Flight MH370 and other disappearing Flights

As an aviator I have taken a great interest in the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370. There are many conspiracy theories  going around. It is amazing how many people believe in UFO’s and alien abdications and so on. With very little evidence as to where the aircraft disappeared to it is not surprising that alien invasion seems a likely explanation. It is not surprise us because even President Ronald Reagan believed in UFO’s as does with Prime Minister Gairy who are fixated with UFO incidents. Maybe they have something on us all in this area.

Without any evidence of a technical fault, technical malfunctions are being ruled out. Some have suggested that the aircraft has decompressed in mid-flight and the aircraft has blown up into pieces.There is also speculation terrorism or highjacking of the aircraft, but nothing is conclusive as yet. Reports of pilot suicide have also made the headlines, but nothing can be confirmed as yet. Some believe that the aircraft is parked either in Malaysia or a remote third world runway and the passengers held hostage, but there has been no request for ransom. 

I will reserve my comments until the black box has been located and hard evidence is found. With all the technology and great strides made in accident investigation and technology, science is not always able to explain some things. However for interests sake, here is more food for thought.  Below are flights that has disappeared of the radar.

The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has confounded the world’s top aviation experts and investigators for the past week, but it is far from the first time an aircraft has gone missing from the skies.

Amelia Earhart (1937)

America’s most famous missing pilot, Amelia Earhart, took off in 1937 on what she hoped would be the first female-piloted circumnavigational flight. She had previously become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

During a descent while in the Pacific Ocean, Earhart radioed that she could not see her landing strip and was running low on gas. Her plane was never found and questions remain today about what really happened to Earhart.

Bermuda Triangle (1940s through 1960s)

Flight 19, made up of a fleet of five Navy torpedo bombers training over the Atlantic in December 1945, disappeared halfway through their training exercise more than 100 miles off the cost of Florida. A search and rescue plane sent to look for them also disappeared.

A slew of planes disappeared in the area known as the Bermuda triangle between the years of 1945 and 1970, including one plane with 32 people on board that was never found.

Pan Am Flight 7 (1957)

On Nov. 8, 1957, Pan Am Flight 7 was en route from San Francisco to Hawaii when it vanished in the Pacific Ocean. The Boeing 337 plane wreckage was found a week later by the Navy aircraft carrier Philippine Sea, which spotted bodies and plane debris floating off course in the ocean northeast of Honolulu.

The crash, which killed 44 people, has never been definitively determined. The mystery was exacerbated by the fact that no distress signals were sent and toxicology reports revealed higher than normal carbon monoxide levels in the bodies of recovered passengers.

Flying Tiger Line (1962)

A U.S. military plane carrying 90 soldiers disappeared during a flight from Guam to the Philippines and left no trace of wreckage or a mayday call.

Stolen Angola Plane (2003)

A Boeing 727 took off from Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport in Luanda, Angola without clearance or a flight plan on May 25, 2003. The plane, which wasn’t painted with an airline logo, hasn’t been seen since.According to the FBI, it was once part of the fleet of a major airline, however it had since been outfitted to carry diesel fuel. Officials said they believed Ben Charles Padilla, an aviation engineer and pilot, may have been on the plane when it disappeared.