A Missing Plane From 1955 Landed After 37 Years

Do you know the feeling when you’ve been trying to solve one mystery for your entire life? Nope? Well, Detective Anderson does. During almost thirty years of working for the police, he solved many riddles, caught hundreds of robbers, and helped save thousands of lives. There’s a huge number of successfully solved cases on his record.

At the age of 25, he caught a thief who changed his own face with plastic surgery once a year. When Anderson was 30, prisoners started breaking from jails all over the world. The detective successfully solved this case. At the age of 38, he discovered the secret base of a forbidden order in a volcano’s mouth. By his 50s, he managed to explain all the most inexplicable things in the world.

But there was something he couldn’t solve. These were two mysteries from the 50s, cases of missing planes. All these years, Anderson has been scrolling through the details of this puzzle. Unfortunately, he was too young when this story began. All he had were guesses and notes.

But today, a sudden thought struck him. For the first time in many years, he felt that he could finally solve this mystery. But to do this, he had to immerse himself in this story again. So, he opened the closet and pulled out two old magazines with detailed articles about these incidents.

The first one happened in the summer of 1955. July 1. Pan Am Flight 914 was about to depart from New York Airport with 61 people on board. The plane model was a Douglas DC-4. It differed from modern aircraft, having giant propellers instead of turbines.

So, all passengers fastened their seat belts. The plane started taxiing down the runway, sped up, and took off. It went high into the sky and out of sight.

Its destination was Florida. The flight time would be three hours. Dispatching services were watching the plane on their radar, when suddenly... Pan AM 914 disappeared. The operator tried to contact the pilot but received no response. New York reported this to Florida. They said they couldn’t see the plane either. Usually, pilots notify via radio if a plane crashes or gets into a storm. But this time... just nothing.

After several unsuccessful attempts to establish the connection, they deployed large-scale search operations. Communication with the plane was interrupted when it was flying over the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, the air company had to admit the aircraft crashed into the water. But this version had no proof. When planes fall that way, rescuers find floating debris. Some parts of the cabin or luggage always get to the surface. This time, rescuers found nothing.

The plane didn’t transmit any distress signals and didn’t leave any traces of the crash. It seemed like it just disappeared into thin air. People forgot about this disaster for 37 years. And then, something bizarre happened. 1992. Venezuela. Caracas Airport. The control tower received a signal about an unknown aircraft approaching them. It was weird because it wasn’t supposed to be there. There were no flights scheduled for that time.

The plane was landing. The dispatcher and the rest of the airport staff understood that something was wrong here. The plane looked old with huge propellers instead of turbines. After landing, the pilot contacted the airport: “Where are we?” The dispatcher asked him to identify himself. A few seconds later, he received an answer: “We are Pan Am Flight 914, departed from New York to Florida, with a crew of 4 people and 57 passengers on board.”

The dispatcher didn’t know what to do next. He and the airport staff understood what kind of plane they were looking at. What was this plane doing 37 years later and almost 1,240 miles away from its destination? After a few seconds, the startled dispatcher turned on the microphone and said: “It’s September 9, 1992. You know that?”. A long pause followed. Then, the pilot responded in a panic: “Oh, no! Jimmy, where are we? No! Stay away! Let’s go now!”

The airport staff saw the pilot waving his hands in horror through the glass. Then, he started the engines and took the plane to the runway. Pan Am 914 increased its speed and took off. The dispatcher tried to stop him, but the pilot didn’t respond. The plane disappeared into the sky, and no one else had heard of it since that day.

Detective Anderson finished reading the article. He frowned and looked out the window. Raindrops were hitting the glass. The storm outside perfectly depicted what was happening in his mind at that moment. He seemed to know what had happened to that plane. All the clues were there, lying right in front of his eyes. But to know for sure, Anderson had to move on to the next case. It was another article, dated 1989.

It happened in 1954. Santiago Airlines Flight 513 took off from West Germany airport. The plane was due to land in Brazil in 18 hours. There were 88 passengers and four crew members on board. The plane hid behind the clouds and disappeared from all radar. Air traffic controllers were trying to contact the pilots but didn’t receive a response.

18 hours later, they called the airport in Brazil. Those dispatchers couldn’t confirm this plane’s landing and couldn’t contact the pilots either. The search operation lasted for several months, but they found nothing, just like in the Pan Am 914 case. The plane disappeared from radar while flying over the Atlantic Ocean. Two years later, the search operation ended, and Santiago Airlines ceased its activities.

October 12, 1989. Airport controllers in Brazil noticed a passenger plane that suddenly appeared on their radar. It didn’t answer the airport staff’s questions and just circled over the airbase. After a few minutes, the plane landed and... Nothing. No one opened the ramp. Passengers didn’t get out. Pilots didn’t respond. The aircraft was in perfect condition.

One of the dispatchers realized that this was the missing Santiago Airlines flight 513 that had been considered lost for 35 years. Airport staff approached the plane and opened the doors. What they saw there terrified them. The police, customs staff, doctors, detectives, and other airport staff members gathered around the plane. No one knew what to do next. There was no living person on board who could tell the truth. The plane disappeared in 1954 and appeared 35 years later in perfect condition without any damage. So far, no one has figured out what happened.

Detective Anderson noticed the stories were very similar. Pan Am 914 disappeared in 1955. Santiago Airlines 513 vanished in 1954. The difference was almost a year. Anderson scratched his head and noticed another little detail. Both planes went missing from the radar the moment they were flying over the Atlantic Ocean.

There are many myths about phantom ships and mysterious phenomena connected with the Bermuda Triangle. Detective Anderson knew these tales. But these two missing planes puzzled him. He looked at two articles and... understood everything. Exactly! The solution was there, right in front of his eyes!

Both stories were written in the same newspaper. There was no real dispatcher who communicated with the planes. Nothing was known about the passengers. No newspapers except this one published news about these missing aircraft. It seemed they just took the same story and changed the dates, locations, and names of flights. Yes, the case was solved! It was all fake! The rain stopped.

Detective Anderson looked out the window and heard the sound of a passing train. He remembered another weird and fake story. A story about a phantom train: it took place in Italy in 1911. One hundred passengers boarded the train of the Zanetti railway company. It went through the picturesque mountainous area, got into a mountain tunnel, and disappeared. No one else had seen the train since then. All the passengers were lost, but not for long. They appeared... in the past.

There were records dated 1845. One unknown doctor from Mexico City wrote about a hundred Italians who appeared in the city from nowhere. They were all dressed strangely and talked about one mysterious train. This was a completely made-up story. There was no proof or records about this train and the people who got into the past.

A loud sound interrupted his thoughts. Detective Anderson picked up the phone. He was silently listening to the person on the other end of the line. A minute later, he answered, “Yes.” The detective put the phone down. It was a new mystery for him!

In the Sahara Desert, the locals noticed a huge ship lost in the South Pacific 27 years ago. There was no crew on board, no cargo, and no flags. No one knew how it appeared among the sand, but wet mud formed around it because of moisture. It seemed like the ship had just teleported there from the water. Perfect! No fakes this time. Detective Anderson put on his hat and left the office.