Ashton Forbes
Ashton Forbes
Ashton Forbes
Ashton Forbes is an American independent researcher, YouTuber, and self-described "lead investigator" into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370), best known for his analysis of thermal video footage he contends shows a Boeing 777 being enveloped by orbs and vanishing — which he attributes to classified U.S. zero-point energy and teleportation technology. Forbes describes himself as an IT database architect by profession. His claims have been covered extensively across the UAP podcast circuit and subjected to sustained criticism from skeptics including Professor Dave Explains and Stephen Campion of the Truthseekers channel.
Background and entry into MH370 investigation
Forbes describes a lifelong discomfort with flying and an interest in understanding aviation accidents. He was not previously involved in UAP research or conspiracy theory communities; he has stated that his worldview began shifting around 2016 and accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic while living in California.
Forbes became involved in the MH370 case after thermal-imagery videos — purportedly showing the aircraft and associated orbs — resurfaced on the r/UFOs subreddit in August 2023, though he notes the videos had been archived on the internet as far back as 2014, days after the plane's disappearance. He describes the early investigation as "the first ever community-led investigation" that was later censored on social media, at which point he says he "took the reins" and began treating it as a criminal investigation, applying the scientific method. He has organized the effort under the hashtag and informal organization "MH370 X."
MH370 investigation
Main articles:
MH370 UFO hypothesis
,
MH370 orb footage
, and
Teleportation of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370
Forbes's central claim is that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was not lost due to a crash or pilot suicide, but was deliberately intercepted and teleported by a classified U.S. military operation using zero-point energy-derived technology, and that the event was captured in leaked surveillance footage. He argues the flight suffered a lithium-ion battery cargo fire approximately 40 minutes after takeoff, that pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah attempted to divert to Penang International Airport but could not land, and that the aircraft was subsequently captured near the Nicobar Islands by three plasma-field orbs visible in the leaked Gorgon Stare footage — which he attributes to magnetohydrodynamic drones generating a wormhole transit.
Forbes identifies the leaked footage source as Edward C. Lynn, a U.S. Navy lieutenant commander imprisoned after leaking classified materials, and proposes the operation's motive was to intercept Freescale Semiconductor engineers before they could transfer U.S. defense-linked technology to Beijing. The detailed fire-event timeline, video forensics, proposed teleportation physics (connecting Ken Shoulders's exotic vacuum objects and Salvatore Pais's Navy patents to the orb mechanism), the Regicide Anon provenance chain, and the Diego Garcia destination hypothesis are documented in the respective subject articles.
Free energy advocacy
Forbes has expanded his platform to advocate for zero-point energy as a suppressed technology, arguing the same physics underlying the alleged orb propulsion could serve as a civilian clean energy source. He cites the Casimir effect and Ken Shoulders's exotic vacuum objects in support, and argues the National Science Foundation systematically starves lattice-confinement and plasma-sphere research of funding in favor of tokamak-based hot fusion projects.
Media presence
Forbes has appeared on a wide range of alternative media and podcast programs, including The Joe Rogan Experience (as a guest on a separate show hosted under the name Joe Rogan, not the mainstream JRE), The Higherside Chats, the UAP Unidentified Alien Podcast, Total Disclosure Podcast, The Resilient Show, and The Grimerica Show. Critics have also noted appearances on Tim Pool's and Jimmy Dore's programs. Forbes appeared on Tim Pool's The Culture War podcast in January 2024 (episode 45, alongside commentators Dave Rossi and Shane Cashman) for a 141-minute discussion of MH370 truth and broader UAP claims, and returned to the same program in 2025 to discuss a newly captured UFO — identified as a "BUGHA Sphere" — accompanied by what Forbes described as a chilling public warning.
Forbes also appeared in a dedicated episode of Corridor Crew — a YouTube channel run by professional visual effects artists — in which a VFX specialist analysed the MH370 thermal videos in Forbes's presence. On his own podcast channel (Ashton Forbes), Forbes collaborated regularly with Julian Dorey, including an episode (no. 168) in which Forbes dissected what he described as a fraudulent MH370 "whistleblower" who had been promoted by other researchers, and a follow-up episode (no. 169) examining a separate anonymous figure Forbes characterised as a genuine mysterious military leaker with possible knowledge of MH370. Jeff Wise — the aviation journalist and science writer who contributed to the Netflix documentary on MH370 — also appeared in a separate episode of Julian Dorey's podcast to discuss the case, positioning the mainstream investigative perspective alongside Forbes's claims.
Forbes operates Hard Truths, a podcast for which he serves as publisher. An episode of that programme featured Salvatore Pais — the U.S. Navy engineer whose patent applications for alleged exotic propulsion technologies attracted international controversy — discussing whether U.S. military technology may be a century ahead of publicly known capability, a thesis directly relevant to Forbes's core claim about the MH370 technology.
In a 2024 appearance on the podcast hosted by Matt Beall, Forbes was accompanied for part of the episode by former AATIP director Lue Elizondo, who commented briefly on the MH370 UAP hypothesis. Elizondo stated he had heard conflicting assessments from contacts — some calling it "complete nonsense" and others saying it "looks legit" — and declined to endorse either position: "I did not pursue it. I have no idea." Forbes interpreted Elizondo's reference to contacts who found the videos credible as an implicit acknowledgment that Hal Puthoff — Elizondo's own lead scientist — had validated the physics involved.
In March 2025, Forbes conducted a live-stream anniversary review of all evidence in the case — billing it as an update of his full evidence list compiled over eighteen months with MH370 X — in which he summarized the forensic arguments for video authenticity, the CBRS space-based infrared system, the cursor-in-window screen-recording proof, the Regicide Anon provenance timeline, and his identification of Edward C. Lynn as the leaker.
In February 2025, Forbes conducted a YouTube interview with John DeSouza, a former FBI agent who has publicly claimed to have investigated paranormal and UAP cases during his bureau career. The interview — titled "Ex-FBI Agent: 'The Deep State Controls Everything!' | UFOs, Plasma Weapons & MH370" — combined DeSouza's claims about deep-state control of government institutions with Forbes's plasma-weapons and MH370 teleportation thesis.
Forbes has acknowledged the attention and controversy his appearances generate, stating his intention has always been to place the MH370 investigation "into the zeitgeist" rather than to convince every individual viewer: "I've never really cared that much about convincing people. It's never really why I did any of this... I have a normal job that I still do. My only goal was to get this into the zeitgeist, which I think has been accomplished."
Criticism and controversy
The videos Forbes promotes have been declared fake by numerous visual effects and CGI analysts; critics including Professor Dave Explains (a YouTuber with a background in academic science) and Stephen Campion of the Truthseekers podcast contend that the footage is composed from stock assets with a static cloud background, and was originally posted on a YouTube channel known for other provably fabricated UFO videos. Campion additionally characterizes Forbes's claims about the physics of zero-point energy and ether as pseudoscience, noting that the Michelson–Morley experiment (1887) disproved the luminiferous ether hypothesis.
Mick West of the Metabunk skeptic community has also engaged with the videos, and Ross Coulthart, an investigative journalist covering UAP phenomena, publicly disputed Forbes's claim that the footage came from a satellite — a position Forbes acknowledged as partially correct while asserting the footage instead came from a Gorgon Stare airborne platform, not a satellite.
Forbes has been accused by critics of threatening online detractors, and members of MH370 victims' families have reportedly objected to his promotion of the teleportation hypothesis. In a live debate with Professor Dave, Forbes maintained: "The only thing you can possibly do on this world to convince anybody those videos are fake is find the person who made them," a position his interlocutors rejected as unfalsifiable.
Forbes characterizes organized opposition to his research as evidence of a coordinated disinformation campaign: "there was very organized attacks that were happening... a group of people in the UFO community were literally talking about separating me from my own investigation." He identifies Mick West and the Metabunk community as the origin of most of the debunking effort and describes the r/UFOs Reddit moderation as having been compromised by a "one-day-old stock public account called IC Slide" — which he interprets as an intelligence community slideshowing operation designed to manufacture consensus against the videos and shut down discussion.
AARO contact and whistleblower letter
Forbes disclosed in May 2024 that the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) had responded to a Freedom of Information inquiry he submitted regarding the MH370 videos, requesting a follow-up call — which he described as evidence the U.S. government had classified information about the footage. Forbes also holds a government contractor clearance, though he states he has no secret knowledge of UAP or reverse engineering beyond publicly available sources.
In January 2024, Forbes received an anonymous communication via YouTube titled "Diego Garcia Whistleblower: a Letter to Ashton Forbes," which claimed the aircraft was intercepted at 1856 UTC near Great Nicobar Island — thirteen minutes after Forbes's independently calculated time of 1843 UTC — and taken to Diego Garcia. The letter's full content and implications are documented in Diego Garcia and Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
Charlie Kirk assassination commentary
Following the Charlie Kirk assassination, Forbes produced a podcast episode responding to coverage of the event by Ian Carroll and Candace Owens, offering his own analytical perspective on the killing.