A Malaysian passenger plane carrying 239 people, including 227 passengers and 12 crew members, has lost contact with air traffic control after leaving Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, the carrier said on March 8, 2014. This undated file photo from the internet shows a Malaysia Airlines' Boeing 777 passenger plane. [Photo/Xinhua]
2009: Crash of Air France Flight AF447
Before the MH370 went missing, the most recent case was that of Air France flight AF447. The flight carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris vanished over the Atlantic Ocean on June 1 2009, after a few hours in the air. On June 6 and 7, the Brazilian military found wreckage, and bodies of some of the passengers. But what exactly had happened remained unknown until two years later when two black box recorders were found. In June 2012 French investigators issued their final report: ice crystals had obstructed air speed gauges in the aircraft, causing the autopilot to disconnect. The crew reacted incorrectly and the plane plunged into the ocean. All 228 passengers on board died.
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A mechanical arm, seen in this image published on the web site of France's BEA air accident inquiry office May 1, 2011, holds an orange cylindrical flight data recorder above the sand. Deep sea search parties have found one of two flight data recorders from an Air France flight that crashed off the coast of Brazil in 2009, reviving hopes of understanding what caused the crash. French investigators said in a statement that the flight data recorder, or black box, had been fished up at 1000 GMT and hauled up to the deck of a search boat later in the day. [Photo/Xinhua,Agencies]
2003: Mysterious disappearance of a Boeing 727 plane in Angola
A Boeing 727 with series number N844AA suddenly took off from the Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport, Angola on May 25, 2003. It took off with headlights and transponders switched off, and the air controller failed to get any response from the flight. Various theories have been put forward: the plane had been hijacked, or was to be used in a terrorist attack, or crashed somewhere. Its whereabouts remain unknown.
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File photo of Boeing 727
1999: Egypt Air Flight 990
Egypt air plane 990 was a Boeing 767 scheduled to travel from Los Angeles to Cairo with a stop at New York on Oct 31, 1999. 60 minutes after departing from the John F. Kennedy International Airport, the plane vanished from radar and disconnected with air traffic control. The plane made a rapid descent in 36 seconds, and crashed into the Atlantic south of Massachusetts killing 217 passengers and crew.
Although debris was later found, the cause of this accident has never been fully established. According to the NTSB, the American investigatory body, a possible theory is that co-pilot committed suicide. But Egypt claims it was a mechanical failure. The Egyptian report suggested various control failure scenarios as possible causes of the crash.
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Egyptair SU-GAP Boeing 767-300 at Dusseldorf Airport. The aircraft crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 1999 as Egyptair Flight 990. File Photo
1996: TWA Flight 800
The Paris-bound American Trans World Airlines flight 800 (TWA800), exploded in midair shortly after departure from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on July 17 1996. All 212 passengers and 18 crew members died.
The accident was suspected of being a terrorist attack, but after a 16-month FBI investigation, no conclusive evidence was found to support this theory. 4 years later, in a final report released on August 23 2000, the National Transportation Safety Board said the explosion was caused by an electrical short circuit that detonated the fuel tank and broke the plane into pieces over the waters off Long Island.
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Flight 800 wreckage recovered and reconstructed. File Photo
1947: BSAA Star Dust
British South American Airways Star Dust disappeared in the Argentine Andes after leaving from Buenos Aires bound for Chile. The plane and 11 occupants have never been found in the subsequent 50 years.
In 1998 an Argentine rock climber found debris from the plane engine at a possible crash site. Imaginative theories of an alien abduction were finally invalid dated in 2000, when more remains and wreckage of the plane were found buried deep in a glacier. But the last communication that the Star Dust sent to air traffic control – the word "STENDEC" in Morse code - has never been deciphered.
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File photo of a BSAA's plane
1945: US Air Force Flight 19
US Air Force Flight 19, consisting of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers, took off from Fort Lauderdale naval base in Florida on Dec 15, 1945, and never returned.
Led by an experienced commander with another 13 trainee aviators, Flight 19 was lost over the Bermuda Triangle during an overwaternavigation training excercise. A Navy investigation failed to determine the cause of the loss and found no traces of the planes. It concluded that the commander had got lost when compasses malfunctioned. Even more mysteriously, a search plane sent to look for Flight 19 also vanished.
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File photo of the Flight 19 Avengers
1942: British Kittyhawk P-40
A British Royal Air Force (RAF) flight crashed in the burning heat of the Sahara desert in June 1942, and was not rediscovered until May 10 2012, when a Polish oil company found it in west Egypt. The plane was well-preserved; historians have described it as "an incredible time capsule" and "the aviation equivalent of Tutankhamun's Tomb".
However the pilot's body was never found. It is thought that he survived the crash but died trying to walk out of the desert.
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A Hawk 87A-3 (Kittyhawk Mk IA) serial number AK987, in a USAAF 23d Fighter Group paint scheme, at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. File Photo
1937: Aviator Amelia Earhart and her plane
Amelia Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and also was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She and her plane disappeared in July of 1937, and the cause of her disappearance has never been established.
She was attempting to fly around the world in 1937, but radio contact was lost over Howland Island in the mid-Pacific, and never re-established. After an extensive search, neither her body nor the plane was ever found. On January 15, Amelia Earhart was declared dead. Many theories still circulate concerning her disappearance.
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L–R: Neta Snook and Amelia Earhart in front of Earhart's Kinner Airster, 1921. File photo
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