Attractions / 31.12.2023

Where do planes and ships disappear? The most mysterious plane crashes and disappearances in aviation history. Glenn Miller's plane disappears over the English Channel

Plane crashes, alas, are not uncommon - whether due to pilot error, weather conditions or a technical malfunction, a plane can crash. Usually the pilot manages to inform the air traffic controller about the problem or send an SOS signal, but in history there have been cases when communication with the aircraft was lost for some unknown reason. And sometimes no traces of the crash could be found later...

Link 19, missing from radar

On December 5, 1945, five American Avenger naval torpedo bombers, making up Flight 19, set off on a training flight. They had to fly over the Bermuda Triangle area. Flight commander Charles Taylor managed to report via radio that the aeronautical instruments had malfunctioned and all five aircraft were flying in the wrong direction. Then a storm began and radio contact was lost. Five planes also disappeared, as did the rescue seaplane sent to search for them.

The pilot of the Star Ariel plane showed no signs of concern, but never made it to its destination

In 1949, an Avro Tudor Mark IV passenger plane, known as the Star Ariel, flew from Kindley Field in Bermuda to Kingston in Jamaica. There were seven crew members and 13 passengers on board, and the weather that day was beautiful. Aircraft captain John McPee contacted Kingston Airport twice, and both of his messages were completely normal, that is, there was nothing to indicate problems. However, the plane never reached Kingston and dozens of ships and planes were sent to search for it. But they couldn't find anything.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 with 239 people on board

The plane was making an international flight from Malaysia to China on March 8, 2014. About an hour after takeoff, he contacted air traffic control - at that moment the plane was flying over the South China Sea. He never made contact again, and soon disappeared from the radar screens. But it was detected by a military radar - and, apparently, the plane began to deviate from the planned course. As a result, he disappeared from this radar too. 12 crew members and 227 passengers are presumed dead in the accident, but the actual cause of the accident is unknown.

Pan Am Flight 7 - Plane debris and bodies of carbon monoxide poisoned passengers found in the ocean

In 1957, Pan Am Flight 7 was world famous for its international and extremely luxurious travel. On one of these flights - from California to Hawaii - the Boeing Stratocruiser disappeared without a trace. Search teams were immediately created and for five days they worked tirelessly. Finally, the crash site was found. For some reason it happened at a considerable distance from the plotted course. In addition, when an autopsy was performed on the bodies found, it turned out that the people were poisoned by carbon monoxide. There were speculations that the disaster was an insurance fraud.

Star Dust and his latest mysterious message

British South American Airways' Star Dust transport plane took off from Buenos Aires on August 2, 1947 at 1:46 p.m. The flight proceeded without complications and at 17:41 the airport dispatcher in Santiago received a message (transmitted in Morse code) that the plane would arrive at 17:45. There was only one oddity in this message: the last word STENDEC, which no one understood or could decipher. The plane did not land at the airport at the designated time, and a multi-day search did not yield any results. Only in 1998 its fragments were found in the Argentine Andes. Apparently, he started declining too early.

The mysterious disappearance of a BK7 Stratojet with nuclear cargo on board

In 1956, a B47 Stratojet bomber disappeared without a trace while flying over the Mediterranean Sea. On board were three US Air Force officers and two nuclear bombs. Nobody knows what exactly happened. In total, throughout US history, the United States has lost 11 nuclear weapons in approximately this manner.

Paul Redfern's plane has gone missing - there are reports of a certain "white" living in the jungle

Paul Redfern was an American musician and pilot. During the summer of 1927, Redfern decided to attempt to fly from Brunswick in Georgia to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. For that time, the flight distance was enormous and no one had ever overcome such a distance in a solo flight. A few hours after takeoff, Redfern's plane was spotted by a Norwegian cargo ship. Redfern got in touch with the Norwegians and asked how far it was to the nearest land. Redfern's plane was later seen by a fisherman off the coast of Venezuela. However, Redfern did not make it to Rio de Janeiro: he disappeared somewhere along the way. Countless search parties were organized in an attempt to locate the plane's wreckage, but Redfern was never found. However, people appeared who claimed to have seen a white man resembling Redfern in appearance, who lived in the jungle with a local tribe.

Glenn Miller's plane disappears over the English Channel

Alton Glenn Miller is an American trombonist and leader of one of the best swing orchestras of the late 30s and early 40s. After the United States entered the war, Glenn Miller decided to enlist as a volunteer in the navy, but his application was rejected because he was already beyond conscription age. Then he proposed creating an army orchestra to raise the morale of the soldiers - and this proposal was accepted. From 1942 to 1944, Glenn Miller led the Army Band and gave concerts at Allied military bases. On December 15, 1944, Miller flew to already liberated Paris to prepare a Christmas concert there. He was flying in a small single-engine plane, and there was thick fog in the air. Unfortunately, Glenn Miller's plane never made it to France, getting lost somewhere over the English Channel. The crash site could not be found.

Amelia Earhart's plane goes missing

Amelia Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean and set many other aviation records. In 1936, Earhart began planning a flight around the world, and in 1937, she and her crew took off from Auckland. On June 2, 1937, Earhart's plane disappeared over the Pacific Ocean. They immediately started looking for her. In fact, this search was the first such large-scale and expensive maritime search in US history. When the official search was abandoned, Earhart's husband financed his own search - but it also yielded no results.

Boeing 727-223 was hijacked by two men - and was never seen again

In 2003, a Boeing 727-223 was hijacked at Quatro de Fevereiro airport in Angola. According to the official version, two men entered it. One of them was named Ben Charles Padilla and he was an American pilot and flight engineer, and the second was John Mikel Mutantu and he was a mechanic from the Republic of the Congo. Both specialists worked at the airport, preparing the planes for takeoff. When the Boeing suddenly took off, airport management tried to contact it, but these attempts were unsuccessful. In addition, the tracking transponders were turned off, so the aircraft could not be tracked. He headed towards the Atlantic Ocean, and what happened next - history is silent.

Flight TAM-52 suddenly disappeared from radar

In 1974, a Transporte Aereo Militar (TAM) Douglas DC-4 mysteriously disappeared. TAM-52 was a civilian Bolivian Air Force flight en route from Santa Rosa to La Paz. It was an unscheduled passenger flight and there were 21 other people on board the plane, in addition to three crew members. The plane suddenly disappeared from radar and the crash site could not be found.

Missing Boeing 707-323C carrying paintings worth more than a million dollars

On January 30, 1979, a Varig Boeing 707-323C disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while on a cargo flight. It was an international flight from Japan to Rio de Janeiro with a stop in Los Angeles. On board were six crew members and expensive cargo: 153 paintings by the famous Japanese-Brazilian artist Manabu Mabe, the value of which was estimated at $1,240,000. Literally half an hour after takeoff, contact with the aircraft was lost. This incident is considered one of the most mysterious cases in the history of aviation.

Star Tiger plane disappears en route to Bermuda
Star Tiger was an Avro Tudor IV passenger aircraft that disappeared while flying from Santa Maria (Azores) to Bermuda in 1948. The plane was flown by Captain Brian McMillan, the weather conditions that day were very unfavorable - strong wind and rain. We had already had to wait one day in Santa Maria, and time was running out, so the captain decided to fly. A little earlier, another plane took off, flown by Frank Griffin, and Griffin later said that he and McMillan kept in touch. Both planes deviated slightly from the route, but then leveled off. As a result, Griffin landed his plane, and Star Tiger disappeared without a trace - without a single sound or SOS signal. The wreckage was never found.

Disappearance of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501

In 1950, Northwest Orient Airlines flew Res 2501 from New York to Seattle. There were three crew members and 55 passengers on board. This happened in the Lake Michigan area: the plane first requested permission to descend to 2,500 feet, and then disappeared from radar. Needless to say, they later looked for it in Lake Michigan almost with a magnifying glass, but did not find a single piece of debris.

Before disappearing, the Skyways passenger plane sent an SOS message that ended abruptly

In 1953, a Skyways passenger plane flew from the UK to Jamaica. There were six crew members and 33 passengers on board, including military personnel and their families. Over the North Atlantic, he suddenly disappeared, managing to send only an abruptly interrupted message for help. Search operations did not yield any results. The result of the investigation was urgent recommendations for more thorough maintenance of aircraft, as well as ensuring the necessary rest for the crew.

Disappearance of C-124 in the Atlantic Ocean

The plane carrying a group of US military personnel to Mildenhall airbase in the UK caught fire over the Atlantic Ocean about 800 kilometers off the coast of Ireland. Despite the successful splashdown and evacuation of passengers and crew into life rafts, help that arrived 19 hours later found almost no traces of people or the plane - only fragments of fuel tanks and the briefcase of one of the officers, Lawrence Rafferty.

Many hastened to explain the mysterious disappearance of the almost escaped military personnel by the machinations of the Soviet Union: at the dawn of the emerging Cold War, many passengers on the ill-fated flight could become a valuable source of information. However, it is unlikely that the kidnapping of so many people could have been hidden even behind the Iron Curtain.

The disappearance of Roald Amundsen and the crew of Latham 47

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen made a real revolution in polar travel: he was the first to reach the South Pole, traveled the North-West Sea Route, and repeatedly traveled around the Arctic. Like most pioneers, he was not destined to die in his bed: Amundsen went missing while trying to find the airship Italia, which had crashed in the waters of the Arctic Ocean. Along with him, five other crew members of the Latham-47 flying boat, provided for the expedition by the French government, died. Despite numerous search operations, the exact location of the plane's crash was never established. Only one of the floats and a fuel tank, washed up on the coast of Norway shortly after the disappearance of the researcher, were reliably identified.

An airplane that can take off and land on the surface of water. Another name is seaplane.

Disappearance of Fokker F27 in the Himalayas

A Fokker F27 turboprop regional aircraft, operating a domestic flight from Gilgit to Islamabad for Pakistan International, disappeared near Nanga Parbat in August 1989. Rescue expeditions were unable to find traces of the missing flight due to the inaccessibility of the supposed crash site: high mountain areas are as reluctant to part with their secrets as the depths of the world's oceans.

Disappearance of a flight of Avenger torpedo bombers and a Martin Mariner seaplane

The mysterious death of a flight of five modern Avenger torpedo bombers in the sky over the coast of Florida, around which many copies were broken by journalists and writers, actually marked the beginning of the legend of the Bermuda Triangle - a mystical area in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the United States, in which aircraft regularly disappear allegedly for supernatural reasons. and sea vessels. The facts, however, do not provide much room for imagination: the torpedo bomber flight was under the control of not very experienced cadets. While performing a training flight from the Fort Lauderdale base, they lost orientation in space and deviated significantly from the course.

Most likely, after the fuel was used up, the crews had to land the planes on the water. The rescue operation, however, was unable to find any trace of them. During the search for the missing member, the Martin Mariner flying boat was also lost without a trace. According to the statements of the crew members of the ship in that area, who saw a bright flash, this plane most likely exploded in the air - but this version received no other confirmation.

Disappearance of Boeing 707 off the coast of Japan

The disappearance of a Boeing 707 cargo plane operated by the Brazilian airline Varig is called one of the most mysterious cases in the history of modern civil aviation. The airliner, which, in addition to industrial cargo, was carrying a collection of paintings by the Brazilian artist Manabu Mabe, disappeared almost immediately after taking off from Tokyo airport: the last communication session took place 20 minutes after takeoff.

After eight days of large-scale searches involving the American fleet, no traces of the crash were found, and the location of the plane’s death could not be determined. The disappearance has given rise to a lot of conspiracy theories, but the most plausible version seems to be the one about the slow depressurization of the cabin. It is believed that because of it, the crew members lost consciousness, and the liner continued to move on autopilot and eventually crashed far from the search site - in the North Pacific Ocean or in Alaska.

Disappearance of Lockheed L-1049 over the Pacific Ocean

A large passenger aircraft with piston engines, the Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation was often used for long flights in the 60s due to its comfortable size and powerful engines. In 1962, one of these aircraft was chartered by the Military Air Transport Service to transport a group of American military personnel from San Francisco to Saigon in transit through the Pacific Islands.

Having taken off safely, the airliner made an intermediate landing at the airport of the island of Guam, from where, after refueling, it took off towards the Philippines. About halfway between Guam and the Philippines, communication with the plane was lost, and after several unsuccessful attempts to restore it, it was decided to begin search operations. The large-scale operation involved more than a thousand people and several dozen ships and aircraft, but it did not lead to success.

Later, during the investigation, it turned out that the crew of the Lenzen tanker, which was passing at that time approximately along the course of the missing plane, observed a bright flash in the sky, which could have been the result of an explosion of the liner, but no further evidence could be found, and the disappearance of 107 people remained unexplained.

Disappearance of Boeing C-97 over the Pacific Ocean

The Boeing C-97 military transport aircraft, developed at the end of World War II on the basis of the B-29 and B-50 strategic bombers, was a fairly reliable machine: powerful engines and fuel reserves made it possible to stay in the air for 9–10 hours, and its survivability The aircraft was provided with a design inherited from military vehicles. The US Army often used this transporter to transport military personnel in the Pacific region: the flight on March 22, 1957 was no exception - the liner was supposed to transport a group of military personnel from Wake Atoll to Tokyo.

Communication with the plane was interrupted when it was approximately 200 kilometers from the destination airport; the search operation did not give clear results. The cause of the plane's death is considered to be severe storms and bad weather: the height of the waves in the area of the alleged disaster reached 10 meters.

Disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777

The recent case of the disappearance of a large passenger plane is the largest in terms of the number of victims and at the same time the most mysterious. The Boeing 777, which had previously had no major incidents with human casualties, took off from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, but already over the Gulf of Thailand stopped responding to dispatchers’ requests. Soon the plane disappeared from radar screens, and the trajectory of its movement was possible to restore only with the help of information about the operation of the engines transmitted via satellites - thus it was possible to understand that the airliner was in the air for another seven hours after disappearing from the radar.

Large-scale searches yielded no results; the only evidence of the death of the liner is pieces of hull washed by the current to the coast of Reunion Island and East African countries. Some details of what happened - the manual shutdown of transponders (route tracking system) and a sharp change in course after the last contact with dispatchers (the airliner began moving west) - indicate the decisive role of the human factor in the incident, but the fate of the airliner is unlikely to ever be clarified.

The disappearance of Glenn Miller

Glenn Miller is a famous American jazz musician and composer, founder of the world famous orchestra.

Glenn Miller was one of those cultural figures who actively supported the US Army in World War II. With his orchestra, he performed among American soldiers stationed in Great Britain, and after the Allied invasion of Normandy and the liberation of Paris, the band had to be relocated to the continent. Glenn Miller flew to the French capital on December 15, 1944 in a lightweight single-engine Norseman C64 to prepare conditions for the performance, but could not overcome the English Channel.

The plane with the musician disappeared without a trace over the strait, and searches could not shed light on his fate. The most reliable version of Miller's death appeared almost 50 years later and almost by accident: data about Miller's flight was compared with information about the operations of the British Air Force in the area, and it turned out that during the Norseman C64 flight over the strait, a formation of heavy bombers dropped their bomb load before returning to aerodrome. One of the crew members saw the small plane go into a dive as bombs exploded over the water.

Have you ever heard about mysterious cases during which passengers on planes and ships went missing? In the best case, people were found within a few days, and in the worst, news about their fate never appeared again. No remains, no debris...
Sometimes a long-awaited vacation seems like a real fairy tale, from which you really don’t want to return home and to work, but be careful what you wish for, because sometimes they turn into real disasters. Here is a list of the 10 most mysterious cases of mass disappearance of people.

10. Amelia Earhart's plane

Our first paragraph is dedicated to one of the most notorious disappearance cases in the history of American aviation. In 1937, brave Amelia Earhart set out to do something unimaginable - fly around the globe in her Lockheed Electra, starting the journey from sunny Florida and planning to follow the equator. The girl went on such a long and dangerous journey with her partner, Fred Noonan. The ship disappeared while flying somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. All searches for the plane were unsuccessful, which gave rise to many different theories about what exactly happened to the brave couple of pilots.
In 2017, a version emerged that Amelia and Fred actually survived, but were captured by the Japanese military in the Marshall Islands. This assumption appeared thanks to an old photograph taken in 1937. The photograph showed a barge towing an unidentified aircraft. The frame also included a man of European appearance, reminiscent of Fred, and someone’s female figure from the back. This version has not been confirmed in any way, but the most amazing thing is that even almost 80 years later, people are still trying to find the answer to the question of the fate of the travelers who disappeared so long ago and completely without a trace.

9. The ship "Madagascar"

In 1853, "Madagascar" set off on its next voyage on the route Melbourne - London. It was an ordinary ship carrying passengers and cargo. The ship disappeared without a trace, was never seen again, and not even the wreckage was found! Like any other missing ship, the Madagascar also attracted public attention. There are many theories about what exactly happened to this ship, but there is something special in this story - the events that occurred right before the voyage departed from the Australian port are of interest.
Before the ship disappeared, 110 passengers boarded the ship and loaded containers of rice and wool. However, the most valuable cargo turned out to be as much as 2 tons of gold. Three passengers were arrested just before departure, an incident that led experts to believe there may have been more criminals on board the ship than police realized. Perhaps, at sea, the attackers decided to rob the Madagascar and killed all the passengers so as not to leave witnesses. However, this does not explain why investigators were never able to find the ship itself.

8. Airplane "Stardust"

In 1947, British South American Airways' Stardust took off on schedule and took off through the famous Argentine Andes. A few minutes before disappearing from radar, the pilot of the aircraft sent a strange message encrypted in Morse code. The message read: "STENDEC". The disappearance of the plane and the mysterious code have greatly puzzled experts. Rumors even spread among the people about abduction by aliens. After a full 53 years, the mystery of the missing Stardust flight was finally solved.
In 2000, climbers discovered the remains of a plane and the bodies of several passengers on a remote peak in the frozen Andes at an altitude of almost 6,565 meters. Investigators believe that the plane crash could have triggered a powerful avalanche that covered the body of the aircraft and hid the traces of the remaining victims, which is why they were never found. As for the mysterious word STENDEC, the most likely version is considered to be an error in the typing of the STR DEC code, meaning a common abbreviation for the phrase “starting descent.”

7. Steam yacht “SY Aurora”

The history of the ship "SY Aurora" clearly demonstrates the power of such ships, but its ending still turned out to be quite tragic. A steam yacht is generally considered to be a sailboat with an additional primary or secondary steam engine. This yacht was originally built for whaling, but later it began to be used for scientific trips to Antarctica. There were a total of 5 such expeditions, and each time the ship proved itself to be a reliable vehicle, capable of withstanding the harshest weather and successfully protecting crew members from northern frosts. Nothing could break his power.
In 1917, the SY Aurora disappeared while en route to the shores of Chile. The ship was carrying coal to South America, but it never managed to complete its mission and deliver the cargo to its destination. Historians believe that the yacht could have become a casualty of the First World War. The wreckage of the ship was never found, so experts can only guess about the true reasons for the disappearance of the ship.

6. Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571

Unlike several previous stories, this plane did not just crash and disappear into oblivion... Several crew members survived and went through a real nightmare until they were found by rescuers. In 1972, Flight 571 was en route from Argentina to Chile with 40 passengers and 5 crew members on board. The charter was supposed to bring a team of athletes, their relatives and sponsors to the city of Santiago. The aircraft disappeared from radar somewhere in the Argentine Andes. During the crash, 12 passengers died immediately, and the rest had to fight for survival for another 72 days in the harshest conditions, which without special equipment are practically incompatible with life. Although it would be more accurate to say that 72 days turned out to be too long for most of them...
It is impossible to imagine how scared all these people were. In the first days of the disaster, another 5 people died from cold and severe injuries. One of the following days, a powerful avalanche covered the group of survivors, killing another 8 people. The freezing passengers had a faulty radio with them. It made it possible to listen to rescuers' conversations, but could not transmit messages from victims. So the people who survived the plane crash learned that their search had been stopped, and the victims themselves were declared dead in absentia. This deprived them of almost their last hope, although the thirst for life is almost impossible to kill. Desperate and exhausted athletes and pilots were forced to eat the frozen bodies of their friends, and in the end, out of 45 people, only 16 survived. For 2 and a half months, these people were in a real ice hell!

5. USS Capelin

This time we will not be talking about an airplane or a ship, but about a submarine. The submarine USS Capelin was in service with the American Army during World War II. On its first military voyage, the submarine sank a Japanese cargo ship, after which it was sent to the Australian shores for repairs and maintenance before its second mission. On November 17, 1943, the submarine set off on its second mission and has not been seen since.
As far as experts know, the ship’s route ran through a real sea minefield, so the most likely version is associated with the explosion of a submarine. However, the wreckage of the USS Capelin was never found, so the version with mines will remain just a guess. When the warship set off on its final mission, there were 76 crew members on board, whose fate their families never learned anything about.

4. Flying Tiger Line Flight 739

In 1963, Flight 739 was a Lockheed Constellation passenger aircraft. There were 96 passengers and 11 crew members on board, all of whom were heading to the Philippines. Flying Tiger Line was the first American cargo and passenger airline to operate scheduled flights. After 2 hours of flight, communication with the pilots of the ship was interrupted, and nothing more was heard from them. Probably, the crew did not have time to transmit any message, because the incident was too sudden, and the pilots simply did not have time to send a distress signal.
A tanker from an American oil corporation was sailing in the same area that day. The crew of this ship claimed that their members saw a flash in the sky, and they immediately decided that it was an explosion. According to one theory, there was sabotage on board the missing plane, or they tried to hijack it, which led to the most tragic consequences. However, the plane's wreckage was never found, leaving investigators left to wonder what really happened to Flying Tiger Line Flight 739.

3. The ship "SS Arctic"

In 1854, the American ship SS Arctic collided with a French steamship. After the strike, both ships remained afloat, but the incident still ended rather sadly. Almost 350 people died during this accident, and for some reason only men survived on board the American ship, while all the women and children died during the collision. In addition, the stricken SS Arctic continued on its way to shore, but never made it.
As it turned out, the American ship was still too damaged to continue safely, and it was because of this that it sank on the way to land. A monument was subsequently erected in Brooklyn in honor of those killed that day.

2. Malaysian Airlines Flight 370

In 2014, a Malaysian Airlines plane took off for Beijing with 239 people on board. An hour after takeoff, contact with this aircraft was lost, but no distress signal had been received before. Before Flight 370 disappeared, radar showed that the plane had lost its course - for some reason it was heading west instead of northeast.
After the disappearance of the airliner, numerous rescue teams were sent to search for it, which carefully combed the suspected crash site in the Indian Ocean. Only a small fragment was found. The search was also resumed in 2018, but again to no avail, despite all the efforts and resources expended. What exactly happened with this flight is still a big mystery.

1. SS Waratah

Since November 2008, the SS Waratah began operating regular voyages from England to Australia via South Africa. The ship could carry up to 700 passengers and had hundreds of first-class cabins. In July 2009, on the way back to Europe, the liner disappeared without a trace and was never seen again.
The last port the ship was in was Durban, South Africa. After this stop, the ship was supposed to sail to Cape Town, but it never appeared there. Experts have determined that the weather turned very bad during the voyage from Durban to Cape Town, and they believe that it was a storm that caused the supposed sinking and mysterious disappearance of the SS Waratah.

Air transport today is the fastest of all existing ones, allowing you to cover distances and travel at supersonic speeds of up to 1000 km/h, depending on the aircraft model. More than seventy years have passed since airplanes finally replaced airships, and the service offered has evolved markedly. The passenger can travel with the same comfort as, for example, in a train cabin, without feeling any restrictions at all, which was considered fantastic at the dawn of civil aviation. Unfortunately, the situation with security is not so good.

Despite modern computer technologies used in management and constant control by the dispatcher, aircraft accidents occur quite often, second only to road transport. Every year, at least two aircraft crash, resulting in numerous casualties, and the only consolation for relatives is the insurance paid.

What do we usually hear from representatives of the government commission created each time to investigate the crash? They often talk about the so-called human factor, implying that the cause is some actions of the maintenance personnel or crew that are beyond their control. The emphasis is always on the fact that modern aviation is absolutely safe thanks to computer control systems, but is this true?

Many people still ask the question: “Why aren’t passengers provided with parachutes in case of an accident?” Everyone involved in this responds that it is unrealistic to do this and it is easier to pay increased attention to preparing the ship for the voyage, but for some reason the crew themselves are always provided with rescue equipment. Of course, few people engage in parachuting, and in the event of a disaster, not everyone will survive, even of those who managed to leave the plane, but on the other hand, this is a greater chance of survival than simply being burned by an explosion.

If you compare the statistics on plane crashes half a century ago and now, you can see that the frequency has increased significantly. If we take the 30s of the last century, then there were practically no disasters. The scale of modern airliners has led to the fact that their design has become significantly more complicated, and a mass of electronic systems have appeared for automatic control of flight parameters. Current passenger aircraft, in fact, are controlled only using a computer and are switched to manual mode only in the most urgent cases, since such control carries a lot of risks. The principle is that the more complex it is, the more unreliably it always works without fail, and since for an air carrier an untainted brand is the most valuable, the abstract human factor is most advantageous as the culprit.

When a disaster occurs, then everything is even more or less clear, and even if the culprit is not found, they will definitely appoint someone, because someone has to answer. But what to do with those cases when the plane disappears? The strange scenario is repeated in the same details, differing from other cases only in the duration of the time intervals. The plane goes into the sky and after some time, first communication with the crew disappears, and then the display of the ship’s trajectory on the controllers’ radars stops.

Subsequent searches for the missing liner sometimes turn into a terrible discovery, but there are also many cases when traces of the disaster cannot be found. Even a crashed plane still sends radio signals, including while underwater. But it’s as if someone specially turns off all systems and any detection of the aircraft using tracking becomes impossible. It should be noted that modern airliners are equipped with several types of tracking that duplicate each other. During the flight, information about the progress of the flight is constantly sent via satellite communication to the dispatcher's server, so a sudden break in all contacts at once looks more than strange.

One such example is the flight Kuala Lumpur - Beijing, operated by a Malaysian Boeing 777 in March 2014. A few hours after departure, communication with the ship was lost in the territorial waters of Vietnam. The widespread and official version is that the plane fell into the sea, but no remains were found after the most thorough examination of the waters and surrounding areas. The plane was equipped with a high-tech tracking system and in an instant everything went completely offline. Although to date all passengers and crew have been officially declared dead, no one has found evidence of this.

What is kept silent is the fact that, like similar cases, this one also occurred over the sea. Unofficial sources increasingly mention the version of the involvement of aliens. Of course, official authorities completely deny this possibility, although there is more and more evidence of outside interference in the operation of the airliner. Some eyewitnesses living near the coast where the missing Boeing was last seen reported that increased UFO activity had been recorded the day before. Strange luminous objects, according to them, moved through the air, violating all known laws of aerodynamics, either hovering in the air or making sharp turns.

More mundane versions are some kind of military tests, otherwise how can we explain the increased interest of the navy in searching for the remains of the aircraft? UFOs or military are versions that always run parallel to each other, since one does not at all exclude the other. In any case, it is impossible to achieve any clarification, and all material found is immediately classified. The interest of UFOs in terrestrial aircraft began to be recorded in the mid-80s of the last century. Since that time, many pilots admitted in informal conversations that they had seen strange flying objects more than once in the air. Both pilots of civil air transport and combat vehicles encountered such an incomprehensible phenomenon. The most interesting thing is that there are no testimonies from pilots working in the air cargo segment; apparently the aliens are of little interest in containers and goods.

Strange disappearances of planes, if they did not occur due to a natural disaster, are always associated with anomalous zones of the Earth, one of these is the Bermuda Triangle. All pilots are careful not to cross this territory, since it is common knowledge that no one has ever returned from there. After entering the triangle, radio communication is blocked, and all devices fail.

In December 1945, an Avenger squadron consisting of five aircraft disappeared in this area. As always in such cases, the flight took place in normal weather conditions. An hour and a half later, the pilots began to report strange behavior of the instruments and the inability to determine their coordinates. Despite the dispatcher's best efforts, he was unable to redirect the pilots back to base, and radio communications soon ceased. The rescue plane sent after also stopped communicating, and no traces of the crash were found. Since this incident took place immediately after the war and already at a time when relations between the former allies were strained, the Soviet military was the first to come under suspicion, and the fact of the disappearance was immediately classified.

It should be noted that even a flight in bad weather and turbulence in the vicinity of Bermuda usually ends well, and it cannot be otherwise, since many vacationers come to the resorts located here. Once a pilot or navigator gets into a triangle in clear weather, the consequences are similar to those described above. Oddly enough, the bad reputation of this area is always taught as fiction, as well as versions involving aliens. They constantly try to convince the average person that fantasy and the excited state that arises during experiences are to blame for everything.

Of course, relatives of disappeared people find themselves in a much worse situation than those who were at least able to bury their loved ones. The feeling of uncertainty and hopelessness can, of course, play tricks on the human consciousness, but when there is a constant feeling of understatement, you can believe any assumptions.

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Today, many people prefer to get to this or that city or country by plane, because it is very convenient and fast. Modern airliners have supersonic speed, they are comfortable and spacious. Moreover, air ticket prices are getting cheaper every year. The comfort in them is comparable to traveling in a train compartment. However, in terms of safety, technological progress has not achieved much. Unfortunately, on the contrary, modern airliners crash much more often than older models. This is not always due to the human factor or weather conditions. Aircraft accidents often occur due to aircraft malfunctions. Before departure, they are not checked well enough, which leads to tragedy.

History knows a lot of sad cases when planes went missing. Some were found, but others were not. Even aircraft tracking technology did not help find some of the missing aircraft. If a plane disappears from radar, it is almost impossible to find it. Alas, there have been many such lost airliners throughout the history of aviation. Let's look at some of them.

Stories of famous planes that went missing:

A plane disappeared secretly in 1937. Lockheed Electra. It belonged to a writer from the United States of America, Amelia Earhart. That summer she planned to take it around the world. During the flight, the airliner was spotted near the Pacific Ocean. Then he suddenly disappeared from view, after which he was never found. It is still unclear whether he fell into the Pacific Ocean or not, or whether the plane crash happened far from the water. In general, neither the remains nor the aircraft were ever found.
1943 is the year when the passenger airliner DC-3 was fired upon by a Luftwaffe interceptor, after which no one could find him. It is noteworthy that the famous actor Leslie Howard was on board this plane.
In 1944, a plane disappeared without a trace over the English Channel. UC-64, in which American musician Glenn Miller was flying. Presumably, the liner fell into the British Channel.
In Argentina in 1947, a passenger airliner StarDust, flying from Buenos Aires, went missing. The search for him lasted until 2000, when experts concluded that he collided with the ground in controlled flight. The remains were never found.
1951 - military transport aircraft Douglas C-124A disappeared near Ireland. There is information that despite the fire on board, he managed to land successfully, however, when rescuers arrived, he disappeared without a trace. No one was able to figure out where the airliner could have gone.
In 1952, a plane went missing C-124 Globemaster, whose crew consisted of 52 people. 60 years later, its fragments were found in the ice. Presumably, he had an accident due to poor visibility.
In 1962, another plane went missing - FlyingTigerFlight. The best search teams searched for this liner, but, alas, no remains or wreckage were found. The circumstances of this tragedy have not yet been clarified, since the weather was clear at that time, the plane was prepared for departure very carefully, and it was flown by an experienced pilot.
In 1965, the plane C-119 disappeared in the Bahamas under unclear circumstances. Even the approximate place where he could have disappeared has not been established. Interestingly, some people associate this case with alien abduction.
In 1972, an airliner disappeared in Chile while flying from Santiago. There is information that he collided with a rock, as a result of which half of the people on board died.
1978 - the airliner disappeared Cessna 182L, which was flown by a 20-year-old pilot.

The missing planes don't end there. In more modern times, there have also been incidents involving aircraft disappearing without a trace. It’s impossible not to remember these liners:

1979 - half an hour before departure, a Boeing 707-323C freight plane suddenly disappeared along with 6 crew members. Extensive searches were carried out but did not yield any results. It is still unclear where this aircraft could have gone.
1989 - a Fokker F27 regional plane, which was operating a domestic flight, disappeared without a trace. Even the most experienced search expeditions could not find him. There are several versions of what happened and even unidentified remains, but there is still no official confirmation that this is a Fokker F27.
1996 - the Learjet 35A business class airliner disappeared in America due to difficult weather conditions. He tried to sit up several times, but then suddenly disappeared and was never seen again. The crew consisted of only two people. They searched for this flying machine for about three years, but the search brought no results.

Many people have heard of the incidents called the “Bermuda Triangle”. Let's take a closer look.

Missing planes in the Bermuda Triangle

The excitement around the ill-fated Bermuda Triangle began in 1945. Then in December 5 bombers disappeared in the Atlantic area. In addition, under unclear circumstances, a rescue plane disappeared, which went in search of military vehicles. Then several training aircraft took off from the American airfield in order to carry out training, check flightability, etc. Their flight was supposed to last for three hours. The crew consisted of a pilot, navigator and radio operator. The training took place as usual, no emergency situations occurred until the pilot noticed that visibility had deteriorated significantly and the plane had gone off course. He was constantly in touch, but at some point it was cut off and no one else saw these planes. The search did not yield any results, despite the fact that the best rescue teams were involved. Moreover, the flying boat that was the first to go to help was also not found.

It is noteworthy that during the flight the pilot pointed out to the dispatchers places that were not even nearby in that area. It is not at all clear how he could have seen them, and why the remains of the planes were not found. There are many versions regarding this disaster. Some associate it with alien abduction, while others, on the contrary, refute this version in every possible way. Skeptics believed that the incident was related to weather conditions, which were unexpected in that area. There were also jet airliners flying there, which often cause plane crashes to this day. As we can see, the opinions are completely different.

Many newspapers, books, and even films were made about this incident. The public was shocked after this news. Many could not understand how experienced pilots on aircraft that had endured the most difficult military tests could disappear without a trace while performing a training flight. In addition, the area in which they were located was painfully familiar to them, since they had flown over it many times during World War II. In general, the story of the Bermuda Triangle is very mysterious and incomprehensible. There are still no exact versions of what happened, only assumptions. It is naive to associate them with UFO, since the reasons could have been various unforeseen circumstances. Flying on an airplane is always a big risk. Any emergency situations can happen in the air, so only big dreamers can believe that lost ships are somehow connected with aliens.

One of the most “convincing” versions of the disappearance of planes

Modern missing planes that were never found

The 21st century, unfortunately, is also rich in tragedies, as a result of which planes went missing. Here are the most famous:

In 2007, a single-engine plane crashed in the United States, resulting in the disappearance of the famous pilot who was flying it. The pilot had a lot of successful flights under his belt, so what happened shocked all of America. The search lasted a very long time. Only in 2008 were the wreckage of a similar aircraft found. It was never possible to prove exactly that it was Belanka Super Decathlon.
In May 2009, a new mysterious incident occurred. The airliner A330 was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. During the flight, the pilots reported to dispatchers about poor visibility, after which contact with him was lost forever. Later, the remains of a similar airliner were found, but again, it was not possible to prove that it was an A330. No one could survive that disaster.
2012 is a disaster in the Russian Federation. An An-2 aircraft with 12 passengers on board took off without permission in an unspecified direction. The reasons for this behavior of pilots have not yet been clarified. The plane got lost along the way and was never seen again.

Many people know the story of a Boeing 737 plane that was flying from Greece and suddenly disappeared from sight. Let's find out in more detail what kind of disaster it was and what the outcome of those events was.

Where do planes and ships disappear? The most mysterious plane crashes and disappearances in aviation history. Glenn Miller's plane disappears over the English Channel