Between heaven and earth: 5 missing planes that were never found

Mysterious disappearances occur not only on earth. There are many stories about how aircraft disappeared without ever touching the runway. "Good night, MH370"…

It was a regular scheduled passenger flight on the route Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) - Beijing (China). On March 8, 2014, the Boeing airliner broke away from the runway and disappeared into the sky over the South China Sea 40 minutes after takeoff.

There were 239 people on board. In January 2015, all were declared dead as a result of an "accident". The circumstances of the plane crash remained unclear. The plane gained altitude, occupied the echelon set by the dispatcher and then followed the route. No reports of problems on board, suspicious passengers or other violations. All systems were operating normally, there was no reason for alarm.

At one o'clock in the morning, the plane was supposed to enter the airspace of Vietnam. The dispatcher instructed to switch to a new frequency, the pilot confirmed receiving the information, and the operator said goodbye to him: "Good night, Malaysian three seven zero."

A few minutes later, the devices on the plane turned off, which transmit information about the location of the aircraft. "Boeing" disappeared from the locators of dispatching services. Being at an altitude of more than 10 thousand meters, the plane disappeared.

The "Disaster" situation was declared 6.5 hours after the loss of the aircraft. One of the reasons for the delay in the search was information from the airline, which continued to assure everyone that the plane was moving according to plan. 1.5 years after the plane disappeared, 6 fragments of the hull were accidentally discovered at distances of more than 4,000 kilometers from the alleged place of its fall into the ocean.

The incident with the Boeing 707 in 1969 is considered one of the most mysterious in the history of world aviation. On board a cargo airliner flying from Tokyo to Los Angeles, there were only 6 people and 153 paintings by the famous Japanese-Brazilian artist Manabu Mabe, their cost was $ 1,240,000.

Despite extensive searches, it was not possible to find any traces of the plane or signs of its fall. One of the versions: the plane was attacked by art collectors, but none of the artist's works have surfaced in the information space even after many years. This is one of the few incidents in which one person was involved in two plane crashes.

Pilot Frederik Valentich was only 19 years old. He was born in Melbourne, always interested in aviation and believed in UFOs. His abilities as a pilot were repeatedly questioned: he twice failed all five exams for a pilot's license and repeatedly got into dangerous situations.

The latter cost him his life.

The case was really strange, and there are plenty of incomprehensible details around it. To begin with, Valentich was going to fly to King Island to take a cargo of lobsters and passengers there, and return with them to Murrabin. After the disappearance, it turned out that there was no cargo or passengers on the island.

Valentich had to fly 235 kilometers from Murrabin Airport. The weather was fine, there was all the equipment on board, and the plane could stay afloat even in the event of a ship crash for at least a few minutes.But then something strange happened. During the flight, Valentich contacted air traffic control in Melbourne several times and reported an unusual aircraft that was chasing him. Valentich could not determine either the type of aircraft or its speed, he assumed that it was a military vessel.

His last message read: "This strange plane hovered over me again. It's hanging... and it's not a plane." These words were followed by 17 seconds of noise, described as "metallic, grinding sounds", after which the connection was cut off. Neither Valentich nor his plane were ever found.

The plane crash of the L-1049H aircraft of the American airline Flying Tiger Lineruen is considered the largest disappearance of an airplane in the XX century by the number of people. There were 107 people on board, the board was flying from the Mariana Islands to the Philippine Islands.

During the flight, the pilot contacted the International Flight Center and, without explanation, requested an increase in cruising altitude. After a while, interference was heard on the air, as if someone was trying to get in touch, but the dispatcher could not make out a word. After that, the connection disappeared.

On board the aircraft were life jackets and an emergency radio transmitter, as well as a signal pistol with 25 rounds. If it were necessary to make an emergency landing on water, emergency means would allow the evacuation of all people on board.

1300 people, 48 planes and 8 surface ships were involved in the search for the missing plane. All efforts to find the plane failed. The board disappeared without a trace. The Commission of the Civil Aviation Council concluded that it could not find the cause of the accident.

The first female pilot to fly over the Atlantic Ocean, who dreamed of traveling around the world and having a child. Amelia went missing while flying over the Pacific Ocean near Howland Island.

Amelia was forty, she spent 16 years of her life in the air: she flew over the very crests of the waves, got into a storm, repeatedly flew across the Atlantic and performed feats that cost the lives of many experienced pilots, but fate did not spare her.In 1936, Amelia was presented with a Lockheed Electra twin-engined monoplane for her birthday — a small plane with which Earhart decided to fulfill her long-standing dream. She planned to fly around the world on the longest route, as close to the equator as possible. Amelia convinced the press and friends that this would be her last flight. And so it turned out.

The first attempt to take off was unsuccessful - the landing gear could not withstand the weight of the aircraft, the tire burst. The plane miraculously did not explode. But that didn't stop Amelia.

In May 1937, together with navigator Fred Noonan, she took off from Lae, a town on the coast of New Guinea. The flight was long and very dangerous: the pilots had to find a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean after 18 hours of non-stop flight. The press and officials of the country were already waiting on Earhart Island. The plane was due to appear over Howland at any minute… But it never happened.

A search and rescue expedition was immediately organized, and it was the largest and most expensive in the history of the American navy. In January 1939, Amelia and her navigator were declared dead.

In 1940, a skeleton was discovered on the uninhabited Pacific atoll of Nikumaroro. It was considered to belong to a man, but in 2016, scientists conducted an anthropological examination, and it showed that the remains could belong to a woman — the same height and ethnicity as Amelia Earhart. There they also found things that may have belonged to Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan: the remains of a flight jacket, a mirror, fragments of aluminum sheets and a cosmetic cream for freckles.