List of previously missing aircraft

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This is a list of previously missing aircraft that disappeared in flight for reasons that were initially never definitely determined. The status of "previously missing" is a grey area, as there is a lack of sourcing on both the amount of debris that needs to be recovered, as well as the amount of time it takes after the crash for the aircraft to be recovered while searching, to fit this definition. According to Annex 13 of the International Civil Aviation Organization, an aircraft is considered to be missing "when the official search has been terminated and the wreckage has not been located", but this does not go into defining found aircraft.[1] The following entries are aircraft that gained widespread acclaim for once being missing.

Legend[edit]

  •   Civilian flight (private, commercial and cargo)
  •   Military flight (patrol, training, transport, etc.)

List of aircraft[edit]

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
Date Aircraft People missing Type of incident Location Remarks
March 23, 1921 Hydrogen balloon
(A-5597) 		5 Unknown Gulf of Mexico off St. Andrews Bay (Florida) Balloon found (without crew) on April 8, 1921.
December 21, 1923 Dixmude
(Ex: Zeppelin LZ114) 		49 Mid-air explosion following lightning strike (suspected) Vicinity of Pantelleria, Italy en route from Gulf of Gabes A total of 42 crew members and 7 passengers were initially reported missing by the French government, who issued its own series of reports of rumoured sightings of the airship. It wasn't until December 26, 1923 when debris & the body of Jean du Plessis de Grenédan (commander) were found in the sea near Sciacca, Sicily that the French government admitted to the loss. Information which included eye witness accounts had been intentionally withheld for political reasons.
November 15, 1924 Fokker T.III
(Fokker 4146) 		2
(Artur de Sacadura Cabral & José Correia) 		Crashed in fog
(probable) 		English Channel en route from Amsterdam to Lisbon Aircraft debris (mechanical wreckage) from the seaplane was discovered on November 18, 1924.[2]
September 7, 1927 Old Glory
(Fokker F.VIIA) 		3 Overloading
(probable) 		North Atlantic 960km E of Cape Race, Newfoundland Wreckage was discovered by SS Kyle on September 12, 1927.[3][4][5]
March 21, 1931 Avro 618 Ten
(VH-UMF) 		8 Severe weather Snowy Mountains,Australia 1931 Avro Ten Southern Cloud disappearance. Flight disappeared en route from Sydney to Melbourne, with 6 passengers and 2 crew on board, despite wide search, including Charles Kingsford Smith who himself would disappear in 1935,[6] no trace was found, until the 26th of October 1958, when it was located in deep bushland in the Snowy Mountains. Severe weather conditions were blamed for the accident. [7] [8]
July 31, 1936 Saro Cloud
(G-ABXW) 		10 Broke up at sea after landing following double engine failure English Channel off Jersey 1936 Jersey Air Disaster
Wreckage found two weeks after the crash.
February 24, 1938 Vickers Wellesley (Type 292)
(K7734[9]) 		3 Unknown North Sea (last reported 80km (50m) east of Wick, Scotland en route to Shetland)[10] The flight crew consisted of Flt. Lt. F.S. Gardner (pilot), F/O G.J.D. Thomson & Sgt. G. Higgs, Long Range Development Unit.[11] Debris was later found near Stavanger (Norway), the Air Ministry concluded that they were parts of the aircraft that went down.[10]
August 16, 1942 L-8 2 Crew fell from blimp (probable) Pacific Ocean in vicinity of San Francisco Two navy officers, Lieutenant Ernest D. Cody and Ensign Charles D. Adams were on a routine anti-submarine patrol. Their airship was later spotted drifting back inland where it crashed with nobody aboard.[12]
August 29, 1943 PV-1 Ventura 6 Engine failure, training flight in low-visibility conditions Mount Baker, Washington State, USA Wreckage found by a hiker in 1994 [13][14]
July 31, 1944 P-38 Lightning 1
(Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) 		Unknown Mediterranean Sea Collecting data on German troop movements in southern France Famous for writing The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince). His bracelet was found by a fisherman in September 1998. Aircraft wreckage found in October 2003 and confirmed on July 4, 2004.
December 17, 1946 Douglas C-47
(NC88876) 		7 Unknown near Tilaran, Costa Rica Non-scheduled flight from Kingston to San Jose. Wreckage found November 29, 1947.
August 2, 1947 Avro Lancastrian 11 Controlled flight into terrain due to severe weather conditions Mount Tupungato, in the Argentine Andes 1947 BSAA Avro Lancastrian Star Dust accident
Some wreckage found in 1998, additional wreckage found in 2000.
March 27, 1963 Piper Tri-Pacer 2 Unknown Dixie National Forest, Utah On 27 March 1963, Wallace C. Halsey, founder of Christ Brotherhood (a UFO religious group) and his business associate Harry Cleveland Ross, Jr. (a former mayor of Seal Beach, California) were flying a small Piper Tri-Pacer aircraft from Utah to Nevada. Ross, the pilot, was the operator of the Meadowlark Airport in Huntington Beach, California, and a veteran aviator with an airline transport rating. The plane was lost and remained so for 13 years despite an extensive air search and attempts by Halsey's UFO coreligionists to locate him using the aid of extraterrestrial beings who indicated the key to the mystery involved the Egyptian pyramids and the number 14.[15] At the time, Halsey was facing federal charges[16] and it was speculated by some that he had fled the country.[17] The wreckage was discovered by a lost deer hunter in rugged mountainous country on 30 October 1976 approximately 30 air miles north of St. George, Utah, some 10-15 miles off the filed flight course. The bodies and wallets of both men were found inside the fuselage, which was crumpled but unburned.[18]
April 23, 1966 Ilyushin Il-14
(CCCP-61772) 		33 Double engine failure South of Baku Aeroflot Flight 2723
Wreckage found by accident a few months later; cause of engine failures never determined.
February 7, 1968 Antonov An-12 98 Unknown Dhaka Glacier 1968 Indian Air Force An-12 crash
Six bodies recovered from 2003-2018; wreckage found in 2018 and additional wreckage found in 2019.
May 23, 1969 Lockheed C-130 Hercules 1
(Sgt. Paul Meyer) 		Theft English Channel 1969 theft of C-130
Some small parts found a few days after the crash; wreck rediscovered in 2018.
October 13, 1972 Fairchild FH-227 45 Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error Remote Argentine Andes, near the border with Chile Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, the "Miracle of the Andes".
Military aircraft chartered for civilian passenger transportation. 16 survivors.
September 3, 2007 American Champion Super Decathlon 1 Flight into terrain probably after encountering downdrafts Sierra Nevada (USA) Extensive search found no trace of the aircraft (although eight unrelated but previously unidentified crash sites were spotted during the search). More than a year after the disappearance, a hiker found ID cards of the pilot. Two days later, the crash site was spotted near the card-find location. A month later, remains were found that DNA tests identified as the pilot. See Steve Fossett.
July 22, 2016 Antonov An-32
(K2743) 		29 Crashed at sea Bay of Bengal 2016 Indian Air Force An-32 crash
Debris found January 12, 2024 140 nautical miles off the Chennai coast confirmed to be from the aircraft.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "International Standards And Recommended Practices. Annex 13 To the Convention on International Civil Aviation" (PDF). EMSA. p. 10. Retrieved September 28, 2018.
  2. ^ Sodré, João. "Sacadura Cabral Pioneer Airman". Vidas Lusophonus. Archived from the original on 15 August 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
  3. ^ "The Atlantic Strikes Back". 2010. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
  4. ^ Mogus, M.A. (2006). "Old Glory's Final Ill-fated Flight: New York to Rome in 1927". Retrieved 4 July 2011.
  5. ^ Earle, Elizabeth; Tibbo, Frank (2010). "SS Kyle & Old Glory 1927". Archived from the original on 2012-01-30. Retrieved 4 July 2011.
  6. ^ "On this day: Kingsford Smith disappears". 21 January 2014.
  7. ^ "From the Archives, 1958: The Southern Cloud mystery solved after 27 years". 24 October 2019.
  8. ^ "Air mystery of the mountains". 22 November 2019.
  9. ^ "Casualties – January–December 1938". www.rafweb.org. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-31.
  10. ^ a b "The mystery of Wellesley K7734". Aviation Research Group of Orkney & Shetland. 2010. Archived from the original on 2011-08-25. Retrieved 2011-07-31.
  11. ^ "Flying Accident". Flight Magazine. XXXIII (1524). London: Reed Business Information: 239. 1938-03-10. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved 2011-07-31.
  12. ^ Mizokami, Kyle (August 17, 2017). "The Goodyear Blimp Has a Ghostly, Mysterious Past". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
  13. ^ "Crash of a Lockheed PV-1 Ventura on Mt Baker: 6 killed | Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives".
  14. ^ "Mount Baker Hiker Finds Wwii Plane Wreckage | the Seattle Times".
  15. ^ Bateman, Wes (1 June 1993). Knowledge from the Stars. Light Technology Publishing. pp. 100–102. ISBN 9780929385396.
  16. ^ "2 Face Drug Charge". Salt Lake City, UT, US: Deseret News and Telegram. 7 June 1962. p. E17. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  17. ^ Halsey, Larry Burgess (29 January 2017). "When Silence Fell". FamilySearch.
  18. ^ O'Reilley, Richard (3 November 1976). "Remains of Ex-Seal Beach Mayor Found at Crash Site". The Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California, US. p. 164. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
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