Malaysia Airlines Flight Is Not The First Plane To Vanish Without Trace
With speculation rife about what has REALLY happened to the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777, it should be noted that vanishing aircraft are not a new or unique phenomenon.
Since the beginning of aviation history, planes have disappeared without any explanation. In some instances wreckage was subsequently discovered, but many have vanished without trace.
In the present century, a Boeing 727 disappeared in 2003 in the jungles of Angola, after it had been stolen from Luanda airport. No trace has ever been found.
In 2008, a Beechcraft undertaking aerial survey work vanished in the Guyana jungle. Again, it has not been found to this day.
it is, of course, too soon to consider the Malaysian plane to have disappeared permanently, and notification of its whereabouts is likely any hour.
Other notable disappearances without trace include famous aviator Amelia Earhart who went missing somewhere over the Pacific Ocean in 1937. Rumors persist that she landed on a remote island,
The notorious Bermuda Triangle claimed numerous victims from the 1940’s until the 1970’s. In 1945, five navy torpedo bombers disappeared while on a training exercise. The plane sent to search for them also vanished.The area is roughly defined as being between Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and Florida
Over a period of some 30 years, many other aircraft also vanished in this area.
In 1962, a plane carrying 90 soldiers belonging to the Flying Tiger Line disappeared on a flight from Guam to the Philippines. No distress call was sent. and no wreckage ever found.
Since 1950 over 70 aircraft have vanished in mysterious and unexplained circumstances.
What makes the situation with the Malaysian Airlines flight different is that fact that it is a large aircraft equipped the most sophisticated communications and tracking devices.
Given the plethora of radar and satellite surveillance, it is truly astonishing that we still don’t know where the Malaysian plane is.
And when it is discovered, and I say “when” and not “if,” the next question will be – what happened?
