10 most mysterious disappearances of planes and ships with people
Have you ever heard of the mysterious incidents during which the passengers of planes and ships went missing? At best, people were found in a few days, and at worst, news of their fate never appeared again. No remains, no wreckage ...
Sometimes a long-awaited vacation seems like a real fairy tale, from which you really don't want to return home and to work, but be careful in your desires, because sometimes they turn into real disasters. Here is a list of 10 of the most mysterious cases of mass disappearances.
10. The plane of Amelia Earhart (Amelia Earhart)
Our first paragraph focuses on one of the most high-profile disappearance cases in American aviation history. In 1937, the brave Amelia Earhart set out to do something unimaginable - to fly around the globe in her Lockheed Electra aircraft, starting from sunny Florida, and planning to follow the equator. On such a long and dangerous journey, the girl went with her partner - Fred Noonan. The ship disappeared, flying somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. All searches for the plane were unsuccessful, which gave rise to many different theories about what exactly happened to the brave couple of pilots.
In 2017, a version appeared that Amelia and Fred actually survived, but were captured by the Japanese military in the Marshall Islands. This assumption came about thanks to an old photograph taken in 1937. The photo showed a barge towing an unidentified plane. The frame also includes a European-looking man resembling Fred, and a female figure from the back. This version has not been confirmed in any way, but the most amazing thing is that even almost 80 years later, people are still trying to find an answer to the question about the fate of travelers who disappeared so long ago and completely without a trace.
9. Ship "Madagascar"
In 1853 Madagascar embarked on its next flight from Melbourne to London. It was an ordinary ship carrying passengers and cargo. The ship disappeared without a trace, was never seen again, and not even the wreck was found! Like any other missing ship, Madagascar has also attracted public attention. There are many theories about what exactly happened to this ship, but there is something special in this story - the events that happened right before the departure of the voyage from the Australian port are of interest.
Before the disappearance of the ship, 110 passengers boarded, and containers of rice and wool were loaded. However, the most valuable cargo was 2 tons of gold. Three passengers were arrested just before sailing, and the incident led experts to speculate that there might be more criminals aboard the ship than the police had ever anticipated. Perhaps, at sea, the attackers decided to rob "Madagascar" and killed all the passengers so as not to leave witnesses. However, this does not explain why the investigators were never able to find the ship itself.
8. Plane "Stardust"
In 1947, British South American Airways' Stardust took off as scheduled and en route through the famous Argentine Andes. A few minutes before disappearing from radar, the pilot of the aircraft sent a strange message encrypted in Morse code. The message read: "STENDEC". The disappearance of the plane and the mysterious code have greatly puzzled the experts. Rumors of alien abduction even spread among the people. After 53 years, the mystery of the missing flight "Stardust" was still revealed.
In 2000, climbers discovered the remains of an aircraft and the bodies of several passengers at a remote summit of the frosty Andes at an altitude of almost 6,565 meters. Investigators believe that the plane crash could provoke a powerful avalanche, which covered the body of the colossus and hid the traces of the rest of the victims, which is why they were never found. As for the cryptic word STENDEC, the most likely version is considered to be an error in the STR DEC code, which means a common abbreviation for the phrase "starting descent".
7. Steam yacht "SY Aurora"
The history of the SY Aurora clearly demonstrates the power of such ships, but its ending was still quite tragic. A steam yacht is considered to be a sailboat with an additional primary or secondary steam engine. This yacht was originally built for whaling, but later it began to be used for scientific travel to Antarctica. There were as many as 5 such expeditions, and each time the ship showed itself as a reliable vehicle capable of withstanding the most severe weather conditions and successfully protecting the crew members from northern frosts. Nothing could break his power.
In 1917, the SY Aurora disappeared while en route to the coast of Chile. The ship was carrying coal to South America, but it was never able to complete its mission and deliver the cargo to its destination. Historians believe that the yacht could have become a victim of the First World War. The wreckage of the ship was never found, so experts can only guess about the true reasons for the disappearance of the ship.
6. Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571
Unlike several previous stories, this plane did not just crash and sank into oblivion ... Several crew members survived and went through a real nightmare until rescuers found them. In 1972, Flight 571 traveled from Argentina to Chile and carried 40 passengers and 5 crew members. The charter was supposed to take a team of athletes, their relatives and sponsors to the city of Santiago. The aircraft disappeared from radar somewhere in the Argentine Andes. During the crash, 12 passengers died immediately, while the rest had to struggle for 72 days to survive in the harshest conditions, which are practically incompatible with life without special equipment. Although it would be more accurate to say that 72 days for most of them turned out to be too long ...
It is impossible to imagine how terrified all these people were. In the first days of the disaster, 5 more people died from the cold and severe injuries. On one of the following days, the group of survivors was covered by a powerful avalanche, which killed 8 more people. The freezing passengers had a faulty walkie-talkie with them. She allowed to listen to the conversations of the rescuers, but could not transmit messages from the victims. So the people who survived the plane crash learned that their search had been stopped, and the victims themselves were recognized as dead in absentia. This deprived them of almost the last hope, although it is almost impossible to kill the lust for life. Desperate and exhausted athletes and pilots were forced to eat the frozen bodies of their friends, and as a result, out of 45 people, only 16 survived for 2 and a half months, these people were in the real ice hell!
5. Submarine "USS Capelin"
This time it will not be about an airplane or a ship, but about a submarine. The submarine "USS Capelin" was listed on the account of the American army during the Second World War. On its first military voyage, the submarine sank a Japanese cargo ship, after which it was sent to the Australian coast for repair and maintenance before the second mission. On November 17, 1943, the submarine set off on its second mission, and has not been seen since.
As far as experts know, the vessel's route ran through a real sea minefield, so the most likely version is related to the submarine being blown up. However, the wreckage of "USS Capelin" has never been found, so the version with mines will remain just a guess. When the warship embarked on its last mission, there were 76 crew members on board, whose fate their families never knew.
4. Flight 739 by Flying Tiger Line
In 1963, a Lockheed Constellation passenger aircraft was on flight 739. There were 96 passengers and 11 crew on board, all bound for the Philippines. Flying Tiger Line was the first American cargo and passenger airline to operate scheduled flights. After 2 hours of flight, communication with the pilots of the ship was interrupted, and nothing else was heard from them. Probably, the crew did not have time to transmit any message, because the incident was too sudden, and the pilots simply did not have time to send a distress signal.
An American oil corporation tanker was sailing in the same area that day. The crew of this vessel claimed that its members saw a flash in the sky, and they immediately assumed it was an explosion. According to one of the theories, sabotage took place on board the disappeared plane, or they tried to hijack it, which led to the most tragic consequences. However, the wreckage of the plane was never found, so investigators can only guess what actually happened to flight 739 of the Flying Tiger Line.
3. Ship "SS Arctic"
In 1854, the American ship SS Arctic collided with a French steamer. After the impact, both ships remained afloat, but the incident still ended rather sadly. During this accident, almost 350 people died, and for some reason only men survived on board the American ship, and all women and children died during the collision. In addition, the injured SS Arctic continued on its way to the shore, but never reached it.
As it turned out, the American ship was still too damaged to continue sailing safely, and it was because of this that it sank on its way to land. In honor of those who died that day in Brooklyn, a monument was subsequently erected.
2. Malaysian Airlines Flight 370
In 2014, a Malaysian Airlines plane flew to Beijing with 239 people on board. An hour after takeoff, communication with this aircraft was lost, but no distress signal had been received before. Before the disappearance of Flight 370, the radar showed that the plane had lost its course - for some reason, it headed west instead of northeast.
After the disappearance of the airliner, numerous rescue teams were sent in search of it, which carefully combed the alleged crash site in the Indian Ocean. Only a small piece was found. The search was also resumed in 2018, but again to no avail, despite all the efforts and funds expended. What exactly happened to this flight is still a big mystery.
1. Steamer "SS Waratah"
Since November 2008, the SS Waratah has started regular flights from England to Australia via South Africa. The ship could take on board up to 700 passengers and had a hundred first-class cabins. In July 2009, on the way back to Europe, the liner disappeared without a trace, and no one else saw it.
The last port in which the ship was stationed was in Durban, South Africa. After this stop, the steamer was supposed to sail for Cape Town, but never appeared there. Experts have established that the weather has deteriorated greatly during the route from Durban to Cape Town, and they suggest that it was the storm that caused the alleged crash and mysterious disappearance of the SS Waratah.
