Scouting the Territory

 The topic I am considering writing about currently is regarding "ghost ships" and disappearing aircrafts. In a more general sense, I want to write about disappearing vehicles. I have ruled out the possibility of writing about Roanoke due to the newly found evidence on the event resulting in a probable explanation for the colony's "disappearance." I have also ruled out writing about Area 51 because I am more interested in unexplained disappearances than I am in government activity. 

The key terms I found for disappearances of ships were: pirates, cargo, and sunken. Many of these stories regarding disappearing crews on ships, and disappearing ships as a whole, involve theories of pirates taking over, problems with cargo, or theories about the ship being in danger of sinking. Key terms I found for disappearing aircrafts were: black box, malfunctions, pilot, and debris. One important distinction to keep in mind while discussing disappearing vehicles is that the only way a vehicle can be described as missing is if the debris has not been found. 

A book I found about disappearing aircrafts called, Without a Trace: 1881-1968, written by Sylvia Wrigley. It contains many stories about flights that have disappeared as well as the procedures of running aircrafts. I also found, Posted Missing: The Story of Ships Lost Without Trace in Recent Years, written by Alan Villiers, a sailor  who goes on to describe in detail about ships and what exactly they may come across during their voyages. Villiers seems to focus on ships that have disappeared and have had no evidence of debris or wreckage. 

Issues that are commonly discussed in vehicular disappearance are the psychology of the pilot in an aircraft, or a captain in a ship. Did the pilot or captain cause the problem or was the problem out of their hands? Another issue commonly discussed regards the weather in the situation. Since boats and planes travel in dangerous conditions heavily dictated by weather, it is important to consider it as a factor in the explanation of why they disappeared. 

One resource I found was an article about 7 disappearances of aircrafts. I found it useful to have seven different cases to be able to compare them to each other to uncover the similarities and differences between the cases. https://www.britannica.com/list/7-puzzling-plane-disappearances 

Another source I found was an article explaining a famous case, the abandonment of the Mary Celeste. The article goes over the departure of the ship, the abandonment of the ship, and the investigations and theories about the ship, making it a valuable resource to refer to when learning about the abandonment. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/abandoned-ship-the-mary-celeste-174488104/

The Mary Celeste ship

In many cases of abandoned or disappearing ships and planes, there is a debate of whether or not the vehicle was overtaken by weather or if the vehicle was in the control of the pilot or captain during the event. For example, in the instance of the disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370, many researchers debate if the plane was in control of the pilot or whether the plane crashed due to weather.