More Than 80 Aircrafts Have Vanished Since 1948

Since 1948, more than 80 aircraft have disappeared in flight, most of which have never been recovered.

Since 1948, more than 80 aircrafts have disappeared in flight, most of which have never been recovered.

Some, like the recent Malaysia Airlines flight that’s gone missing, were large planes carrying hundreds of people.

Among the largest and most populated to vanish prior to it was Air France Flight 447.

The craft and its 228 passengers and crew were classified as missing on June 1st of 2009.

It was 5 days before the wreckage was found, and two years before the plane’s black box was recovered.

Flight 447 had gone down in the mid Atlantic, it was determined, because of a combination of equipment malfunction and poor pilot response.

No such determination was possible for another large lost plane, a Lockheed L1049, as it fell out of sight in March of 1962 and was never located.

That plane had been used by the US military to transport soldiers to Vietnam. Individuals on board numbered 107.

Most flights that have vanished over time, however, were considerably smaller.

Prior to 2014, the average number of passengers traveling on each lost craft was 13.

Since 1948, approximately 1.2 planes have gone missing each year.