Mysterious disappearances of planes. Missing planes. Where are the planes going? Ghost plane. Rain and frost

The recent story of a Boeing flying from Malaysia has shaken everyone's imagination. How could an airplane, an iron bulk with 227 passengers on board, disappear without a trace? Until recently, the search teams could not find any traces of the crash, no bodies, no black boxes - the fate of the aircraft was a real mystery. Recently it was found that the missing Boeing 777 crashed in the south of the Indian Ocean. However, planes disappeared even before him - he is not the first and certainly not the last.

1 Boeing 727 stolen from airport in Luanda, Angola

On May 25, 2003, a Boeing 727-223 was stolen from Quatro de Fevereiro Airport. It belonged to the American airline Aerospace Sales & Leasing and was leased from Angolan Airlines at the time of its disappearance. The plane was out of order, and two people had to work on fixing it - Ben Charles Padilla, a certified flight engineer and aircraft mechanic with a private pilot's license, and his assistant John Mikel Mutantu. None of them could steal the plane: the assistant could not lift it into the sky, and the law-abiding Padilla had only a private pilot's license. After they boarded the plane, it began to move randomly along runway. The crew of the ship did not contact the controllers and took off without turning on the transponders. Since then, neither the plane nor the people have been seen.

Theoretically, Padilla could have been at the helm. It is believed that Angola did not pay the lease installments and he was hired to return the aircraft to the US. Another opinion says that both citizens were kept on board against their will.

2. At the beginning of the Vietnam War, the plane with the US military disappears in the sky over the Pacific Ocean

On March 6, 1962, US Air Force Flight 739 departed California for Vietnam, carrying 96 passengers and 11 crew members. Having sat down for refueling in Guam, the plane went to military base in the Philippines, but never reached it. He disappeared somewhere in the Western Pacific. Could not find any traces of the crash, no bodies. After communication with the aircraft was lost, information was received from a nearby tanker that an explosion had occurred in the sky.

Sabotage? Problem? Engine problems? No one knows.

3. A popular musician disappeared on a plane over the English Channel

On December 15, 1944, Glenn Miller, leader of one of the finest swing bands of all time, boarded a plane in England to take him to Paris. This never happened.

The American musician went to war in 1942, at the height of his popularity. At the age of 38, it was too late for him to become a soldier, but an army band played under his leadership.

The official version of his death is as follows. The plane flew over the English Channel bad weather and crashed. However, this is not the only opinion. Someone believes that the plane was shot down by enemy forces, and someone - that Glenn Miller did fly to Paris and was captured by a German detachment.

4. Amelia Earhart went missing while trying to fly around the globe.

First female pilot to cross by plane Atlantic Ocean. Missing, flying over Pacific Ocean near Howland Island.

Earhart was searched, but no trace was found. It is believed that she failed to land on Howland Island and ran out of fuel. There are even crazier theories: allegedly she was a secret agent, flew on a mission to Japan, where she was discovered and imprisoned. The most pleasant version: Earhart returned home, changed her name and began to live a quiet, ordinary life.

There are witnesses (I wonder how they could see this?) who claim to have seen her plane land on the uninhabited island of Nikumaroro. In 1989, this version was tested, human bones, women's cosmetics, shoes and a jar of freckle cream were found on the island. Who to believe?

5. A squadron of five planes disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle

On December 5, 1945, these aircraft were on a navigational exercise and disappeared while flying over the Bermuda Triangle. There were 14 people in the squadron in total.

Two hours after the start of the flight, the squadron commander reported that his compass had broken and he could not determine his location. The same thing happened with other planes. After another two hours, incomprehensible confusing messages began to arrive. The last was the squadron commander's call to leave the planes as they were running out of fuel.

An hour later, a US Navy plane went to search and rescue the squadron, but the planes and people were gone. A nearby tanker reported seeing an explosion 20 minutes before the departure of the search engines. Hundreds of ships and planes searched for the missing squadron, they combed thousands of miles, but found nothing.

Source 6Brazilian Cargo Plane Carrying $1 Million Artwork

In 1979, a Brazilian airline Varig plane disappeared half an hour after taking off from Narita Airport in Tokyo. On board were 153 drawings by Brazilian-Japanese artist Manabu Mabe, valued at $1.2 million. The plane, the drawings and six crew members disappeared without a trace. Robbery or technical malfunction? No one knows.

SourcePhoto 7The plane vanished en route from a Pacific atoll to Los Angeles

In 1964, a plane with nine passengers on board disappeared en route from Wake Island to Los Angeles. When he was 500 miles northeast of Los Angeles, the pilot reported engine problems. Searchers found an oil slick on the surface of the water, and some even claimed to have seen the plane's tail plunge into the ocean, but no trace of the plane or passengers was ever found.

As a result of which one Boeing, 12 crew members and 227 passengers disappeared. The news of the missing plane immediately spread all over the world. For those who are not in the know: on March 8, 2014, the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft owned by the airline Malaysia Airlines Unfortunately, it did not reach its destination. At night, communication was lost with the airliner, after which it significantly deviated from the course and was in the air for about 7 hours. And then he disappeared from the radar screens altogether.

Boeing followed flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) to Beijing (PRC). After he disappeared, he was never found. On the evening of March 24, 2014, the Prime Minister of Malaysia announced that the search for the missing was inconclusive. Therefore, it was concluded that the plane crashed in the southern Indian Ocean. And everyone on board died.

It would seem, how can a whole Boeing with a crowd of people on board get lost? Maybe. And believe me, he is not the only one who disappeared without a trace. Incidents like this are all over the place. We will tell about some of them.

Boeing 727

On May 25, 2003, the American airline Aerospace Sales & Leasing was left without a Boeing 727-223. All because the plane was hijacked from Quatro de Fevereiro Airport. At the time of the theft, the airliner was on lease from Angolan Airlines. The Boeing was out of order, and two people were working on fixing it - Ben Charles Padilla, a certified flight engineer and aircraft mechanic with a private pilot's license, and his assistant, John Mikel Mutantu.

On the morning of May 25, both the aircraft and its repairmen were gone. There is an opinion that Angola did not pay leasing contributions. Therefore, the guys were hired by the Americans to return the airliner back to the United States.

Source: skyscrapercity.com

Vietnam War

March 6, 1962 during Vietnam War 96 passengers and 11 American crew members traveled from California to Vietnam on US Air Force Flight 739. On the way, they landed for refueling in Guam, and then flew to a military base in the Philippines. But they never made it.

From a tanker nearby, information was received that an explosion had occurred in the sky. Nobody knows if our plane took off. But he, like the passengers, still cannot be found.

Glenn Miller

Glenn Miller is the most talented British leader of one of the best swing orchestras of all time. On December 15, 1944, in England, he boarded a plane that was supposed to land in Paris. But this never happened. Flying over the English Channel in bad weather aircraft crashed with passengers and crew. But some believe that they were attacked by the Nazis. Others say that Glenn Miller did fly to Paris, but was captured by the Germans. In any case, there was not a trace left of the musician.

Source: flugzeuginfo.net

Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart is the first woman pilot to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. But the story doesn't have a very happy ending. When she flew over the Pacific Ocean (near Howland Island), communication with Earhart was lost. Nobody else heard anything from her.

Amelia is believed to have run out of fuel. Therefore, she did not even fly to Howland Island. There are even crazier theories: allegedly she was a secret agent, flew on a mission to Japan, where she was discovered and imprisoned. The most pleasant version: Earhart returned home, changed her name and began to live a quiet, ordinary life.

There are witnesses who claim to have seen her plane land on the uninhabited island of Nikumaroro. In 1989, this version was tested. Human bones, women's cosmetics, shoes and a jar of freckle cream were found on the island. At least strange.

Source: wikimedia.org

Bermuda Triangle

On 5 December 1945, a squadron of five aircraft was on a navigational exercise and disappeared while flying over the Bermuda Triangle. It consisted of 14 people. Two hours after the start of the flight, the commander reported that his compass had broken. The result is that he can't locate himself. Then the rest of the aircraft followed suit.

After another two hours, incomprehensible confusing messages began to arrive. The last of them is the order of the chief to leave the planes (they are running out of fuel). An hour later, a US Navy Air Rescue went in search of the squadron. But, unfortunately, nothing was found. A nearby tanker reported seeing an explosion 20 minutes before the departure of aid for the squadron.

The missing pilots were searched for by hundreds of ships and planes. They combed thousands of miles, but found nothing.

The mysterious disappearance of planes generates around itself a lot of rumors, arguments and theories. It would seem that in the 21st century, with the advent of modern technologies it is not difficult to track a huge aircraft. However, they continue to disappear, giving rise to new questions.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappearance

From time to time, reports surface in the media about the discovery of the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared under mysterious circumstances on March 8, 2014. On Thursday, March 24, Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said that the wreckage of the aircraft found in March off the coast of Mozambique almost certainly belongs to the missing Boeing 777.

New fragment found off the coast of Mozambique

In July last year, a fragment of a wing was found on Reunion Island. The French prosecutor's office confirmed that it belongs to the missing aircraft. In December, Australian authorities said the missing Boeing 777 could be in the southern part of the search area in Indian Ocean.

Boeing 777 route established based on information from military radar

According to official version investigation, the plane was hijacked by unknown persons who had good air training. However, this version has many inconsistencies.

In particular, there was not a single suspicious person on board, and not a single group claimed responsibility. In addition, the plane flew for seven hours in an unknown direction instead of announcing the hostage-taking.

There were other versions of the disappearance of the aircraft: a bomb on board, the suicide of the pilot, interception of control from the ground, depressurization of the cabin, but none of them was confirmed.

Boeing 727-223 hijacking

The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is not the only plane crash which left behind many questions. In 2003, a strange incident occurred at the airport in Angola.

Ben Charles Padilla, a certified flight engineer and aircraft mechanic with a private pilot's license, and his assistant, John Mikel Mutantu, handled the repairs Boeing aircraft 727-223.

The aircraft belonged to the American airline Aerospace Sales & Leasing and was leased from Angolan Airlines at the time of its disappearance.

Boeing 727-223

Unexpectedly, the plane disappeared along with the workers, none of whom were active pilot. According to the official version, the plane was hijacked by a flight engineer and his assistant, but the law-abiding Padilla had only a private pilot's license, and the assistant could not fly the plane.

According to one version, Padilla was hired by the United States to return the plane, according to another, both technical workers were forcibly kept on board. After that, neither the plane nor the people were seen.

Missing Amelia Earhart

In 1937, the monoplane, on which the famous pilot Amelia Earhart tried to fly around the globe along the equator, disappeared without a trace. However, at one of the sections of the flight, communication with the pilot was interrupted.

The search operation for Amelia Earhart was the largest and most expensive in the history of the US Navy, but it did not bring results.

Amelia Earhart, Los Angeles, 1928

Various versions of the reasons for the loss of the aircraft were put forward - from its abduction by the Japanese to landing on desert island. There are even those who believe that Earhart returned home, changed her name and began to live a quiet, ordinary life. One way or another, the search for her plane continues to this day, and the exact reasons for the disappearance have not been established.

The disappearance of the Boeing 707

The disappearance of the Boeing 707 in 1979 is also a mystery that still cannot be solved. On board the Boeing 707-323C cargo flight were six crew members and cargo, including 153 paintings by Japanese-Brazilian artist Manabu Mabe.

The cost of the paintings was $ 1,240,000. While flying over the Pacific Ocean, the plane did not get in touch. Nobody saw him again.

Boeing 707-323C

Before the disappearance, the aircraft did not give distress signals. No debris, as well as oil stains from the fuel, were found. Among the versions of what happened, they called the depressurization of the aircraft, the attack of the collectors, the navigation error, the attack Soviet fighters and others.

However, all these versions had many inconsistencies. In history civil aviation this case is considered one of the most mysterious.

Disappearance of L-1049 over the Pacific Ocean

The disappearance of L-1049 over the Pacific Ocean in 1962 was the largest unexplained tragedy of the 20th century in terms of the number of people. The plane flew from the Marianas to Philippine Islands, but two and a half hours after departure, communication with him ceased.

Large-scale searches have yielded no results. All 107 people on board were presumed dead.

Lockheed L-1049H

According to the testimony of the crew of the tanker, which was in the area of ​​​​the alleged disappearance, an unidentified aerial object exploded in the air. According to the official version, L-1049 exploded, but no debris was found in an area of ​​144,000 square miles. Thus, there is no evidence that the sailors from the tanker observed the crash of the disappeared aircraft.

These are not all cases. mysterious disappearances. At the same time, in a strange way, the scenario repeats itself in the same details, differing from other cases only in the duration of time intervals. The plane takes off, and after some time, communication with the crew first disappears, and then the display of the ship's trajectory on the controllers' radars disappears. Searches sometimes end with the discovery of a wreck, and sometimes nothing.

At the same time, everything alternative versions are immediately swept aside and classified, leaving ordinary citizens with only questions.

Where are the planes going? We may never know the answer to this question. In the entire history of aviation, more than enough aircraft have disappeared, and there is not a single unraveled disappearance. And the next loss of the aircraft will simply be recorded in the list of similar phenomena.

Where ships, trains and planes disappear

Mysterious Disappearance passenger aircraft Malaysian Airlines has added to a long list of similar stories. Trains, ships, planes and even entire army units disappear without a trace.
Time loop

In July 1911, the Sanetti firm invited a hundred rich people on a pleasure tour. A locomotive with three wagons drove up to a mountain tunnel. According to the testimony of two passengers who at the last moment jumped off on the move, everything was suddenly covered with a milky-white fog, people suddenly panicked. The train entered the tunnel and was never seen again. Search work was unsuccessful, and the entrance to the tunnel was filled up with stones just in case.
And 15 years later, a relative of one of the missing passengers came across a strange record in the archives. It stated that in 1845, 104 Italians appeared in Mexico City claiming to have arrived by train from Rome. Then they were considered crazy. Evidence of this are the notes of a psychiatrist from Mexico.
Further fate these people remain unknown. Eyewitnesses noticed that the clothes and things of the Italians did not correspond in any way to the 40s of the 19th century. Some things have survived to this day, such as a snuff box with the numbers "1907".
Mysterious fog
The cloud of fog appeared in many other stories with no trace of disappearances. On August 12, 1915, the battalion of Colonel Horace Beauchamp and the volunteer company of Captain Frank Beck, part of the Norfolk Regiment of the British Army, received an order to occupy a high ground near the Turkish village of Anafarta. Performing a combat mission, 250 soldiers and 16 officers entered a strange foggy cloud that covered the approaches to the forest. No one has ever seen these people again, although the British did not give up hope until the mid-60s of finding at least some traces of the disappeared military. In 1967, among the secret materials relating to the operation in the Dardanelles, a report was discovered about the allegedly found bodies of missing soldiers, but only two of them were identified. And, remarkably, even General Ian Hamilton, who sent the units of Bosham and Beck into battle, did not recognize them - and he, according to contemporaries, knew almost every soldier of the Norfolk Regiment by sight.
Mystery of Flight 914

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of cases of planes disappearing without a trace. One of the most mysterious stories- the secret of Flight 914. A DC-4 charter aircraft with 57 passengers on board, flying from New York to Miami in 1955, landed 37 years later in Venezuela. In less than a few minutes, the ghost plane took off again and disappeared into the clouds.
Eyewitness accounts and tape-recorded radio communications between the pilot and the control tower prove that the landing did take place. “I saw the plane… I heard the voice of the pilot. I even held a calendar from 1955 in my hand, but I still can't believe it,” said Juan de la Corte, who watched everything from his post on the flight control tower. - Those people on board still thought it was 1955 and that they had landed in Florida. God only knows where they've been all these years."
Controllers realized that something strange was happening when a propeller-driven aircraft began approaching the airport, which did not appear on the radar screens. “We asked the pilot to identify himself, and he radioed us: “Where are we?” His voice was frightened and confused, but at last he said that he was doing chartered flight 914 from New York to Miami,” recalls Juan de la Corte. - The landing went well. But then I heard the pilot say to his co-pilot, “Jesus Christ, Jimmy! What the hell is this?” They looked at the jet and acted like it was a spaceship."
According to de la Corte, as the ground crew and the tanker approached the aircraft, the pilot yelled over the radio, “No! Don't get close! We're leaving here!" Later, ground service workers reported that they saw the faces of passengers pressed against the windows. And the pilot opened the window of his cockpit and waved some folder to them to get out. Apparently, a 1955 calendar fell out of it, which was later found on the runway.
Disappeared planes can suddenly be found
On August 13, 1937, the DB-A aircraft with the number H-209, piloted by the Hero, disappeared in the Arctic. Soviet Union Levanevsky, with five crew members on board. Last message, sent by the crew, was rather strange: “How can you hear me? .. Wait!” The search turned up nothing. According to the head of one of the branches of the Russian Geographical Society, Andrei Fandyushin, "the whole of Yakutia was dug up, but the plane was not found." However, on February 1, 2013, the Russian expedition Geographic Society found fragments in Yamal that could belong to Levanevsky's plane.
And in the 30s, the Americans were also looking for our loss, with exactly the same success. However, the abilities of the Yankees for such searches are known: they also could not find their celebrity, no less than Levanevsky in the USSR, the writer Amelia Earhart, who disappeared in the same 37th during a flight over Howland Island. Just like her plane.
But it happens that seemingly missing planes are located. Evidence of this is the recent story of the disappeared in Sverdlovsk region An-2 of the Chelyabinsk airline "Avia-Call". Flight RA 40312 took off from the airfield of the city of Serov with 12 passengers on board on June 12, 2012 and disappeared. One and a half thousand people took part in the search activities - the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the police and even the OMON. Involved 13 aircraft and 330 units of ground equipment. To no avail. In November, the search was stopped. And the next year, in May, bodies and debris were unexpectedly found - 10 kilometers from Serov. In those places that were combed several times by volunteers from the locals. How it happened that they did not notice what they were looking for, no one can clearly explain.
ghost ships
Legends about ghost ships live for centuries and are replenished with new ones. real stories. Probably the most famous of them is the disappearance of the Sulfur Queen tanker in bermuda triangle in February 1963. The tanker left the American Beaumont and two days later disappeared along with a cargo of 15,000 tons of sulfur. The search for the tanker or its wreckage was carried out until 1972, but did not bring success. Enthusiasts are still looking for the ship.

Here's the latest story. The double-deck cruise ship Lyubov Orlova was built in Yugoslavia on a Soviet order in 1976. Since then, the ship has repeatedly changed owners and tenants until it was decommissioned in 2013. On January 23, the ship was sent in tow from Canada to Dominican Republic. On the way, the towline broke, and the ship drifted along with a dozen Dominicans. No matter how they searched, they couldn't find it. For some time it was believed that the ship sank. But "Lyubov Orlova" was found a couple of months off the coast of Ireland. Last summer, the British Coast Guard reported that they watched the same “Lyubov Orlova” sink. They even photographed a ship sinking into the abyss. And a month ago, signals from the Lyubov Orlova ship were taken by Russian sailors - the ship was drifting in the Atlantic as if nothing had happened. But he drowned! And where is the crew, where did the Dominicans disappear to? All in all, mysterious stories enough for our century. And will the story of the missing Malaysian Boeing remain among them - who knows?


Archive number No. 13 (1015) dated March 25, 2014 - Planet of Mysteries

Original entry and comments on

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

10. Airplane Amelia Earhart (Amelia Earhart)

Our first point focuses on one of the most high-profile disappearance cases in American aviation history. In 1937, the brave Amelia Earhart set out to do something unimaginable - to fly around the globe in his Lockheed Electra aircraft, starting from sunny Florida and planning to follow the equator. In such a long and dangerous journey the girl went with a partner - Fred Noonan (Fred Noonan). The ship disappeared, flying somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. All searches for the aircraft were unsuccessful, which gave rise to many different theories about what exactly happened to the brave couple of pilots.
In 2017, a version appeared that Amelia and Fred actually survived, but were captured by the Japanese military in the area Marshall Islands. This assumption came about thanks to old photo 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 surprising thing is that even after almost 80 years, people are still trying to find an answer to the question of the fate of the travelers who disappeared so long ago and absolutely without a trace.

9. Ship "Madagascar"

8. Stardust plane

7. Steam yacht "SY Aurora"

6. Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571

5. Submarine "USS Capelin"

4. Flying Tiger Line Flight 739

3. The ship "SS Arctic"

2. Malaysian Airlines Flight 370

1. Steamboat "SS Waratah"