As the fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 continues to grip the world's imagination, there have been several other flights throughout aviation history that never made it to their destinations. Since no wreckage or bodies have ever been recovered in these instances, the mystery surrounding them continues.
1. It has been confirmed that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia. Some debris has been spotted in the area, but has yet to be identified as being from Flight 370.
What we know so far: the Boeing 777 – carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members – disappeared from radar approximately an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia. The plane, heading for Beijing, China, was declared lost by the Malaysian government five hours after take off. It was last detected at a normal cruising altitude of 35,000 feet about 140 miles southwest of Vietnam's southernmost province.
Four days after the flight disappeared, Malaysian officials revealed evidence that the plane had turned toward the Malacca Strait, which put it on the opposite side of the Malay Peninsula, away from its scheduled route.
Combined with the knowledge that that the 777 changed altitude – first reaching 45,000 feet and then dropping to about 23,000 feet – and may have flown for as many as six hours after the last official message received, investigators believe that catastrophic failure is a highly unlikely scenario and the change in direction was, in fact, intentional.
As of this writing, several countries have joined in the search – now spanning many oceans and continents – for the missing jet, but there is still no trace of the aircraft or any concrete explanation to the cause of its disappearance.
2. A Boeing 727 is stolen from an airport in Luanda, Angola
On May 25, 2003, a Boeing 727-223 aircraft was stolen from the Quatro de Fevereiro Airport in Luanda, Angola.
The former American Airlines jet was owned by the Miami-based company Aerospace Sales & Leasing, and being leased to TAAG Angola Airlines at the time of its disappearance. Ben Charles Padilla – a certified flight engineer, aircraft mechanic, and private pilot – and helper John Mikel Mutantu were working with Angolan mechanics to return the 727 to flight-ready status after a business deal gone bad. Neither man could fly it – Mutantu was not a pilot and Padilla had only a private pilot's license. A 727 requires a three person trained crew.
3. A jet transporting military personnel vanishes over the Pacific Ocean in the early days of the Vietnam War
On March 16, 1962, Flight 739 was charted by the U.S. military to transport Army personnel and South Vietnamese from Travis Airforce Base in California to South Vietnam. The Super Constellation propeller jet had 96 passengers and a crew of 11.
After refueling in Guam, the plane headed for the Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines, but never made it. It went down somewhere in the Western Pacific. No wreckage or bodies were ever recovered. An hour after Flight 739's last radio communication, a Standard Oil tanker reported an explosion in the sky.
4. Popular big band leader disappears on a flight over the English Channel
On December 15, 1944, big band leader Glenn Miller was scheduled to fly from an RAF base in England to Paris to play a show. His plane, a Norseman C-64 aircraft, never arrived.
Miller joined the war effort in 1942, at the peak of his popularity as a musician. At 38, he was already too old to be drafted, but wrote the Army in hopes of leading its band. The Army accepted him, and he was promoted to Major in 1944.
5. Amelia Earhart vanishes over the Pacific while attempting to circumnavigate the globe
Aviation pioneer and author Amelia Earhart's disappearance is perhaps the most enduring and well known in aviation history.
Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. On June 2, 1937, her Lockheed Electra disappeared during a failed attempt to circle the globe. She and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared near Howland Island in the mid-Pacific.
6. A squadron of five planes disappears over the Bermuda Triangle
Artist's depiction of the five TBM Avengers that disappeared.
On December 5, 1945, five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers – Flight 19 – took of from Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station on an over water navigation training flight. All five planes and the 14 men on them disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle.
Two hours into the flight, Flight 19's squadron leader reported his compasses had failed and his position was unknown. The other planes also reported similar malfunctions. Two more hours of confused messages occurred, with the last one being from the squadron leader calling for his men to ditch their aircraft because they were running out of fuel.
7. A Brazilian cargo plane carrying $1 million in art disappears
A Varig Boeing 707-379C similar to the one involved in the accident.
In 1979, a Varig Brazilian Airlines cargo jet vanished a half an hour after takeoff from Narita International Airport in Tokyo.
8. A DC-4 carrying members of the U.S. military vanishes near Anchorage
A DC-4 Canadian Pacific Air Lines jet vanished en route from Vancouver to Tokyo on July 21, 1951.
When the plane was 90-minutes out from its stopover in Anchorage, Alaska, it was on schedule, but it soon hit bad weather. There was heavy rain, icing conditions and visibility was only 500 feet. That report was the last anyone heard from the aircraft and though an extensive search was carried out, nothing was ever found.
9. A plane traveling from the mid-Pacific to Los Angeles disappears after claiming engine problems
In 1964, a DC-4 transport plane carrying 9 passengers disappeared on its way to Los Angeles from Wake Island in the mid-Pacific.
The plane's last radio transmission came from 500 miles southwest of Los Angeles, with the pilot claiming engine problems.
Navy searchers found an oil slick and some claimed to see a plane's tail sinking into the ocean, but no trace of the DC-4 or its passengers were ever found. (Source)
10. 58 people aboard a DC-4 aircraft are lost in the waters of Lake Michigan
In June 1950, 58 people lost their lives when Northwest Airlines Flight 2501 disappeared over the waters of Lake Michigan, en route from New York to Minnesota.
Boats and planes scoured the lake for a week after the disaster, but with the exception of a small amount of debris and human remains floating on the waters of Lake Michigan, no wreckage has ever been found and no explanation ever given as to the cause of the crash.
Amazing