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© History Oasis / Created via Midjourney
The mysterious world of aviation's most famous plane disappearances and shocking incidents—from vanishing planes that sparked decades-long searches to miraculous survivals.
Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan vanished on July 2, 1937, during their attempt to circumnavigate the globe, leading to the most expensive air and sea search in U.S. history up to that time, costing $4 million.
Despite numerous theories including crash-and-sink, landing on Gardner Island, and even capture by the Japanese—her disappearance remains unsolved to this day.
Recent sonar images detecting a possible aircraft shape 16,000 feet underwater near Howland Island in 2024.
On December 5, 1945, five Navy torpedo bombers known as Flight 19 vanished without a trace over the Bermuda Triangle during a routine training mission, leading to the most expensive air and sea search in U.S. history up to that time.
The PBM Mariner flying boat sent to search for Flight 19 also disappeared, with reports of a mid-air explosion.
Adding to the mystery and fueling decades of speculation about the Bermuda Triangle.
On January 30, 1948, the Avro Tudor IV passenger aircraft Star Tiger vanished without a trace over the Atlantic Ocean while flying from the Azores to Bermuda, carrying 31 people including a World War II hero Air Marshal.
Despite an extensive five-day search involving 26 aircraft flying 882 hours, no wreckage was ever found, and the official investigation concluded that "what happened in this case will never be known and the fate of Star Tiger must remain an unsolved mystery”.
President Joe Biden has claimed that the U.S. military was unable to recover his uncle Ambrose Finnegan's remains after his plane crashed near New Guinea during World War II "because there used to be a lot of cannibals" in the region.
However, the assertion contradicts the official account from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which states that Finnegan's plane was forced to ditch in the ocean for unknown reasons and that an aerial search the following day found no trace of the missing aircraft or crew members.
On January 17, 1949, the Avro Tudor IV passenger aircraft Star Ariel vanished without a trace over the Atlantic Ocean while flying from Bermuda to Kingston, Jamaica, with 20 people on board, despite perfect weather conditions and no distress signals.
Despite an extensive search covering 55,000 square miles involving dozens of ships and planes, including a US Navy task force led by the battleship USS Missouri, no wreckage or debris was ever found.
Leading to speculation about the Bermuda Triangle and theories ranging from sabotage to a catastrophic fire caused by a poorly designed cabin heater.
On March 16, 1962, Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, carrying 107 people including 93 U.S. Army Ranger-trained communications specialists bound for Vietnam, vanished over the western Pacific Ocean after departing from Guam.
Prompting one of the largest air and sea searches in Pacific history covering over 200,000 square miles.
The disappearance remains unsolved, but a civilian tanker reported seeing a bright mid-air explosion near the plane's last known position, leading to speculation of sabotage, especially since another Flying Tiger Line flight carrying "secret military cargo" crashed on the same day under mysterious circumstances.
On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, sparking the largest and most expensive search in aviation history that covered over 120,000 square kilometers of the southern Indian Ocean.
Sadly, after years of searching and the recovery of some debris, the main wreckage was never found and the fate of the aircraft remains one of aviation's greatest mysteries.
Theories range from mechanical failure to deliberate pilot action, though the official investigation was ultimately inconclusive.
On November 8, 1957, Pan Am Flight 7 disappeared over the Pacific Ocean en route from San Francisco to Honolulu with 44 people on board, sparking the largest search and rescue operation in Pacific history at that time.
Despite recovering 19 bodies and some debris, investigators could not determine the cause of the crash, with theories ranging from mechanical failure to sabotage, and the mystery was deepened by the discovery of possibly disabling levels of carbon monoxide in 14 of the 19 recovered bodies, as well as suspicions about one passenger who had purchased large life insurance policies before boarding.
TWA Flight 800 exploded in midair off the coast of Long Island on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 people on board and sparking widespread conspiracy theories about a possible missile strike.
After an exhaustive four-year investigation that concluded a fuel tank explosion was the cause, the controversy persisted for decades, with the reconstructed wreckage being used as a training aid for investigators until its destruction in 2023, nearly 27 years after the crash.
Survivors of the 1972 Andes plane crash resorted to cannibalism to stay alive for 72 days in the frigid mountains, eating the flesh of their dead friends and teammates.
To escape, two survivors trekked for 10 days across treacherous mountain terrain with no proper equipment, climbing to over 15,000 feet and covering over 37 miles before finally finding help.
LANSA Flight 508 crashed in the Peruvian rainforest after being struck by lightning, killing 91 of 92 people on board, but miraculously, 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke survived a 3,000-meter fall while still strapped to her seat.
Koepcke, the sole survivor, then trekked through the dense Amazon jungle for 10 days with a broken collarbone, deep gash in her arm, and concussion before being rescued by local lumberjacks, despite as many as 14 other initial survivors perishing while awaiting rescue.
In 2003, a Boeing 727 airplane mysteriously taxied and took off from an airport in Angola without clearance or communication, piloted by two men who were not certified to fly it, and disappeared without a trace over the Atlantic Ocean.
Although there was a worldwide search by intelligence agencies, no sign of the aircraft, its occupants, or any debris has ever been found, leaving behind one of aviation's most baffling unsolved mysteries.
Varig Flight 967, a Boeing 707 cargo plane, mysteriously vanished over the Pacific Ocean in 1979 with six crew members and 53 valuable paintings worth $1.24 million on board, never to be seen again.
The captain of the ill-fated flight had previously survived a catastrophic crash in 1973 that killed 123 people, only to disappear without a trace on this flight six years later.
The Star Dust, an airliner carrying 11 people, disappeared in the Andes in 1947 after sending a mysterious final message "STENDEC," which has never been fully explained, sparking decades of conspiracy theories.
Over 50 years later, the wreckage was finally discovered in a glacier, revealing that the plane had likely flown directly into a mountain while descending too early due to confusion caused by the then-poorly understood jet stream.
Body parts and debris have emerged from the melting ice decades after the crash.
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