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Five Strangest Plane Crashes of the 21st Century
Five strangest plane crashes of the 21st Century
For people living in the modern era flying has become a necessity, whether it's for business or pleasure, it’s undoubtedly the quickest and easiest way to travel the globe, however, if you are in the 30% of the population that have a fear of flying then recent events will have done little to reassure your conscience.
Last years disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 over the Indian Ocean and then the shooting down of MH17 four months later shocked the public, but events this year including the crash of a Germanwings Airbus in the Alps and the recent Russian crash in Egypt have played havoc with the public’s fears.
Here we try to decipher the five strangest plane crashes in recent history.
5) Air France Flight 477, May 31st 2009, Deaths: 228
Flying over the Atlantic Ocean, in one of the few places that radar contact is not possible, Flight 477 disappeared without a trace. This led to many theories, some claiming a government conspiracy of some kind, after all 5+3+1=9 and 2+0+0+9=11 equals 9/11, and some even more bizarre theories claiming that Flight 477 had been involved in a secret collision with an alien spacecraft.
Following the recovery of the plane's black box two years after the crash, investigators concluded that the plane had stalled when the autopilot had been disengaged, forcing the plane to nosedive into the sea, resulting in the loss of everyone on board.
Passengers on board Flight 477 included Prince Pedro Luiz a prince of the abolished Brazilian throne, and Pablo Dreyfus, a notable expert and campaigner in the field of illegal drugs and weapons leading to speculation of assassinations.
4) Helios Airways Flight 522, August 14th 2005, Deaths: 121
Travelling from Cyprus to Prague, Flight 522 lost contact with air traffic controllers at approximately 10am somewhere between Cyprus and Greece. After losing contact with the aircraft Greek authorities decided to scramble two F-16 fighter jets with orders to investigate. When the jets located the airliner they saw the first officer slumped at the controls with the plane's pilot nowhere to be seen. The plane was travelling on autopilot, and was headed in a straight line.
Air steward Andreas Prodromou was however, still conscious. The jet pilots witnessed Prodromou enter the cabin and wrestle with the controls for a short while before one of the engines exploded due to fuel exhaustion, the plane then slowly descended before crashing into a hillside 25 miles north of Athens.
It is thought that the plane crash was caused by the depressurisation of the cabin, a result of improper checks by the flight crew. It is however, not known how many people were aware of the situation during the 2 hours the pilotless plane travelled.
3) Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, July 17th 2014, Deaths: 298
The destruction of MH17 over Eastern Ukraine was a tragedy that almost brought the West and Russia to the brink of war. MH17 was shot down by a missile fired from a BUK anti aircraft system when it flew over Donetsk during the Ukrainian Civil War in 2014.
Who was responsible has been the centre of a debate since the incident occurred, with Western officials blaming pro-Russian separatists and Russian officials blaming Ukraine.
One interesting theory states that it was an attempt by rogue Ukrainian soldiers to assassinate Vladimir Putin. Both Putin’s plane and MH17 had a similar red and white paint scheme, furthermore, both planes had been flying on the same trajectory, which meant that they had actually crossed paths over Warsaw with Putin flying home from a conference in Brazil.
Another theory states that due to there being a number of HIV/AIDS experts who were on their way to a major international conference in Melbourne the shooting down of MH17 was an attempt by the ‘global elite’ to hinder the search for a cure for the disease.
2) Kogalymavia/Metrojet KGL9268, 31st October 2015, Deaths: 224
The recent Metrojet crash is shrouded in speculation because the official cause has yet to be revealed. The Metrojet flight to Saint Petersburg crashed in the Sinai Peninsula, an area where known terrorist groups such as ISIS operate after the plane broke up mid flight. This has led to speculation of terrorist involvement, especially after ISIS released a video claiming to have destroyed the plane in retaliation for recent Russian actions in Syria.
Russian officials however, deny the ISIS claim stating that they ‘can’t be considered accurate’. Furthermore, it is not thought that the terrorists in Sinai possess missiles such as the BUK which was used to shoot down flight MH17 last year.
One of the possible causes being investigated is a small bomb being placed on board prior to the flight taking off, with even the smallest of holes in the plane being potentially fatal to those on board.
1) Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, 8th March 2014, Deaths: 239
In one of the strangest incidents of all time Flight MH370 was en route to Beijing when it disappeared without a trace. This sparked a range of conspiracy theories with over 100,000 related videos appearing on Youtube.
One theory states that the plane may have been hijacked for use at a later date by an unknown terrorist group or rogue state. Christopher Green of Alternative Media Television claims that the plane was hijacked and fitted with explosives with the intention of being used in a terrorist plot at a later date. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch tweeted that the disappearance of flight MH370 ‘confirms jihadists turning to make trouble for China’
Of course, as with any good conspiracy theory there is mention of CIA involvement, and that is what Chinese blogger He Xin claims. Stating that the disappearance of MH370 was the result of an American plot to retrieve a ‘special person or object’ that the was located on the plane.
Another theory is that the plane was shot down, this theory which is one of the most widely supported was expanded on in the book ‘Flight MH370: The Mystery’ by British based author Nigel Cawthorne. The book received criticism for being insensitive by relatives of those on board Flight MH370, but Cawthorne thinks that the plane was shot down in a ‘live fire’ exercise involving the U.S Navy.
After a piece of MH370’s wing washed up on Reunion Island it appeared as if the plane had been destroyed at some point, no other pieces have washed up adding further mystery to the story. With investigators pretty clueless suspicion fell on the pilot's actions that day, but nothing suggests that pilot Zaharie Shah or copilot Fariq Harid took any unusual actions that day.
All this is very strange, but don't let it put you off flying!
