Top 10 mysterious aviation disasters of the world

New Delhi: The mysterious crash involving Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 is not the first of its kind. In the past, there have been several mysterious aviation disasters, the riddles of which are yet to be unravelled.Here is a list of ten such mysterious aviation disasters: 1. Amelia Earhart In 1937, the American aviator Amelia Earhart, who was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean went for a world flight.Fred Noonan was subsequently chosen as a second navigator as he had vast experience in marine and flight navigation.Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island.After the search operations could not trace the plane, she was declared dead two years later. 2. Air France Flight 447 The Air France Flight 447 scheduled from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on 1 June, 2009.After two years, the black boxes were found.None of the 228 passengers on board survived. The major wreckage was recovered five days after the accident.The aircraft crashed after temporary inconsistencies between the airspeed measurements—likely due to the aircraft's pivot tubes being obstructed by ice crystals—caused the autopilot to disconnect, after which the crew reacted incorrectly and ultimately led the aircraft to an aerodynamic stall from which they did not recover. 3. Egypt Air flight 990 It was a regular flight from Los Angeles to Cairo, with a stopover at JFK airport, New York.The plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on 31 October 1999.The accident killed 217 people.The Egyptian government reversed the decision of the American National Transportation Safety Board that the incident was intentional and not an accident.The two investigations came to very different conclusions: the NTSB found the crash was caused by deliberate action of the Relief First Officer Gameel Al-Batouti; the ECAA found the crash was caused by mechanical failure of the airplane's elevator control system.It still remains a mystery as to what caused the crash. 4. British South American Airways Star Dust Star Dust (registration G-AGWH) was a British South American Airways (BSAA) Avro Lancastrian airliner which crashed into Mount Tupungato in the Argentine Andes on 2 August 1947, during a flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago, Chile.After the search operations were called off, many conspiracy theories cropped up. So the case was put to rest.After 50 years, when mountaineers while trekking discovered the remnants of the air plane crash, it was declared that the plane had crashed due to weather related factors. 5. Bermuda Triangle The Devil's triangle.It has a plethora of many ships and aircrafts disappearing when they enter the region. It is in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean .According to the US Navy, the triangle does not exist, and the name is not recognized by the US Board on Geographic Names. 6. Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 On October 13, 1972 Flight 571 was flying from Uruguay to Santiago, Chile, and came down in the Andes, losing both wings as it clipped the top of mountains.Of the 45 people on board the flight, around half survived not only the impact but also a further 72 days stranded on the mountain.Eventually, rescuers reached 16 survivors who admitted they had resorted to cannibalism to stay alive.The survivors' story was told on the big screen in the 1993 film Alive. 7. TWA flight 800 Flight 800 exploded in the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York, on July 17, 1996, at about 8:31 PM.230 people on board were killed.The FBI found that the explosion happened due to a short circuit. But alternative theories also exist. 8. US Army Air Corps B-24D An American bomber during World War Two, Lady Be Good went out on a mission over Naples, Italy, in April 1943 and never returned to its base in eastern Libya.At the time it was assumed the plane had crashed in the Mediterranean and its nine-man crew was all designated 'missing in action'.But the plane had in fact overflow its base because of technical issues and carried on for two hours, flying deep into North Africa.Its crew eventually parachuted down to ground and the eight that survived the jump headed north, walking for nearly 100 miles (160 km) before succumbing to the heat and lack of water.The plane was discovered 15 years later, when a British oil exploration team found the wreckage in the middle of the desert.Incredibly, the bomber was remarkably intact and its machine-guns were still functioning. 9. Steve Fossett's Bellanca Super Decathlon American adventurer Steve Fossett set off from a private airfield in Nevada on 3 September 2007 never to be seen again.The search for the 63-year-old, who was the first person to fly a plane solo around the world without refuelling, eventually ended when his single-engine plane was found in October 2008 after a massive manhunt involving many agencies, volunteers, and even Google Earth.Investigators said strong winds were the likely cause of the crash. 10. Private plane carrying fashion boss A small aircraft carrying the director of Italian fashion house Missoni disappeared off the coast of Venezuela in January 2013.Vittorio Missoni and his wife were among six people on board the flight from the archipelago of Los Roques towards Caracas when it rapidly lost altitude and speed before vanishing from radar.The plane wasn't found until six months after the crash and divers eventually recovered the six bodies, with samples confirming that Mr Missoni and his wife were among them.It was the second time a plane had disappeared in Los Roques and the area has now been dubbed the "new Bermuda Triangle."