Aviation Disappearance Mysteries

After a year of the disappearance of our very own MH370, the mystery surrounding this incident brings grief to the families of all those involved.
Thinking about the theories evolved, here are some unsolved mysteries of airplanes' disappearances.

10

I want to believe - Fox Mulder



20-year-old Australian pilot, Frederick Valentich was flying Cessna 182L light aircraft over the Bass Strait in Australia on 21 October 1978. He advised Melbourne Air Traffic Control he was being accompanied by a UFO above him. No trace of Valentich or his aircraft was ever found.

9

In 2003, a Boeing 727 vanished in the Angolan capital of Luanda. The plane was stolen from Quatro de Fevereiro Airport, Luanda, Angola on May 25, 2003. A massive worldwide search prompted by the FBI and CIA. The plane was not been heard from since.

8

 

A book adapted from this mystery by Valarie van Heest

 

The actual plane operating as Flight 2501, taken by aviation photographer Leo Kohn.

(Photo courtesy of Valerie van Heest)

Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501 was operating its daily transcontinental service between New York City and Seattle when it disappeared on the night of June 23, 1950, over Lake Michigan. a widespread search was commenced including using sonar and dragging the bottom of lake Michigan with trawlers but to no avail.

7

A mystery surroundings Mackintosh's disappearance

Sir Ian Mackintosh, a scriptwriter, and an ex Scottish naval officer were flying a light aircraft along with two others in July 1979. He disappeared over the Gulf of Alaska sending out a distress signal which was picked up by the United States Coast Guard. The plane's last-known was searched, but no wreckage of the plane was ever found and its passengers have not been heard from since.

6 

  
On April 17, 1938, 28-year-old pilot Andrew Carnegie Whitfield,  the nephew of wealthy steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, prepared to make a quick 15-minute flight from New York to New Jersey. His plane vanished mid-flight. Then the mystery became bizarre. It was discovered that Whitfield had checked into a hotel on Long Island under a false name. He left all his belongings behind at that hotel. There was no further contact, and the mystery remains unsolved.

5

Lieutenant Felix Moncla and Robert Wilson were ordered to fly out, when the radar station at Kinross AFB near Lake Superior noticed an unidentified blip in their airspace on November 23, 1953. The ground crew and Kinross's radar operators watched Moncla and Wilson's blip approached the foreign object, merged with it into one single blip, and then vanished off the radar screen. An exhaustive search took place but nothing was ever found.

4

George Cogar is one of the founders of the Mohawk Data Sciences Corporation and the founder of the Cogar Corporation. He comes from an old family in West Virginia and before he disappeared, owned the largest parcel of private land in New York state, complete with his own airport.

On September 2, 1983, George Cogar, five others and the pilot were on board a private plane, a Brittan Norman Islander headed from Vancouver Island to a hunting lodge in Smithers, Canada. The plane disappeared, presumably over British Columbia, Canada. No trace of the plane or its occupants was ever found. At the time, it was the largest coordinated search in Canadian history and cost nearly USD$1million.

3

Avro Tudor IV passenger aircraft, similar to the 'Star Tiger' owned by British South American Airways (BSAA)

          The 'Star Tiger' route developed speculation of its connection to the Bermuda Triangle.

 On 30th January 1948, a British South American Airways passenger aircraft 'Star Tiger' flight took off in strong winds with 25 passengers accompanied by a Lancastrian plane to keep a lookout for bad weather. The lookout plane arrived safely after their 12-hour journey but Star Tiger disappeared without a trace over the Atlantic Ocean and it remains unsolved to this day.

2

Where are you?

Some books with theories relating the Bermuda Triangle to this incident.



On December 5th, 1945, five U.S Navy Avenger planes known as Flight 19, disappeared off the Florida coast during a training mission. A search aircraft was sent to look for Flight 19 on the same day also disappeared. Both planes have not been seen or heard from since.

1

Amelia Earhart left, and navigator Fred Noonan poses with a map of the Pacific showing route of their last flight in this undated photo.

Amelia Earhart, the American aviation pioneer disappeared near Howland Island in the Central Pacific Ocean with her navigator, Fred Noonan on July 2nd. 1937. They flew with a Lockheed Electra plane while circumnavigating the globe at the time of disappearance. Ever since it is a mystery...........

..........

Above all these, this picture offered by Calvin Shoemaker, (a man who claimed to be the pilot of the 6th Avenger plane ) during the investigation of Flight 19, is quite disturbing me.

Well, I guess you get what I mean........

Adios