On May 1, 1960, a U-2 flight piloted by Francis Gary Powers
disappeared while on a flight over Russia. 

With no small degree of pleasure, Khrushchev pulled off one
of the most dramatic moments of the Cold War by producing
not only the mostly-intact wreckage of the U-2, but also the
captured pilot-very much alive.

Francis Gary Powers (center) sits accused in Moscow’s Hall
of Columns, during the opening of his espionage trial, 17
August 1960. (AP)

Francis Gary Powers (1929 – 1977)

On April 28, 1988, a seemingly routine, 35-minute flight from
Hilo to Honolulu turned into terror when an 18-foot-long
section of the upper fuselage suddenly tears off Aloha
Airlines Flight 243.

The explosive decompression and roof loss sweep flight
attendant Clarabelle “C.B.” Lansing off the Boeing 737,
sending freezing winds of hurricane force through the
cabin, leaving passengers in the first five rows of the
plane completely exposed to the sky.

Miraculously, Captain Robert Schornstheimer landed the
plane in Maui with no further deaths.

The bizarre incident happened about 20 minutes into the
flight from Hilo International Airport to Honolulu, at 24,000
feet with 95 passengers and crew members on board.

Captain Robert Schornstheimer       
      
      
         
       

The missing aircraft pictured in December 2011.

On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, carrying 227
passengers and 12 crew members, lost contact with air traffic
control less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur,
then veers off course and disappears. Most of the plane, and
everyone on board, were never seen again.

Throughout 2015 and 2016, debris from the aircraft washed
ashore on the western Indian Ocean, but the fate of Flight
370 remains a mystery.

Map showing the scheduled destination of flight 370 and the wider surrounding region.

On February 15, 1961, the entire 18-member U.S. figure skating
team was killed in a plane crash in Berg-Kampenhout, Belgium.

The team was on its way to the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

Among those killed in the crash was 16-year-old Laurence Owen,
who had won the U.S. Figure Skating Championship in the ladies’ division the previous month.

She was featured on the February 13, 1961, cover of Sports
Illustrated, which called her the “most exciting U.S. skater.”

Shortly after the 1961 crash, the U.S. Figure Skating Memorial
Fund was established; to date, it has provided financial
assistance to thousands of elite American skaters.

Rising American rock stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P.
“The Big Bopper” Richardson, along with pilot Roger Peterson, 
were killed when their chartered Beechcraft Bonanza plane
crashed in Iowa a few minutes after takeoff from Mason City on
a flight headed for Moorhead, Minnesota.      

Investigators blamed the crash on bad weather and pilot error.

After mechanical difficulties with the tour bus, Holly had chartered
a plane for his band to fly between stops on the Winter Dance
Party Tour. However, Richardson, who had the flu, convinced
Holly’s band member Waylon Jennings to give up his seat, and
Ritchie Valens won a coin toss for another seat on the plane.

Singer Don McLean (above) memorialized Holly, Valens and
Richardson in the 1972 No. 1 hit “American Pie,” which
refers to February 3, 1959 as “the day the music died.”

Holly’s headstone in the City of Lubbock Cemetery.