Missing Plane Update: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Was Hijacked by Russians to Kazakhstan, Author Says

Jack Phillips
Jack Phillips
Breaking News Reporter
|Updated:

A science writer and author is making claims that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was actually hijacked in March by Russians to Kazakhstan

Jeff Wise, who wrote “Extreme Fear: The Science Of Your Mind In Danger,” posited his theory on a possible hijacking this week. He’s also a member of The Independent Group, which is an organization of technical and aviation experts. Wise was also featured on PBS' NOVA in October, speaking on the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. He’s also done work for Slate magazine about the missing plane.

Wise claims that the hijackers took the plane to Kazakhstan. “The idea that MH370 might have wound up in Kazakhstan is not new. In the days after MH370’s disappearance, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak personally appealed to Kazakhstan’s president, the Soviet-era strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev, to allow Malaysia to set up a search operation in the country. Kazakhstan never responded. After Inmarsat concluded that the plane had gone south, the matter was dropped,” he wrote on his website.

“If Russia has the savvy to plan an insanely complex special operation, they also have a track record of implementing such schemes. A week before MH370 vanished, Russia began infiltrating special forces into the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, eventually annexing it. The operation was designed to look like an internal uprising, but the personnel and equipment belonged to elite Russian military units,” he continues.

Wise describes the theory as “The Spoof” because the alleged hijackers needed to “spoof,” or falsify satellite data, from Flight 370, which was heading from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board on March 8.  

“Kazakhstan lacks the means and technical savvy to carry out a sophisticated hijack, the same is not true of Russia. Russia is (arguably) the only country that stands apart from the West and yet is as technically advanced in the aerospace industry as the United States,” Wise says.

The current Indian Ocean search area as of Dec. 3 (ATSB.au.gov)
The current Indian Ocean search area as of Dec. 3 ATSB.au.gov
Jack Phillips
Jack Phillips
Breaking News Reporter
Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter who covers a range of topics, including politics, U.S., and health news. A father of two, Jack grew up in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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