Relatives of passengers and crew missing on the Malaysian plane which disappeared on Saturday have reported that they got ring tones when they called them on their cell phones.
The Washington Post reported how a migrant worker said that several other workers from his company were on the plane, including his brother-in-law. Among them, the Chinese social messaging app QQ accounts of three still showed that they were online, he said.
Adding to the mystery, other relatives said that when they dialled some passengers’ numbers, they seemed to get ringing tones on the other end even though the calls were not picked up.
The phantom calls triggered a new level of desperation and anger for some. They tried repeatedly on Sunday and yesterday to ask airline and police officials about the ringing calls and QQ accounts. However unlikely it was, many thought the phones might still be on, and that if authorities just tracked them down, their relatives might be found. But they were largely ignored.
According to Singapore’s Strait Times, a Malaysia Airlines official, Hugh Dunleavy, told families that the company had tried calling mobile phones of crew members as well and that they had also rang. The company turned over those phone numbers to Chinese authorities.
Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing vanished early on Saturday and a huge search by ships and aircraft from 10 nations has yet to find a trace of it. While they still cannot rule out a hijacking or bomb, officials seem increasingly sceptical that foul play caused its disappearance.
Such doubts have done little to halt conspiracy theories spreading through the media and Internet, especially in the countries from which most passengers hailed: China and Malaysia.
Users of China's popular Twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo have discussed theories ranging from an attack by Uighur militants from the country's far western region of Xinjiang to stock market manipulation.
"Maybe it was hit by a meteor?" wrote a user called laxnic. "It would have been a more powerful impact than a missile and would have split the plane into tiny pieces. It would all have been over so fast."
In Malaysia's social media, much talk revolves around the flight code, with users claiming "MH" stands for the Malay words "masih hilang" - still lost.
News that two passengers boarded the flight using passports stolen in Thailand fuelled hijacking theories in both China and Malaysia, although police have since said that they doubt a connection between the pair and the loss of the plane.
"The plane did not crash - at least we've not seen any pictures to suggest this, and no wreckage has been found. It's being held prisoner in some country for political reasons," suggested BoZ_ZiE on Sina Weibo.
Malaysia's pro-government and usually staid New Straits Times quoted a shaman who said the aircraft had been "hijacked by elves" and was suspended in mid-air.
DESPERATE RELATIVES
For some, the speculation feeds an obsession or provides macabre diversion. "Terrorism? Accident? Supernatural?" asks a website called Common Sense Conspiracy, before running through its explanations for MH370's disappearance.
Elsewhere, the website discusses the "imminent" eruption of Japan's Mount Fuji and the possibility that actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died of a drug overdose in February, was assassinated.
For others, however, improbable claims reflect a heartbreaking struggle to understand the fate of loved ones.
Agenda NWO, a YouTube channel dedicated to "awakening the masses to the elite new world order agenda", uses data from the Flightradar24 website to conclude that MH370 was shot down by an unidentified military jet over the Gulf of Thailand.
Like many conspiracy theories, the conclusion draws on real-life precedents. In 1988, a U.S. warship mistakenly shot down an Iranian airliner, killing all 290 passengers and crew.
Another YouTube channel, identified only as DAHBOO77, also used what it claimed was Flightradar24 data, this time to show MH370 flying over Vietnam with another aircraft close on its tail, before vanishing south of China's Hainan Island.
"Did you see that?" asks the excited narrator. "Now it's gone. Right there, in that area."
PAIN AND SUFFERING
In Malaysia, which had 38 nationals on the flight, some have been offended by loose talk about MH370's fate.
A Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party politician apologised on Twitter after suggesting the plane had disappeared in a "New Bermuda Triangle" in Vietnamese waters.
"If, at all, my comments did cause unnecessary disturbance and disheartened feelings, my greatest apologies," tweeted Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin.
And in a statement issued on Monday, the Uyghur American Association called for a halt to speculation that MH370 was downed by Uighur militants, which "only aggravates the pain and suffering of the loved ones whose relatives were on board".
Among the missing passengers is a celebrated Uighur artist called Memetjan Abla.
On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang urged people to stay calm and stop spreading rumours about the missing plane.
"There are many different pieces of information at present, dazzling the eyes and making people not know what to do," he told reporters.