This is a list of previously missing

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...

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 The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...

, 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. The following entries are aircraft that gained widespread acclaim for once being missing.

Legend

* *

List of aircraft

{, class="wikitable sortable" , - ! Date ! Aircraft ! People missing ! Type of incident ! Location ! Remarks , -style="background: #B5E9AF;" , ,

Hydrogen balloon Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...

( A-5597) , style="text-align: center;", 5 , style="text-align: center;", Unknown , , Balloon found (without crew) on April 8, 1921. , - , , '' Dixmude''
(Ex:

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

LZ114) , style="text-align: center;", , style="text-align: center;", Storm damage or mid-air explosion
(suspected) , , 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 Jean Joseph Anne, comte du Plessis de Grenédan (1892–1923) was a French naval officer, who died on 21 or 22 December 1923 when the airship ''Dixmude'', of which he was the commander, exploded over the Mediterranean Sea near Sicily. Early life ...

(commander) were found in the sea near

Sciacca Sciacca (; Greek: ; Latin: Thermae Selinuntinae, Thermae Selinuntiae, Thermae, Aquae Labrodes and Aquae Labodes) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Agrigento on the southwestern coast of Sicily, southern Italy. It has views of the Medit ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

that the French government admitted to the loss. Information which included eye witness accounts had been intentionally withheld for political reasons. , - , , Fokker T.III
(''Fokker 4146'') , style="text-align: center;", 2
( Artur de Sacadura Cabral & José Correia) , style="text-align: center;", Crashed in fog
(probable) ,

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

''en route'' from

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

to Lisbon , Aircraft debris (mechanical wreckage) from the seaplane was discovered on November 18, 1924. , - , , '' Old Glory''
(Fokker F.VIIA) , style="text-align: center;", 3 , style="text-align: center;", Overloading
(probable) , , Wreckage was discovered by SS ''Kyle'' on September 12, 1927. , - , ,

Avro 618 Ten The Avro 618 Ten or X was a passenger transport aircraft of the 1930s. It was a licensed version by Avro of the Fokker F.VIIB/3m. Development In 1928 Avro came to an arrangement with Fokker to license production of its successful F.VIIB/3m fo ...

(VH-UMF) , style="text-align: center;", 8 , style="text-align: center;", Severe Weather , {{sort, Snowy Mountains, Australia ,

1931 Avro Ten Southern Cloud disappearance The ''Southern Cloud'', registered VH-UMF, was one of five Avro 618 Ten three-engined aircraft flying daily airline services between Australian cities for Australian National Airways in the early 1930s. Disappearance On 21 March 1931, the '' ...

. Flight disappeared en route from Sydney to Melbourne, with 6 passengers and 2 crew on board, despite wide search, including Charles Kingford Smith who himself would disappear in 1935, 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. , - , {{dts, July 31, 1936 , Saro Cloud
(G-ABXW) , style="text-align: center;", 10 , style="text-align: center;", 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. , - , -style="background: #B5E9AF;" , {{dts, February 24, 1938 , Vickers Wellesley (Type 292)
(K7734{{cite web, url=http://www.rafweb.org/Members%20Pages/Casualties/1930s/Casualties_1939.htm#02 , title=Casualties – January–December 1938 , year=2011 , publisher=www.rafweb.org , access-date=2011-07-31 (Subscription required)) , style="text-align: center;", 3 , style="text-align: center;", Unknown , {{sort, North Sea,

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

(last reported 80km (50m) east of

Wick Wick most often refers to: * Capillary action ("wicking") ** Candle wick, the cord used in a candle or oil lamp ** Solder wick, a copper-braided wire used to desolder electronic contacts Wick or WICK may also refer to: Places and placename ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

''en route'' to Shetland){{cite web, url=http://www.crashsiteorkney.com/page15.htm, title=The mystery of Wellesley K7734, year=2010, publisher=Aviation Research Group of Orkney & Shetland, access-date=2011-07-31, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110825092319/http://www.crashsiteorkney.com/page15.htm, archive-date=2011-08-25, url-status=dead , The flight crew consisted of Flt. Lt. F.S. Gardner (pilot), F/O G.J.D. Thomson & Sgt. G. Higgs, Long Range Development Unit.{{cite journal , date = 1938-03-10 , title = Flying Accident , journal = Flight Magazine , volume = XXXIII , issue = 1524 , pages = 239 , publisher = Reed Business Information , location = London , url = http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1938/1938%20-%200663.html , access-date = 2011-07-31 , format = PDF Debris was later found near Stavanger (

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

), the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...

concluded that they were parts of the aircraft that went down. , -style="background: #B5E9AF;" , {{dts, August 16, 1942 ,

L-8 L-8, later renamed ''America'' and popularly known as the "Ghost Blimp", was a United States Navy L-class airship whose crew disappeared over the Pacific Ocean on August 16, 1942. At 11:15 a.m., several hours after the airship lifted off from ...

, style="text-align: center;", 2 , style="text-align: center;", Crew fell from blimp (probable) , {{sort, San Francisco,

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

in vicinity of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, 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. , -style="background: #B5E9AF;" , {{dts, August 29, 1943 ,

PV-1 Ventura The Lockheed Ventura is a twin-engine medium bomber and patrol bomber of World War II. The Ventura first entered combat in Europe as a bomber with the RAF in late 1942. Designated PV-1 by the United States Navy (US Navy), it entered combat in ...

, style="text-align: center;", 6 , style="text-align: center;", Engine failure, training flight in low-visibility conditions , {{sort, Mount Baker,

Mount Baker Mount Baker (Lummi: '; nok, Kw’eq Smaenit or '), also known as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan, is a active glacier-covered andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington in the United States. Mount ...

, Washington State, USA , Wreckage found by a hiker in 2004 , -style="background: #B5E9AF;" , {{dts, July 31, 1944 ,

P-38 Lightning The Lockheed P-38 Lightning is an American single-seat, twin piston-engined fighter aircraft that was used during World War II. Developed for the United States Army Air Corps by the Lockheed Corporation, the P-38 incorporated a distinctive tw ...

, style="text-align: center;", 1
( Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) , style="text-align: center;", Unknown , {{sort, Mediterranean Sea,

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

''Collecting data on

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

troop movements in southern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

'' , Famous for writing ''

The Little Prince ''The Little Prince'' (french: Le Petit Prince, ) is a novella by French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 an ...

'' (''

Le Petit Prince ''The Little Prince'' (french: Le Petit Prince, ) is a novella by French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 and ...

''). His bracelet was found by a fisherman in September 1998. Aircraft wreckage found in October 2003 and confirmed on July 4, 2004. , - , {{dts, December 17, 1946 ,

Douglas C-47 The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota (Royal Air Force, RAF, Royal Australian Air Force, RAAF, Royal Canadian Air Force, RCAF, Royal New Zealand Air Force, RNZAF, and South African Air Force, SAAF designation) is a airlift, military transport ai ...

(NC88876) , style="text-align: center;", 7 , style="text-align: center;", Unknown , near Tilaran, Costa Rica , Non-scheduled flight from Kingston to San Jose. Wreckage found November 29, 1947. , - , {{dts, August 2, 1947 ,

Avro Lancastrian The Avro 691 Lancastrian was a Canadian and British passenger and mail transport aircraft of the 1940s and 1950s developed from the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber. The Lancaster was named after Lancaster, Lancashire; a Lancastrian is an inhabita ...

, style="text-align: center;", 11 , style="text-align: center;", Controlled flight into terrain due to severe weather conditions , Mount

Tupungato Tupungato, one of the highest mountains in the Americas, is a massive Andean lava dome dating to Pleistocene times. It lies on the border between the Chilean Metropolitan Region (near a major international highway about east of Santiago) and t ...

, in the Argentine Andes ,

1947 BSAA Avro Lancastrian Star Dust accident On 2 August 1947, ''Star Dust'', a British South American Airways (BSAA) Avro Lancastrian airliner on a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Santiago, Chile, crashed into Mount Tupungato in the Argentine Andes. An extensive search operat ...

Some wreckage found in 1998, additional wreckage found in 2000. , - , March 27, 1963 , Piper Tri-Pacer , 2 , Unknown ,

Dixie National Forest Dixie National Forest is a United States National Forest in Utah with headquarters in Cedar City. It occupies almost two million acres (8,000 km²) and stretches for about across southern Utah. The largest national forest in Utah, it st ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, 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.{{Cite book , last=Bateman , first=Wes , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DZ5HtcooRg0C&dq=The+incredible+search+for+Dr.+Halsey&pg=PA100 , title=Knowledge from the Stars , publisher=Light Technology Publishing , date=1 June 1993 , pages=100–102, isbn=9780929385396 At the time, Halsey was facing federal charges{{cite news , date=7 June 1962 , title=2 Face Drug Charge , page=E17 , publisher=Deseret News and Telegram , location=Salt Lake City, UT, US , url=https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6jd9twm , access-date=28 May 2022 and it was speculated by some that he had fled the country.{{Cite web , last=Halsey , first=Larry Burgess , date=29 January 2017 , title=When Silence Fell , url=https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/LLQ3-FLJ , website=FamilySearch 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 St. George is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Utah, United States. Located in southwestern Utah on the Arizona border, it is the principal city of the St. George Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The city lies in the northe ...

, 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.{{cite news , last1=O'Reilley , first1=Richard , date=3 November 1976 , title=Remains of Ex-Seal Beach Mayor Found at Crash Site , page=164 , work=The Los Angeles Times , location=Los Angeles, California, US , url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8879479/wallace-carey-halsey-found/ , access-date=28 May 2022 , - , {{dts, April 23, 1966 ,

Ilyushin Il-14 The Ilyushin Il-14 (NATO reporting name: Crate) was a Soviet twin-engine commercial and military personnel and cargo transport aircraft that first flew in 1950 in aviation, 1950, and entered service in 1954. The Il-14 was also manufactured in Eas ...

(CCCP-61772) , style="text-align: center;", {{nts, 33 , style="text-align: center;", Double engine failure , {{sort, Azerbaijan, South of Baku ,

Aeroflot Flight 2723 Aeroflot Flight 2723 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight from Bina International Airport to Makhachkala Airport. On 23 April 1966 the Ilyushin Il-14 operating the route ditched in the Caspian Sea following engine problems. Aircraft The Ilyu ...

Wreckage found by accident a few months later; cause of engine failures never determined. , -style="background: #B5E9AF;" , {{dts, February 7, 1968 , Antonov An-12 , style="text-align: center;", 98 , style="text-align: center;", 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. , -style="background: #B5E9AF;" , {{dts, May 23, 1969 ,

Lockheed C-130 Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally desig ...

, style="text-align: center;", 1
(Sgt. Paul Meyer) , style="text-align: center;", Theft ,

, 1969 theft of C-130
Some small parts found a few days after the crash; wreck rediscovered in 2018. , - , {{dts, October 13, 1972 ,

Fairchild FH-227 The Fairchild F-27 and Fairchild Hiller FH-227 were versions of the Fokker F27 Friendship twin-engined turboprop passenger aircraft manufactured under license by Fairchild Hiller in the United States. The Fairchild F-27 was similar to the stand ...

, style="text-align: center;", 45 , style="text-align: center;", Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error , Remote Argentine

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

, near the border with Chile ,

Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 The Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was a chartered flight from Montevideo, Uruguay, bound for Santiago, Chile, that crashed in the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972. The accident and subsequent survival became known as the Andes flight disast ...

, the ''"Miracle of the Andes"''.
Military aircraft chartered for civilian passenger transportation. 16 survivors. , - , {{dts, September 3, 2007 ,

American Champion Super Decathlon The American Champion 8KCAB Decathlon and Super Decathlon are two-seat fixed conventional gear light airplanes designed for flight training and personal use and capable of sustaining aerobatic stresses between +6g and −5 ''g''. The Decath ...

, style="text-align: center;", 1 , style="text-align: center;", 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 James Stephen Fossett (April 22, 1944 – September 3, 2007) was an American businessman and a record-setting aviator, sailor, and adventurer. He was the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon and in a fixed-wing aircraf ...

References

{{reflist Dis Dis

Legend

List of aircraft

See also

References