Flight MH 370 is certainly not the first case of a plane mysteriously disappearing without trace. Throughout aviation history, there've been several famous cases of flights suddenly vanishing from radar view, never to be found.
In 1947, a British Airways Flight with 11 passengers on board disappeared without trace in the Andes Mountains. Over 50 years later, two climbers found the wreckage of the plane. A later expedition found the remains of the crash victims. It's thought the plane crashed into a mountain and was buried in an avalanche.
In 1948, a Star Tiger jet disappeared on a flight from the Azores to Bermuda with 31 passengers and crew on board. A year later, a Star Ariel plane disappeared during a flight from Bermuda to Jamaica, in perfect weather. Throughout the flight, the aircraft suffered communication problems. The plane and all 20 passengers were never found.
In 1962, a military plane took off from Guam en-route to the Philippines. It was never seen again. No distress call was ever issued, and no wreckage was found. All 107 passengers were declared missing and presumed dead.
And more recently, in 2009, Air France Flight 447 bound from Rio to Paris crashed in the Atlantic Ocean killing all 228 passengers. It took air and sea rescue teams five days to find the wreckage. Just like flight MH370, it had vanished off radar screens. After a three-year investigation, it was determined that crystalized ice on the plane's air speed indicators had caused the plane’s autopilot system to disengage. Human error also blamed for the crash
