New Delhi: A plane carrying 64 passengers, including crew members, on Wednesday collided with an Army helicopter while landing at Ronal Regan National Airport near Washington. A large search and rescue operation is underway near the Potomac River. Multiple fatalities have been recorded, but the precise number of victims is unclear.
Every year, we learn about air disasters. While some happen in front of humans’ eyes, there are also cases where the aeroplane disappeared, and no information was available. One recent mysterious aeroplane disaster is Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared from the sky on March 8, 2014. In this article, let us look at six such mysterious aeroplane disasters.
Mysterious Plane Crashes
Malaysia Airlines Flight (MH370)
Malaysia Airlines Flight (MH370) vanished on March 8, 2014, while carrying 239 people. The plane left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing but never arrived. Rescuers searched the seabed and the Indian Ocean for months but found no evidence and eventually stopped the search.
Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, 1972
Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 disappeared without a trace in 1962. A Lockheed Constellation flew across the Pacific Ocean with 96 soldiers and 11 crew members on board. A large search and rescue mission was launched, but no one could find any evidence of the aircraft. Some speculated that the plane had been hijacked or sabotaged, but there was no proof to support this. Sailors aboard a Liberian tanker reported seeing a fireball in the sea, which suggested that Flight 739 may have exploded in mid-air. However, this could not be confirmed.
EgyptAir Flight 990, October 31, 1999
In 1999, EgyptAir Flight 990, a Boeing 767, took off from Los Angeles but crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. All 217 passengers and crew members died. The Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority suspected mechanical failure, while the National Transportation and Safety Board believed the pilot may have committed suicide.
Air France Flight 447, June 1, 2009
On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447, which was travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, went missing. The plane had 216 passengers and 12 crew members. It disappeared over the ocean during early morning darkness and was not in radar coverage. Air France took six hours to acknowledge that the flight had lost contact. Even when some wreckage was found in 2011, the mystery remained unsolved. There was no distress signal, even though the plane flew into a storm.
Amelia Earhart, 1937
Amelia Earhart attempted to be the first woman to fly around the world in 1937. She and her navigator, Fred Noonan, took off from Papua New Guinea to Howland Island, a flight of 4,114 kilometres. They needed only 7,000 kilometres more to complete their journey. During the flight, overcast skies and rain made navigation difficult. Amelia radioed the coast guard, saying, “We must be on you, but we cannot see you. Fuel is running low…We are running north and south.” This was her last transmission, and her plane never reached its destination. The largest search in aviation history occurred over 647,497 square kilometres, but no trace of her plane was found.
Star Dust Crash in 1947
In 1947, another flight, the Star Dust, went missing in the Andes. The British South American Airways plane was travelling from Buenos Aires to Santiago. Its wreckage was not found until the 1990s, about 50 years later. In 2000, frozen body parts of passengers were discovered preserved in the glacial ice.
This article explores six mysterious aeroplane disasters, highlighting the unsolved circumstances surrounding their disappearance or crash. From the infamous Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, these cases remain enigmas despite extensive investigations. knowledge Knowledge News, Photos and Videos on General Knowledge
