A chilling Google Maps image appearing to show a plane on the side of a mountain set two brothers on a quest to solve the mystery of the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.
Intrepid siblings Ian and Jackie Wilson turned amateur sleuths to investigate the whereabouts of the ill-fated plane in a mission that almost cost them their lives. It came after Ian believed he spotted the wreckage of the jet on Google Maps after using the app extensively in his job as a video producer.
He said the figure measured around the same size as a Boeing 777-200 with an apparent gap between the tail and fuselage.
READ MORE: Doomed MH370 jet was flown into a ‘black hole’ by a ‘skilled pilot,’ experts claim
Get the latest news on the Daily Star homepage.
While Google later said it shows a plane captured in mid flight, the image has remained on the tech giant’s map database since 2014 – the year the Malaysia Airlines plane went missing on a journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
However, the discovery of debris in the Indian Ocean investigators say is from MH370 further shoots down the theory.
But it didn’t stop the brothers carrying out their own investigations and heading out there to see for themselves – just to be sure. But their dangerous quest had to be abandoned after it almost cost them their lives.
It all started in 2016 when, during a bout of insomnia, tech expert, Ian opened his laptop and delved into the world of Google Maps and spotted a mysterious white outline in Cambodia.
Speaking to the Daily Star at the time, he said: “I was up all night.
“I was having real trouble sleeping, and when I eventually came across that plane it was really surreal, the hairs stood on the back of my neck.”
Ian was instantly convinced he’d cracked the MH370 mystery after inserting the same co-ordinates into Google Earth and switching to 3D ground view.
From this view a plane appears to be lying on the side of a mountain at a 45-degree angle, he claimed.
He then measured it using a tool on the app to find it around 70 metres, slightly longer than MH370’s Boeing 777-200 but with a mysterious gap between the tail and the body.
(Image: Daily Star)
It was located just 60 miles west of Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, an area that Malaysia Transport Ministry records show air traffic controllers had enquired about after the jet disappeared during a handover between Malaysia and Vietnam.
Air traffic controllers were even told the plane was, at one point, in Cambodian airspace before this was later judged to be incorrect.
But Ian held on to the theory that no information can be taken as certain unless the plane or black boxes are found.
Private investigator Andre Milne – founder of military tech company Unicorn Aerospace – initially hailed Wilson’s findings “significant” and “clearly a match.”
(Image: Getty Images)
However, he later said he believed the image is a plane caught mid-flight, an opinion also held by the Aviation Safety Network, who said the sighting does not fit the profile of any past crashes.
“From every angle possible, it’s laying up against the mountain, and you can view it at ground level,” Ian said.
“I can’t take talk of it being airborne seriously at all. As I say it’s a program I use all the time and I’ve seen many planes in flight.
“If I thought this could be one of them I wouldn’t have bothered arranging vaccinations and saving money to go and find it.”
(Image: Daily Star)
Ian was so convinced the plane’s remains are scattered deep in a jungle in Cambodia that he even travelled out there with his brother, Jackie in search of answers.
But they were forced to abandon a near-fatal hunt for debris after battling harsh conditions four miles north of the Phnom Aoral peak.
Speaking in 2019, Ian said: “It was so dangerous, every time we came to a river, where the waterfall would be crossing, it might only be 10 metres the other side but you’ve got no idea how deep it is, it’s about a foot deep and it goes up past your thighs.”
He added: “I hope to go again…but it’s just the money.”
In 2020, Jackie also vowed to revisit the site, telling his Instagram followers he would “definitely” return for “round two.”
But after Ian’s discovery, Chinese satellite firm Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co Ltd reportedly assembled 10 satellites to zoom in on the area pinpointed by Wilson but found no signs of the wreckage.
Some have since suggested the figure could be a plane wreckage, but not that of MH370 which disappeared with 239 passengers and crew on board.
Despite a four-year, $200million international search effort covering more than 120,000sqm, the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines plane has never been found, sparking the world’s biggest aviation mystery and multiple conspiracy theories.
Pieces of debris have since been fished out of the sea in Mauritius, Madagascar, Tanzania and South Africa.
For the latest news stories from Daily Star sign up for our newsletter.