Growing up in the shadows of your sibling
Commercial aviation accidents are rare. In fact, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), more than 30 million global passenger airline flights take off and land annually without any incident. However, they can happen. And while safety investigators are often able to determine causes of airplane crashes, their task becomes more difficult when flights failed to arrive to their destinations and when they have seem to have vanished into thin air.
Click on for examples of aircraft that mysteriously disappeared.
Click on for examples of aircraft that mysteriously disappeared.
On 22 July 2016, an Antonov An-32 twin-engine aircraft of the Indian Air Force disappeared with 29 people on board, while flying over the Bay of Bengal. The aircraft was en route from the Tambaram Air Force Station to Port Blair.
No trace of the aircraft was found in the immediate aftermath, and the search and rescue became India's largest search operation in history at sea. In January 2024, wreckage discovered off the coast of Chennai was confirmed as belonging to the aircraft.
EgyptAir Flight 804 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Cairo International Airport, operated by EgyptAir.
On May 19, 2016, the plane crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, killing all 66 people onboard. Only debris was located about 180 miles (289 km)off the Egyptian coast.
No mayday call was received by air traffic control, although there were signals that smoke had been detected in one of the aircraft's lavatories. In April 2022, it was reported that the fire likely was caused by one of the pilots smoking a cigarette in the cockpit, compounded by a leaking oxygen mask.
The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 carrying 239 people is one of the world's biggest aviation mysteries. The aircraft vanished en-route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, 38 minutes after takeoff.
The search for the missing airplane became the largest and most expensive search in aviation history. It included 334 search flights and deep-sea scouring of 46,000 square miles (120,000 km2) of ocean floor, which uncovered no wreckage.
About 20 pieces of debris, believed to have come from Flight MH370, have been recovered on the islands of Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues, and along the African coastline as far away as Tanzania.
On June,1, 2009, the Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic with the loss of all 216 passengers and 12 crew.
However, the accident was a mystery until the black box flight data was recovered from the bottom of the ocean in May 2011, nearly two years after the accident. It was concluded that the aircraft's speed recorders had frozen during a storm.
The Brazilian Navy recovered the first major wreckage and two bodies from the sea within five days of the accident.
In 1962, during the preliminary stages of the Vietnam War, United States Army Flying Tiger Flight 739 disappeared over the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean.
Aircraft and surface ships from four branches of the US military searched more than 144,000 square miles (370,000 km2) during the course of eight days. But no survivors, wreckage, or debris was ever recovered.
The Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501 was flying between New York City and Seattle when it disappeared on the night of June 23, 1950. The aircraft was at approximately 3,500 feet (1,100 meters) over Lake Michigan when flight controllers lost radio contact with it soon after the pilot had requested a descent to 2,500 feet (760 meters).
Light debris, upholstery, and human body fragments were found floating on the surface of the lake, but divers were unable to locate the plane's wreckage. All 58 people onboard were declared dead.
Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) was an American aviation pioneer and writer, who became the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
On July 2, 1937, Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan took off from Lae, New Guinea, in a Lockheed Electra 10E on one of the last legs of their around-the-world flight.
However, the Lockheed Electra disappeared over the Pacific and nearly one year later, Earhart and Noonan were presumed dead.
On December 5, 1945, at the height of World War II, the United States Navy dispatched five torpedo bombers on a routine training flight over the Bermuda Triangle.
All 14 crew members aboard the five military aircraft disappeared. Pictured is Lieutenant Charles Carroll Taylor, flight leader of Flight 19.
Hours later, the navy sent an additional 13 men on a search-and-rescue mission in a Marine flying boat. However, they too were never seen again.
A US Army Air Corps B-24D named Lady Be Good was part of a bombing raid in Naples, Italy on April 4, 1943. Pictures are the crew of Lady Be Good.
It was the only plane of the mission that didn't return to its base in Libya. Officials assumed the plane went down in the Mediterranean Sea.
However, in 1958, the wreck was accidentally discovered 440 miles (710 km) inland in the Libyan Desert by an oil exploration team from British Petroleum. In 1960, the United States Army conducted a formal search of the area for the remains of the crew, and five bodies were found.
A British South American Airways Lancastrian plane went missing on August 2, 1947, while finishing its final leg of a connecting flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago. It crashed into Mount Tupungato in the Argentine Andes with 11 people onboard.
An extensive search operation failed to locate the wreckage, despite covering the area of the crash site. It was only in the late '90s that pieces of the wreckage began to emerge, and in 2000 various body parts from the flight's passengers were found.
Considered to be the father of modern US military bands, Glenn Miller (1904-1944) was an important American band conductor and officer in the US Army Air Forces.
Miller went missing in action on December 15, 1944, on a flight over the English Channel, which headed to Paris from London. The wreckage and his body were never found, and he was officially declared dead a year and a day later.
Sources: (Irish Times) (Britannica) (History)
The missing aircrafts that were never found
From Amelia Earhart to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, planes have simply vanished
LIFESTYLE Flights
Commercial aviation accidents are rare. In fact, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), more than 30 million global passenger airline flights take off and land annually without any incident. However, they can happen. And while safety investigators are often able to determine causes of airplane crashes, their task becomes more difficult when flights failed to arrive to their destinations and when they have seem to have vanished into thin air.
Click on for examples of aircraft that mysteriously disappeared.