In the history of aviation there are some of the most perplexing disappearances and mysteries that resist being solved to this day. In 1966 General Curtis Le May of Strategic Air Command was quoted as saying about UFO’s, “There were things that we could not, I repeat, never have explained concerning Unidentified Flying Objects.” Aside from merely chasing unknown aerial vessels that simply outclass our best jet fighters, it’s the vanishing of air personnel that exceeds even the mystery of UAPs.

Three cases that to this very day escape explanation are to follow. They make the phenomenon of disappearance to represent the utmost challenge in the minds of those who wish to go down the rabbit hole of the forbidden in search of the illusive paradox of uncertainty. The seemingly impossible, we think, must surely have a rational explanation, yet, we find nothing but thin air without a witness or even a clue. Flight has always presented men with a new set of boundaries and rules we don’t always perceive with the results ending in tragedy or to be forever unexplained.

The case of Foxtrot 94

The year is 1970 and a British all weather high speed interceptor, the RAF Lightning is over the North Sea when suddenly the pilot is faced with something else. Call sign Foxtrot 94 is offshore in the north Atlantic when the aircraft seems to go down due to unclear circumstances, perhaps pilot error. The pilot does not eject. In relatively shallow water, search and rescue efforts take weeks in locating the crashed fighter, but a bizarre discovery is made. William Schaffner, the combat pilot was nowhere to be found. If he had not ejected then his cockpit would have remained closed and sealed. His body would have to have been confined to the aircraft, but instead there was no one seated in the plane. Where had this American pilot, brought over to Great Britain through a NATO pilot exchange program, gone?

Prior to the strange incident a shadowing exercise had been underway where British Lightning pilots practice trying to shadow a slower moving aircraft. Previously, two Lightning jet fighters had been scrambled to intercept an unknown radar target, which in reality had been a RAF Shackleton reconnaissance plane. When the two lost track of the their target they returned to RAF Binbrook  Base and a flight of two F-4 Phantoms from a NATO base having more sophisticated radar were deployed to reacquire the unknown target. Schaffner, who had been scrambled then ordered to stand down, then had been ordered once again to intercept the target was in somewhat of a confused state of mind and had only 18 hours on night operations under the British “Shadowing” exercise. After being ordered to .95 Mach he was approaching the slower moving Shackleton and was at 1500 feet altitude. He reported to the air controller he needed to maneuver or weave to dissipate his speed in order to position himself in relation to his target.

Something, at that point went wrong. Schaffner reported a visual confirmation of 2 aerial objects. One was white and the other red. According to the official report that was classified and went undisclosed for some time. Schaffner’s Lightning XS894 skimmed the surface of the ocean waters and sunk only 3 miles offshore. But it would be weeks before divers discovered the sunken plane. The Cockpit windscreen remained closed. The pilot seat was empty, yet the ejection lever had been pulled. The official version of the story was that Schaffner had ejected but was not found and that as the Lightning sank at the bottom of the ocean the cockpit glass eventually settled back into position, but why then did they reason that Schaffner’s seat had not successfully ejected and he had climbed out and jumped off the plane, and with no life raft or “Mae West” as they were called, had not been included in the Lightning therefore the pilot drifted out to sea and was never recovered?

Last reported message between the American pilot and the Binbrook flight controller:

SCHAFFNER: Affirmative it’s not actually connected…maybe magnetic attraction to the conical shape. There’s a haze of light ye’ow …it’s within that haze. Wait a second it’s turning…coming straight for me… I’m taking evasive action…a few…I can hardly…

The Mysterious Fate of Art Scholl

During the filming of the famous “Top Gun” movie starring Tom Cruise as “Maverick” the reckless F-14 Tom Cat pilot and one of his competitors, Val Kilmer, another hot shot pilot, both in a race to win the “Top Gun” trophy at the US Naval aerial combat training school at Miramar. Art, is one of the most sought after stunt pilots in the business. Not only an accomplished stunt pilot, but also flight instructor, Scholl is responsible for all the dramatic film footage of the dog fights between enemy aircraft and Tom Cruise’s  air craft carrier squadron along with the intensive maneuvers they take when training against their seasoned veteran flight commanders at the Miramar Naval Base.

Ironically, while filming the tragic in flight accident that gets Maverick’s backseat weapon’s officer, call sign “Goose” killed when a jet wash causes Tom Cruise’s f-14 Tom Cat to flame out and go into an uncontrolled flat spin crashing off the coast, Art Scholl experiences the same fate. While filming the aerial footage his aircraft goes into an inverted flat spin and crashes into the Pacific off the California coast and he or his plane are never seen again. As opposed to the fictional “Top Gun” crash, Art Scholl is a victim of fate and disappears into the pages of history under the category of “Vanished”.

Disappearance of Flight 914

July 1, 1955 Pan Am Flight 914 lifted off the runway of the New York Airport with a load of 61 passengers scheduled for Florida on a 3 hour trip, but it seemed the Twilight Zone was more than just a TV series as upon approach to the arrival destination the 4 engine DC-4 disappeared from radar still over the Atlantic Ocean. Both New York traffic control and Florida radar operations could find no sign of the aircraft. A search and rescue operation was soon begun and all resources of the US Coast Guard and USAF available assets began a thorough scan of the known flight path. However, no wreckage or survivors were located. Normally when an aircraft goes down pieces of the tail, wings or even passenger’s possessions will float to the surface, but not trace could be found. The incident remained unknown until 37 years later.

The year is 1992 and the airport at Caracas, Venezuela is the scene of a mystery that confounds the local air traffic controllers. Out of the blue empty skies an unidentified plane arrives on an approach pattern. Two of the air traffic controllers on duty witness an old propeller driven passenger plane landing on the runway. They get a radio message from the captain of the passenger flight. He identifies himself as Pan AM flight 914 scheduled for Florida! The two radar operators stare at each other in complete astonishment, but are at a loss as to what to do next.

When the dispatchers informed the Captain that where he was and that it is was now 1992 they heard confusion in the cockpit and cries of alarm. The DC-4 started its engines as its Captain cried aloud, “No, stop! Don’t come near!” Flight 914 taxied out onto the runway and despite pleas by the dispatcher not to take off, the propeller driven passenger plane lifted off and disappeared from view and from the radar.

There is some controversy about this story. Different versions form different destinations of arrivals have been written. A similar story with a flight in 1954 Santiago Flight 513 destined for Hamburg, Germany that arrives 35 years later lands in pristine condition, but the passenger plane is empty of crew and customers. Still there is another story of a passenger jet arriving at an airport with a crew and travelers who have aged more than 30 years are have died! Were all these stories just fake tabloid? Remember in the Flight 914 story the passenger flight flew over the area known as the “Bermuda Triangle”. Was this just a coincidence or had the infamous “Devil’s Triangle” struck again? You be the judge.