There are many planes that have just disappeared over the years. Some of them were searched for, for weeks without ever a trace of them being found. There probably have been planes disappearing ever since there was flying. Before that, there were probably missing balloons. When we talk of missing planes, one of the most famous of all times was Amelia Earhart's plane. Amelia Earhart was a very famous female pilot, that had decided to circumnavigate the globe in her plane, in 1937. It was quite an attempt for those days. She took off on June 1st with here navigator Fred Noonan and headed out for the 29,000 mile trip. It took her until June 29th to reach New Guinea, a trip of 7,000 miles. She removed all non essential items from her plane, to make room for more fuel. One of the islands that she was going to land on was only a one and a half miles long and a half a mile wide. It was almost like landing on an aircraft carrier and not only that, it was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and you had to find it. Earhart took off on July 2, but flew into bad weather. The last message ever hear from her was, "We are running north and south.". The plane was never found and many tales have sprung up about the flight.

Avenger Aircraft
Photo Source: US Navy

Another famous incident includes five planes that disappeared at the same time. The flight left the Naval Training Station at Fort Lauderdale, Florida on December 5, 1945. It consisted of five Avenger aircraft, which were to fly out to an island, then turn around and fly back. They never made it back and no trace was found of them. The interesting part of this is, that the area the flight went over was the Bermuda Triangle. All sorts of theories about the flight have sprung up over the years. Since the area was the Bermuda Triangle, some people have accused ufos of foul play. The truth of the matter is, that this area often effects instruments. It is thought that the instruments betrayed the crew, when they were out of sight of land and the planes headed in the wrong direction. It is theorized that they kept going until they ran out of fuel. Over the years many divers have discovered Avenger aircraft in the water, but as far as I know, none of them were part of this flight. Fourteen crew men were lost.

In the years from 1989 to 1999, fifty-three planes were lost that were never found. Some planes disappear in very strange ways. One plane, a Learjet, was trying to land at an airport in Lebanon, New Hampshire. The year was 1996 and the weather was terrible. It was raining and windy. At one point the pilot realized that he wasn't close enough to the runway. The plane was not receiving the signal from the airport, so they decided to turn it around and try and approach again. The plane remained on radar for a few minutes, then disappeared. As strange as it sounds, the plane disappeared and no sign of it was ever found. You have to wonder how a plane that was making a landing approach, could just vanish? A lot of people attribute paranormal events to something like this, but the truth of the matter is that the plane had to make a big circle and may have went down in the ocean and that is why it disappeared.

More planes go down in Alaska than anywhere else and many of them are never found. The reason for this is that there are so many crevices and areas in the ice where a plane can go into, that makes finding downed aircraft in Alaska a very difficult proposition. Other reasons that Alaska has so many planes go down is the weather and the fact that they seem to have a lot of small planes flying around. Small planes are used to get supplies to some of the remote areas there and some places are only accessible by plane.

B-24 Bomber
Photo Source: US Air Force

We all know that planes are lost in war. One plane that was shot down was a B-24 bomber with a crew of ten. Many planes were shot down, but this one bomber was shot down over a particular island and yet there was no sign of either the crew or the plane. A search went on, but nothing was found. The families of the crewmen are still trying to find out what happened to them and this is over sixty years later. It is estimated that over 78,000 U.S. servicemen went missing and were never found. This includes men that were not only pilots of course. It is very difficult to accept the fact that nothing of the plane or crew could be found, since the location where the plane went down was known. I guess the fact that ocean currents could have carried the plane and the bodies of the crew many miles away, might have had something to do with it.

Sometimes planes disappear in areas where you can understand the difficulties in finding them. One search ended after about two weeks. The plane disappeared over a heavily wooded area in the state of Washington. Since the plane was small, it was easily hidden by the branches from the trees. Search teams can just go along so long. It is a hard fact of life, but people have to get on with their businesses and such. Another thing to be considered, is that area where the plane went down. If it is an area where it is very cold, then there is only a certain amount of time that people are estimated to be able to survive.

There is a story that a military fighter was chasing a ufo. The ufo accelerated and the fighter plane did too. As the plane was getting near the ufo, it is said that some sort of beam came out for the disc and enveloped the plane. The next thing that was said to have happened was that the plane was pulled into the ufo and then the ufo flew away. It is said that the plane and pilot have never been seen since. Is this a true story? A lot of people say that it is and I have heard it many times, but I don't have any concrete proof that it really happened.

Light Aircraft
Photo Source: Stock.xching

Steve Fossett was known as an adventurer. In September 2007 he set out in his plane to go for a short flight, never to be seen again. Here is the ironic part of this, the man was known for a series of dangerous things he had done. He took off from Yerington, Nevada and was flying a Citabria Super Decathlon single engine plane, that was capable of holding two people. He was supposed to return the same day by noon, but no one ever saw him again. An intense search was conducted all around the Nevada California border, because this is where he said he was going. Many airplanes and a helicopter took part in the search, but the plane had disappeared and so had Mr. Fossett. He had filed no flight plan and an electronic signal from the plane was never located.

About two hundred people die every year in the U.S. from plane crashes. This is far less than the amount of people who die in car crashes, which is about 6,800. I only mention this because we are talking about missing planes. I have heard it stated that about 50 to 60 planes disappear every year. It is true that every few years we hear about some famous person disappearing with his plane. Sometimes the planes and even the bodies are found and sometimes there are no trace of either. You would think that with all the technology that we have at our command, that this wouldn't be the case anymore. I guess small planes need stronger signaling equipment, that is something with a larger range. A new system is starting to get popular. That is one that deployes a large parachute that allows a disabled light plane to descend harmlessly to the ground. This still won't help much with people that are forced into the ocean in isolated areas, but it is a terrific thing for the rest of the pilots.