Top 10 Aviation Mysteries

Taking off in California and ultimately headed for Saigon, Vietnam, this United States Military flight was destined to relieve troops of their duty, with 96 military members and 11 civilians onboard. But 280-miles from the flight’s stopover in Guam, communications experienced heavy radio static, and after that the plane was lost. Eight days and 200-thousand square-miles of ocean later, the investigation turned up nothing, but rumors ran rampant that the flight was the victim of sabotage. All 107 onboard are presumed dead.

Although the wreckage of this Cairo-bound flight was swiftly found after it crashed in the Atlantic Ocean, it’s the cause of this spectacular incident that raises eyebrows. Since the plane went down in international waters, Egyptian authorities were responsible for investigating the 217 fatalities; they found that a mechanical failure was at fault. However, a U.S. inquiry into the same event suggested that the flight’s Egyptian copilot crashed on purpose. This finding caused a falling out between the U.S. and Egypt, which clouded the investigation even further.

On its way to Paris from Rio de Janeiro, this flight disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean. Although wreckage was found as early as five days later, it took almost two years to recover the plane’s black boxes and the majority of the 228 bodies of those onboard from the ocean floor. Examination revealed that ice crystals led to the disconnection of the autopilot feature, which in turn caused the pilots to accidentally stall the plane – however, that theory has been challenged.

While traveling through the Andes, this Uruguay-to-Chile flight was brought down when low clouds and disorientation caused its wings to be clipped by the mountains. With the 45 passengers presumed dead, the search was called off after just over a week. For more than two months, the plane’s location remained a mystery, lost in snow and towering mountains. Ultimately, two passengers journeyed on-foot 10-days to find civilization, and the 16 survivors were finally rescued 72-days after the crash. This thrilling story was later retold in the 1993 film, “Alive.”

This Europe-bound Boeing-747 was in the air only minutes before exploding, plunging into the Atlantic and killing the 230 people onboard. For four years, conspiracies swirled on the burgeoning internet that suggested foul play: some believed a U.S. missile test was responsible, while others said it was a meteor, and still others suggested a bomb. And eyewitnesses that claimed to’ve seen something fired at the plane did nothing to dissuade rumors. Investigations finally concluded that an electrical short-circuit caused one of aircraft’s fuel tanks to explode.

After the nine-man crew of an American Bomber plane went missing on its way back to Libya during WWII, their plane and lives were thought to be lost to the Mediterranean. However, the plane actually crashed-landed in North Africa, and eight of the men survived the crash by parachuting out. Unfortunately, the remainder of the crew died after walking 100-miles through the desert. The plane’s wreckage was finally discovered surprisingly intact 15 years later by a British oil exploration team.

It was fifty years after British South American Airways airliner Star Dust and its 11 occupants vanished in the Andes on their way to Chile before their fates were revealed. Some blamed vandals, others aliens, but an extensive five-day search turned up nothing. Finally, in 1998, mountaineers discovered the wreckage after it had been buried in a glacier for decades. According to reports, the pilots were disoriented by the jet stream and accidentally crashed into the mountains.

This Boeing 777 went missing about an hour into its flight from Malaysia to Beijing with 239 occupants onboard. With no distress calls made, two passengers on the flight traveling with stolen passports, and reports that onboard communications were deliberately disabled by someone on the aircraft, conspiracy theories surfaced suggesting mechanical breakdown, terrorism or pilot suicide. The disappearance prompted a massive search-and-rescue effort undertaken by over 20 countries through nearby bodies of water and islands, but its first weeks were fruitless.

#2: Amelia Earhart disappearance
July 2, 1937