10架神祕消失的航班(上)

Planes crash every now and then. Although uncommon, this is a fact. What's strange, though, is when a plane seems to completely vanish into thin air. Especially in the modern era, this is extraordinary, considering the incredible technology we have available to us. This is a list containing planes that left behind no wreckage, debris, clues, or answers from across history.

儘管不太常見，但飛機墜毀時有發生是個人盡皆知的事實。奇怪的是，飛機會在萬里高空中消失的一乾二淨。特別是現代，相比起我們擁有的各種了不起的航空科技，飛機失蹤太不正常了。下面我們盤點下歷史上那些完全沒有留下任何殘骸、碎片、線索或者答案的飛機神祕失蹤事件。

10 Frederick Valentich

10 弗雷德裏克·瓦倫提斯

On October 21, 1978, 20-year-old Frederick Valentich disappeared during a flight in his Cessna 182L. Frederick was widely described by friends and family as a "flying saucer enthusiast," and during the doomed flight, he reported being accompanied by an unidentified aircraft.

1978年10月21日，二十歲的弗雷德裏克·瓦倫提斯駕駛着他的賽斯納182L號失蹤了。他的朋友以及家人形容弗雷德裏克是一個飛碟愛好者，而且在這次命中註定的飛行中，弗雷德裏克報告說有一架不明飛行器緊跟他左右。

As Frederick flew over the Bass Strait between Tasmania and mainland Australia, he radioed air traffic control just after 7:00 PM to report that he was being followed by an aircraft. Air traffic control responded, saying there was no known traffic nearby. Valentich described the aircraft as large and illuminated by four bright landing lights. It purportedly passed about 300 meters (1,000 ft) overhead and was moving at very high speed.

當他穿過塔斯馬尼亞島和澳洲大陸中間的巴斯海峽時，弗雷德裏克用無線電報告空中交通管制中心說他正被一架飛行器跟隨。然而管制中心回覆說沒有在附近查到任何飛行物。據瓦倫提斯的形容，這個飛行器很龐大，被四個着陸燈照得很亮。這個飛行物據在182L號上方300米（1,000英尺）處以極快的速度飛了過去。

Finally, Frederick stated that the UFO was orbiting above him and had a shiny metal surface and a green light. Air traffic control asked him to identify the craft, to which Frederick responded, "It isn't an aircraft," before his transmission was interrupted by unidentified noise described as "metallic, scraping sounds." Contact was lost at this point, and neither Valentich nor his plane were ever seen again.

最後，弗雷德裏克報告說說不明飛行物在他旁邊盤旋起來。飛行物有着發亮的金屬機身，併發出綠色的光芒。空中交通管制中心請弗雷德裏克辨認他報道的飛行器，他說：“這不是一架飛機……”緊接着，無線電就被一種“金屬刮擦般”的噪音中斷了。聯繫就此中斷，從這以後再也沒有人見過弗雷德裏克和他的飛機。

9 Transatlantic C-124 Flight

9 橫大西洋C-124航班

This is a strange one. On the late afternoon of March 23, 1951, a US Air Force Douglas C-124 Globemaster II on its way to England ditched into the ocean. An explosion in the cargo hold and the ensuing fire forced the pilots to put the plane down in the Atlantic, a few hundred miles from Ireland. The exact location was radioed by the pilots, and the ditching itself was successful.

這是一起離奇的事件。在1951年3月23日的傍晚，正前往英國的一架美國空軍道格拉斯C-124環球霸王II 在海上迫降。貨艙的爆炸和接踵而至的火災迫使飛行員降落在離愛爾蘭只有數百英里的大西洋上。飛行員成功地用無電線傳送了飛機的精確位置，降落也很順利。

The 53 passengers and crew aboard the flight donned life preservers and climbed aboard well-equipped emergency rafts. A B-29 had already been en route with the intention of aiding the plane in its navigation to the nearest airfield. When it arrived at the location transmitted by the pilots, the crew of the B-29 observed the passengers and crew in their rafts. It seemed everyone was okay.

飛機上的53名乘客和機組人員換上救生衣，登上了裝備齊全的救生船。一架B-29已經在前往救援他們的路上。當B-29抵達了報道的地點，工作人員們看見了救生船上的乘客和機組人員，一切安然無恙。

The B-29 then had to return to base, as it was running low on fuel. However, when rescue crews arrived, the plane and the stricken passengers had all disappeared without a trace. All that was left was a piece of charred plywood and a briefcase. Nobody knows what happened in those hours while help was on the way.

接着，由於燃料過低，B-29不得不返回基地。然而，當救援組趕來，飛機和受驚的乘客們都消失得無影無蹤。現場只發現一塊燒焦的夾板和一隻公文包。沒有人知道在救援抵達之前發生了什麼。

8 Amelia Earhart

8 阿米莉亞·埃爾哈特

Amelia Earhart was an American aviation pioneer. She held many early records, including being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. On July 2, 1937, she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean, near the island of Howland.

阿米莉亞·埃爾哈特是一位美國的航空先鋒。她持有多項早期的記錄，包括成爲史上第一位獨自飛過大西洋的女性。1937年7月2日，她消失在豪蘭島附近的太平洋上。

Her final transmissions to the nearby ship, Itasca, indicated that she believed she had reached Howland Island. However, this was incorrect: She was at least 8 kilometers (5 mi) away. Fearing the worst, the Itasca used its oil-fired boilers to generate large clouds of smoke to signal the fliers, but to no avail.

她與附近的依塔斯佳號船隻最後的通信表明，她確信她已經抵達了豪蘭島。然而事實並非如此：她至少還在8千米（5英里）開外。擔心到極點的依塔斯佳號用船上的燃油鍋爐製造了大量煙霧來警示飛行員，但是無濟於事。

Many theories surround Earhart's disappearance, including a failed crash landing into the ocean, a surprisingly complete theory of Japanese capture, and an explanation that assumes Earhart instead decided to land—successfully or not—on Gardner Island, 560 kilometers (350 mi) away.

關於埃爾哈特的消失有很多理論，其中包括海上迫降的失敗，被日本人俘虜的陰謀論，還有一項解釋假定埃爾哈特其實是降落在了560千米（350英里）以外的加德納島，成功還是失敗就不知道了。

7 Flying Tiger Flight 739

7 飛虎739航班

On March 16, 1962, Flying Tiger Flight 739 disappeared from radar screens over the ocean. The Lockheed Super Constellation aircraft was carrying 93 US and three South Vietnamese soldiers from California to Saigon. All 107 aboard the plane are presumed to have died in the incident.

1962年3月16日，飛虎739航班從雷達屏幕上消失了。這架洛克希德超級星座系列的飛機載着93名美國士兵和3名越南士兵，從加州飛向西貢。據猜測，飛機上的107名人員都已經死於這次事件。

No traces of wreckage or debris have ever been found. The only lead investigators have is an eyewitness account from a nearby civilian tanker, which reported seeing "an extremely bright flash of light, immediately followed by two red dots plummeting to the ocean at different speeds." It is believed that the tanker witnessed the missing aircraft explode mid-flight, during which it split in two and fell to the ocean in separate fireballs.

飛機連一片碎片都沒有留下。調查方持有的唯一線索來自附近民用坦克上的一個目擊者，聲稱“一束極亮的光閃過，隨後兩個紅點以不同的速度墜進了海里。”普遍認爲，坦克手看到的是失蹤飛機在航程中途爆炸，然後斷成了兩截，變成火球掉進海里。

The most reasonable assumption, given the evidence, is sabotage. However, since 518,000 square kilometers (200,000 mi2) of searching has turned up nothing, it is likely we will never get the true answers.

從證據來看，最靠譜的猜測是蓄意破壞。不過，搜索了518,000平方公里（200,000平方英里）都一無所獲，我們或許永遠都無法得知答案了。

6 Flight 19

6 19號班機

Flight 19 was the designation of five Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared without a trace over the Bermuda Triangle on December 5, 1945. A Martin PBM Mariner flying boat also disappeared while searching for the lost bombers and their pilots. Overall, 14 crew members aboard the Avenger bombers were lost, as were the 13 aboard the rescue plane.

19號班機是1945年12月5日神祕消失在百慕大三角的五架復仇者式魚雷轟炸機的特稱。一艘馬丁水手號PBM飛機也在搜救過程中失蹤了。 總之，14名在復仇者轟炸機上的人員，以及13名在救援機上的人員都消失了。

The bombers were experiencing serious navigation issues in and around the Bermuda Triangle. Their compasses were nonfunctional, and they were running out of fuel by their last transmission: "All planes close up tight. We'll have to ditch unless landfall... when the first plane drops below ten gallons, we all go down together."

這組轟炸機當時在百慕大三角附近經歷着嚴峻的飛行問題：羅盤失靈，在最後一次聯絡中還曾報告過燃油量低。“所有飛機都靠的很緊……如果不能着陸，我們只能開到海里了……當第一架飛機的油量少於十加侖，我們將一起降落。”

By this point, the Sun had set, and the weather was deteriorating. At 7:27 PM, the PBM-5 Mariner took off and was never heard from again. A nearby tanker reported sighting an apparent explosion, whose flames leapt 30 meters (100 ft) high and burned for at least ten minutes. The wreckage of the bombers was never found.

在這之前，太陽已經西沉，天氣也很惡劣。在晚上七點二十七分的時候，水手號PBM-5啓航前往搜救，然後就失去了音訊。附近的一個坦克手報告說目睹了一場很明顯的爆炸，火焰騰起有30米（100英尺）高，燃燒持續了至少十分鐘。轟炸機組的殘骸也沒有人找到過。