Nine aviation mysteries highlight long history of plane disappearances

A Vietnamese military official looks out a plane above Vietnam's sea Thursday in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• This is not the first time a plane has vanished without a trace
• Eleven years ago, a Boeing 727 went missing in Angola
• In 1945, five Navy bombers disappeared on the Florida coast, never to be seen again
• While wreckage of some has been found, mysteries remain on the causes of the crashes

 While such situations are rare, the puzzling disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370 is not the first time a plane has vanished without a trace. Here are nine cases of mysterious plane disappearances and disasters. Some remain unsolved, decades later.

2014: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

The Boeing 777 passenger jet vanished early Saturday, about an hour into its flight from the Malaysian capital to Beijing. There was no distress call before contact with it was lost over the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam. Search teams from various nations are combing the waters on the Malay Peninsula for traces of it, but so far, nothing has been found. The mystery over the fate of the jet and the 239 people aboard has baffled government officials and aviation experts.