Dead engines and planes that flew themselves: 10 aviation stories so bizarre they sound fake

Aviation history includes numerous bizarre incidents despite strict safety protocols. These events, often stemming from human error, mechanical failures, or unusual coincidences, have fascinated investigators for years.

• Aloha Airlines Flight 243 (1988): A Boeing 737 suffered a catastrophic structural failure mid-flight, tearing away a large section of the fuselage, yet the crew managed to land safely. One flight attendant was swept from the aircraft.
• British Airways Flight 5390 (1990): A faulty windshield blew out, partially ejecting Captain Tim Lancaster from the cockpit. Crew members held onto him while the First Officer made an emergency landing; Lancaster survived.
• USAF F-106 Delta Dart (1970): A fighter jet, abandoned by its pilot during a flat spin, miraculously recovered and made a gentle belly landing in a snow-covered field, earning it the nickname "Cornfield Bomber."
• British Airways Flight 9 (1982): All four engines of a Boeing 747 shut down after flying into a volcanic ash cloud over Indonesia. The crew successfully restarted them and landed safely despite severely reduced visibility.
• US Navy Airship L-8 (1942): An airship returned to land empty after a routine patrol, with its two crew members mysteriously vanished without a trace.
• Mathias Rust's Cessna (1987): A 19-year-old West German amateur pilot flew a Cessna 172 hundreds of miles into Soviet airspace, landing near Red Square and exposing significant weaknesses in Soviet air defenses.
• Horizon Air Q400 (2018): A ground employee stole an empty passenger plane from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, performed unauthorized maneuvers, and crashed on Ketron Island in what was ruled a suicide.