News about Flight 513, was widely shared online which abruptly vanished and then resurfaced with skeletons on board, some years later. Even though we would laugh at this now, there was an era when people truly thought it was true and began to come up with various hypotheses, such as those based on the Time Warp, the Bermuda Triangle, and other theories.
If you enjoy aviation mysteries, you’ve probably heard that story once about that aircraft which vanished for 35 years only to emerge with the skeletons of all passengers and crew.
At first glance, it sounds like science fiction, but for years, this miraculous story has been circulating on the internet with various eye-catching headlines such as “Pan American Flight 914 took off in 1955 but landed after 37 years” or “DC 4 aircraft disappeared in 1955, landed after 37 years” or “1950s Airliner lands with 92 skeletons,” or “Lost Plane Found After 37 Years!” all describing nearly the same incident.
However, the tale is an urban myth, not a factual story!
So what really happened? How was this story believed to be true during the 1950s and why did it catch so much attention from the viewers? In this article, I will discuss the facts of the occurrence and what led to the emergence of this fictional story.
Origin of the story of Lost Santiago Flight 513
The Santiago Flight 513 incident featured a Lockheed Super Constellation, a four-engine aircraft known for its dependability and long range. The flight, led by a professional crew, had performed multiple successful journeys before its tragic takeoff.
According to Brazilian aviation authorities, on September 4, 1954, Santiago Flight 513, a Commercial Airplane run by Santiago Airlines, took off from Aachen, Germany, carrying 4 crew members and 88 passengers. The plane was headed for Port Alegre, Brazil, and was reportedly a Lockheed Super Constellation.
The plane reached its cruising altitude and began its journey over the Atlantic Ocean. It eventually lost radio communication with controllers, and all attempts to contact the plane failed. Because the ATC could not contact Flight 513, it presumed the plane had crashed somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.
The search for the plane began immediately, but the Search and Rescue crew discovered no wreckage of the plane. After a large and futile search for years after the incident, authorities were forced to assume that the jet had crashed and that all of the passengers had died in this tragic disaster.
The plane vanished into thin air after takeoff, leaving the crew and passengers’ families, as well as the larger aviation community, in a state of deep sorrow and bewilderment.
Years later, despite several searches, no remnants of the jet or its occupants were discovered, and the case was closed.
Surprise reappearance after 35 years: Hoax
The narrative of Santiago Flight 513 takes an unusual turn when it is claimed that the jet unexpectedly reappeared on October 12, 1989, 35 years after it vanished.
When the unidentified plane approached the Port Alegre airport, the ATC attempted to contact it. According to authorities, the control tower had no communication with the missing plane, which seemed to circle the airport vicinity. The plane landed smoothly on the runway, dazzling air traffic controllers and generating immediate interest from authorities and the media.
The story becomes even more horrific as descriptions of what was alleged to be discovered inside the plane: the skeletal remains of 92 passengers, all sitting in their seats and appearing undisturbed. The skeletonized pilot, Captain Miguel Victor Cury, was sitting in an intact posture and appeared to be gripping the controls, making for an even more bizarre image. They also noted that the plane was still idling!
Explanations given for the Hoax
Dr. Celso Atello, a paranormal expert, stated that Santiago flight 513 had probably certainly entered a Time Warp, with no alternative explanation. A time warp is a fictional spatial distortion that allows for time travel in fiction, as well as a hypothetical form of time dilation or contraction.
There are numerous Science Fiction films centered on how the Time Warp aids in Time Travel, but as I previously stated, they are just that: Fiction!
Dr. Atello did explain how the plane would have reappeared but did not appear to have explained how the pilot’s skeleton was able to successfully land the plane.
Santiago Airlines apparently went out of business in 1956, and its remaining management had little knowledge of the flight to remark on.
Despite the fact that government authorities had thoroughly investigated this bizarre event, they refused to share their investigation’s findings. They refused to remark on Dr. Atello’s claim that the jet entered a time warp. The administration never issued an opinion in particular after this.
As a result, it is widely thought that government authorities have hushed up this case, have cleared any evidence that Time Warps exist, and do not want to worry us. However, there have been countless stories of pilots seemingly losing time and passengers being transported thousands of miles in seconds without any rational explanation.
MH370 is another horrible tragedy that we are all aware of, but no one knows the exact idea as to how it disappeared, and the mystery continues!
Flight 513: An Urban Legend
Urban legends (also known as modern legends, urban myths, or simply legends) are a subgenre of horror that tells stories about strange (typically terrifying) or amusing events that many people believe to be genuine but are mostly a hoax.
These legends can be amusing, but they frequently involve unknown dangers or frightening happenings, such as disappearances of odd items or entities.
Typically, stories like Santiago Flight 513 gain traction because they combine truth – air travel, disappearances, strange events – with elements of fantasy.
Circulation of the Hoax: The Weekly World News
From 1979 to 2007, the “Weekly World News” was a tabloid weekly that reported primarily fake “news” articles in the United States. The publication was well-known for its bizarre cover stories, which frequently featured mystical or paranormal themes, as well as its satirical approach to news. It ceased print publication in August 2007.
This astonishing event was originally initially reported as astounding news by “The Weekly World News Tabloid, 14 November 1989 Edition,” where the account of a newspaper writer named Irwin Fisher confirms the hazy data of the missing Santigo flight 513.
Santiago Flight 513: Fact or Fiction?
To determine the truth of the Santiago Flight 513 narrative, we must examine the facts. Several significant red flags indicate that it is fictitious:
- Non-existent Airline
There are no historical records for Santiago Airlines. Furthermore, Aachen is a city in Germany that is not known for its large airport or for having a significant international airport from where a transatlantic aircraft may depart.
- Lack of official records
There are no official aviation records or reports regarding Santiago Flight 513’s purported disappearance in 1954 or reappearance in 1989.
- Absence of news reports
Major situations, such as the disappearance or return of a flight, generate a lot of media attention. However, no reliable news sources are known to have covered Santiago Flight 513 at the time, either in the 1950s or in 1989. The story initially became public on November 14, 1989, in the Weekly World News, a US tabloid known for publishing only fictitious news items.
- Violation of physical laws
Needless to say, the story contradicts all known physical and biological rules. A plane cannot continue in the air for 35 years without refueling, and human bodies cannot become skeletal remains in an airplane’s controlled atmosphere.
Can the disappearance still happen?
We now know that the tale about Santiago Flight 513 was bogus, but does the disappearance of flights still occur?
MH370 is a good example, to begin with. The mystery surrounding Flight 370’s disappearance has made it one of history’s most well-known missing planes. Since 2014, several ideas have circulated about the loss of the plane, but no conclusive evidence has been discovered in the Indian Ocean’s massive 120,000-square-kilometer search region.
Also Read: Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Missing Mystery Could Have Been Solved Within Few Days
Even now, as technology has improved, we do not have a definitive answer to the disappearance of the MH 370! As a result, I can picture a lack of understanding in the 1950s when little resources and technology were available to explain the disappearance of Flight 513 (if it really did) and how circulating a false story captured people’s attention.
Is it possible to travel through a Time Warp and return?
On this planet, there are hundreds of locations where aircraft, ships, boats, and even individuals go missing with no trace. Many academics believe that those regions produce unpredictable temporal gates known as Vortex. Vortex is still science fiction, but we also considered reusable rockets and creating a settlement on another planet. However, that is becoming a reality, and we are unsure whether Vortex is or can become one!
Vortex is thought to be the consequence of a parallel universe. This idea suggests that the Vortex opens into a parallel realm made of anti-matter, capable of absorbing people, masses, light, and even time. In other words, persons who go missing in one world can travel to another within seconds.
There are many such regions on Earth, but the Bermuda Triangle, Devil’s Sea Zone, and Michigan Triangle are particularly well-known for inexplicable disappearances and odd happenings.
Bottomline
We conclude that the disappearance and reappearance of Flight 513 are not genuine, but is disappearance still possible? We don’t know.
Numerous unexplained phenomena have surrounded the tragic events occurring within the Bermuda Triangle. In a strange twist of geographical imagination, if one draws lines connecting the points of Bermuda, Puerto Rico, Miami, and back to Bermuda, an eerie polygon known as the “Bermuda Triangle” emerges – a shadowy realm infamous for engulfing more than 2,000 ships and 200 aircraft over centuries!
We don’t know if those hypotheses are correct, but comprehending the scientific facts behind them isn’t harmful!
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