
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The images were created using artificial intelligence and an online detection tool, according to an expert. There are no credible news reports that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been found.
MH370 was not found; images were generated by AI
MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, after leaving Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. There were 239 people on board, including three Americans.
However, the missing aircraft is not visible in the images. Instead, they contain all elements that match AI-generated images.
“The scene is crystal clear between the camera and the plane and then suddenly it becomes very cloudy, so you can’t see much further than the plane,” James O’Brien, a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley, told USA TODAY. “That’s not how it works in real life. The plane is big enough and far enough away from the vantage point that the clouds would obscure the view.”
The letters and logo on the side of the plane appear in bright colors – and in different places – in the two images of the alleged wreckage. And there are other differences between these two images.
“In one photo, there is no ‘370’ on the side of the plane, the nose is detached and the front right door is missing,” O’Brien said. “In the other photo, everything is back together and the ‘370’ is neatly placed on the plane.”
Fact check: Photo shows diving tourism attraction, not missing Malaysia flight MH370
The skeletons in the seats “would certainly not all be sitting comfortably,” O’Brien said, adding: “It looks like they all died instantly while the plane was standing still.”
Hive Moderation’s AI detection tool found that the images contained AI-generated or deepfake content with a probability of 99.3%, 98%, and 97.5%, respectively.
The post’s claim that the plane’s wreckage has been found is not supported by any credible news. The post links to an article claiming the plane was found using a “modern underwater drone,” but there is no evidence for this either.
The official search ended in 2017 after searching about 46,000 square miles of the southern Indian Ocean and finding nothing. Some fragments of the plane have since washed ashore on the coast of Africa and the islands of Mauritius, Réunion and Rodriguez, USA TODAY previously reported, but nothing more substantial has ever been recovered.
In March, Malaysian authorities said a resumption of searches for the plane was still possible after a Texas-based marine robotics company called Ocean Infinity proposed a new search operation, the Associated Press reported.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Our fact-checking sources:
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James O’Brien, June 10, email exchange with USA TODAY
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Hive Moderation (DocumentCloud), June 10, MH370HiveModerationResults1
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Hive Moderation (DocumentCloud), June 10, MH370HiveModerationResults2
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Hive Moderation (DocumentCloud), June 10, MH370HiveModerationResults3
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USA TODAY, January 17, 2017, 3 years, 46,000 square miles, zero answers to flight MH370
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Associated Press, March 5, 2024, MH370 disappeared a decade ago. Here’s what we know about one of aviation’s greatest mysteries
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Images are AI, not the underwater wreckage of MH370 | Fact check
