Aviation has always come up as a wonder to mankind-to fly above clouds, crossing oceans in some hours is just great. Sometimes, planes go missing and at times leave more questions than answers.
Here are some of the biggest unsolved aviation mysteries which are still shrouded in mystery even today.
1. Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 (2014)
One of the most recent and intriguing aviation mystiques is the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370. It just vanished in 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, carrying 239 people on board. A number of years later-on, a few pieces of the wreckage keep washing ashore, with no one knowing precisely what happened.
Was it one of those hijackings, a catastrophic malfunction, or something entirely different? Perhaps we’ll never find out.
2. Amelia Earhart (1937)
Amelia Earhart was one of the most famous aviators who ever lived. In 1937, she attempted to circle the planet earth but disappeared over the Pacific Ocean with her navigator.
Various theories have been thrown around: whether she crashed on land into the ocean, landed on an uninhabited island, or even was captured by the Japanese. To this date, nobody knows where she rests.
3. Helios Airways Flight 522 (2005)
In 2005, Helios Airways Flight 522 crashed into a mountain in Greece. Everybody was killed in the accident. Fighter jets were scrambled to investigate when the plane stopped responding. Those fighter jets witnessed that the pilots slumped over at the controls.
A loss of cabin pressure probably caused everyone on board to lose consciousness. But what caused the sudden depressurization? That is still a mystery.
4. The DB Cooper Hijacking (1971)
The name D. B. Cooper still fascinates many people to date. He hijacked a plane in 1971, demanded $200,000, and parachuted out somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. Never has anyone found him despite the intensive searches.
Three packets of ransom money were later found in a river many years later, but the mystery of D. B. Cooper’s identity and fate was never solved.
5. TWA Flight 800 (1996)
On the night of July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800 exploded a mere few minutes after taking off from New York. All 230 people on board died. The investigation was one of the most voluminous ever conducted.
What precisely caused this explosion is just hazy. Was it an electrical malfunction, a fuel tank explosion, or something even more sinister, like a bomb? Traces of explosives were found on parts of the wreckage, though nothing was ever found to say for sure.
6. The 1956 B-47 Disappearance
This story is about a disappeared U.S. military plane over the Mediterranean Sea.
In March 1956, a B-47 Stratojet aircraft was scheduled to undergo a mid-air refueling while carrying nuclear material. The jet descended through layers of cloud and never reappeared. Since then, no trace of the plane, crew, or any of the nuclear capsules has ever been found.
Though it is unlikely that the rupturing of the material would be able to cause any detonation, it is still an unnerving risk.
7. Pan Am Flight 7 (1957)
In 1957, a Pan Am Flight 7 took off from San Francisco on a super-luxurious round-the-world jaunt to Honolulu. Somewhere in the Pacific, the flight vanished. No distress signals came out.
A week later, some floating wreckage and bodies were spotted in the ocean, but nobody could determine what went wrong. Speculation ran from sabotage to mechanical failure, but no reason was ever found.
8. EgyptAir Flight 990 (1999)
In 1999, EgyptAir Flight 990 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 217 people aboard the routine flight from New York to Cairo. The official investigation couldn’t come to a definite conclusion.
Was it a mechanical failure or something far darker? One of the final cockpit recordings was a chilling statement from the co-pilot: “I put my faith in God’s hands.” Had one of the pilots deliberately crashed the plane?
9. Flight 19 (1945)
The Bermuda Triangle has its share of mysteries, and Flight 19 is probably the most famous. In December 1945, five Grumman Avenger bombers embarked upon a training flight over the Atlantic.
The experienced crew quickly became disoriented, radioed in a last time, and then vanished. Adding to the strangeness of the mystery, a search plane sent to find them disappeared. Despite extensive searches, nothing was ever found of either the planes or their crews.
10. Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 (1962)
In 1962, a U.S. military transport plane, Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, was flying soldiers to Vietnam. It disappeared over the Pacific-no trace of the plane was ever found in one of the largest searches ever staged.
A few people were able to report witnessing an explosion in the sky, which begat a belief that the plane suffered an in-flight explosion; without any wreckage, this would be pure speculation.
Though we’re making strides in technology, it sometimes feels like for every step forward, two steps back.
Who knows, perhaps there is an answer somewhere out there, but for now, we’ll just have to shrug and accept these cases as unsolved.
