Malaysia Airlines flight 370 was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, China, when the jet mysteriously vanished with 239 people on board. The Boeing 777 aircraft last communicated with air traffic control at 1.19am when the plane was flying over the South China Sea, before vanishing from civilian radar screens. However, minutes later it disappeared from civilian radar, never to be seen again.
Radar and satellite data shows how the jet suddenly changed course and flew back across Malaysia before turning south of Penang and then towards the southern Indian Ocean.
Some have suggested this change in direction suggests that Captain Zaharie Shah played out a suicide mission, while other claim it proves an emergency broke out on board.
However, one CNN reporter had another theory.
She asked during a news special just days after the event: “Could a meteor have taken the plane down?”
She then went on to claim: “There was a known meteor in the area at the time the plane took off.
“Could that have hit the plane?
“Given what we know about the erratic flight path, it’s highly unlikely.”
Also known as shooting stars, meteors are small pieces of dust and debris from space that burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
They create bright streaks across the night sky and occur fairly regularly.
However, the theory is very unlikely, with the odds of one striking a plane being very low.
In 2015, exactly a year after the plane went missing, a 600 page report was released put together by an international team of investigators.
Within, it disclosed that the batteries used on the flight data recorder – sometimes referred to as the black box – had gone flat some 15 months before the aircraft took off.
The electronic device is placed in an aircraft for the sole purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents.
It also revealed how a crucial system in the cockpit “malfunctioned minutes before takeoff“, forcing it to be repaired.
However, perhaps the most shocking revelation of the bunch revealed how the 12-year-old Boeing 777 undertook “major repairs” 19 months before it disappeared.
The taxiing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane struck the tail of a China Eastern Airlines A340 plane at Pudong International Airport in August 2012.
There were no injuries, but the wing of MH370 was significantly damaged.
Part of the plane was broken off and hung on the tail of the China Eastern Airbus 340-600, pictures revealed.
However, the wing tip was fully repaired, tested and then rolled back out to service by the airline.
There have been countless claims over what happened to MH370.
Some state the plane was hijacked, either by terrorists on board or through remote cyber hacking.
While more outrageous ideas have claimed the plane was a “flying bomb” due to the cargo of five tonnes of mangosteens and 221kg of lithium-ion batteries.
Over the years there have been all sorts of claims over possible sightings, from Maldive islanders to oil rig workers in Vietnam.
However, we are still no closer to knowing the truth.