rule out
マレーシア航空の謎はますます混迷の度を深めています。ハイジャック説は行方不明になった当初には誰も見向きもしなかった説ですが、この段階になってその信憑性が現実のものになりつつあります。
Flight 370 hijacking theories: Improbability or best hope?
In an incident where nothing can be ruled out, is it a surprise that some relatives of the passengers on missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 are hoping it is a hijacking?
To some it is a far-fetched conspiracy theory, and to others, it represents the only scenario that leaves open the possibility of seeing their loved ones alive.
That's how some of the families of the missing in Beijing feel.
Authorities have been unified in their preliminary conclusions that terrorism does not appear to be behind the plane's disappearance.
But no one can rule it out.
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/14/world/asia/malaysia-plane-hijack-theory/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
日本語でも「〜という可能性は排除できない、捨てきれない」などということがありますが、このrule out(”exclude, eliminate"--Webster)はまさにそれにピッタリとはまります。「〜という考え方、要因、説」さらには「〜という可能性」などとともに用いられます。(UG)