Of Course There Are EgyptAir Conspiracy Theories

On Thursday morning, a flight going from Paris to Cairo, EgyptAir flight MS804, disappeared from the radar with 66 passengers and staff aboard the flight. The flight was supposed to land in Cairo at 2:40 a.m. local time, but it never made it. The next day, EgyptAir confirmed to CNN that debris from the flight had been found. Amazingly, this plane is not the first to "go missing" and crash under mysterious circumstances in the last few years alone — Malaysia Airlines 370 famously disappeared in 2014, and to this day, nobody is quite sure how or why — but, of course, the online community has some EgyptAir conspiracy theories to explain what "really" happened with EgyptAir MS804. Update: Egyptian military officials found debris and personal belongings from the EgyptAir flight 804 in the Mediterranean Sea early Friday morning.

You can always count on the people of Reddit and other corners of the Internet to come up with baffling theories about much of what is going on in the world today, even recent and devastating tragedies. And the conspiracy theorists began chiming in pretty quickly after news broke of EgyptAir flight MS804 disappearing: One Reddit user suggested the flight went missing due to the route of the parallel 33 north, which starts at the Prime Meridian and heads east "through the following places with political shitshows," I quote. Those countries include Libya, Israel, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Aksai Chin, and Tibet.

Another ridiculous theory? That the missing plane was linked to the current 2016 elections in the United States and media coverage of certain candidates. Specifically, they suggested that the flight went missing soon after presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump alleged that former president Bill Clinton a "rapist" on Wednesday night. (Clinton has always denied the accusation, and has never been charged.) The Redditor went on to note that the flight went missing an hour after Trump made the comment, writing, "One hour later, Egyptair flight 'crashes,' and news channels talks about nothing else all morning."

Another Reddit user furthered this conspiracy theory by connecting it to another time the Clintons needed a cover-up — isn't every insane conspiracy somehow connected to the Clintons or the White House? — and referring to a missile attack against al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 1998. The individual wrote, "Yeah, he did the same thing in 1998 when the Lewinsky affair came to light ('wag the dog' missile attack) but at least that was (supposedly) against Al Qaeda." Right.

It's safe to assume that this missing flight has absolutely nothing to do with the American presidential race. That said, the reason behind its disappearance remains officially unknown, even though both presidential candidates linked the plane's disappearance to terrorism. Donald Trump took to Twitter to note, "Looks like yet another terrorist attack." On the other hand, Clinton told CNN on Thursday morning, "It does appear that it was an act of terrorism."

At this time, there is not enough evidence to determine whether the plane crashed due to terrorism or technical failures. The investigation is ongoing.