The Sky That Eats Planes
Draw a line from Las Vegas to Reno and then to Fresno. Inside that 25,000 square-mile wedge of desert and mountain zone lies the Nevada Triangle. Since the 1940s, over 2,000 aircraft have vanished here. You read that right, 2,000. That’s one plane every nine days for eighty years. The Bermuda Triangle looks like a kiddie pool by comparison.
Most wrecks that vanish in this zone are simply never found. Some are discovered decades later, perfectly intact, with no bodies inside. Others are just… gone. No wreckage, no distress call, no trace ever found despite extensive searches.
The Geography of Death
- Sierra Nevada peaks up to 14,505 ft (Mount Whitney) with knife-edge ridges
- “Mountain waves” that create documented 608 mph downdrafts (world record measured near Reno)
- Desert valleys that hide wreckage for centuries
- Area 51 / Groom Lake / S-4 dead centre
- Nevada Test Site (928 nuclear detonations 1951–1992, many above-ground)
- Military restricted airspace R-4808N where civilian pilots are forbidden
Famous Vanishings – The Ones We Know About
Steve Fossett – September 3, 2007
Billionaire adventurer Steve Fossett takes off from a private ranch near Yerington, Nevada in a single-engine Bellanca Super Decathlon (N240R). No flight plan filed. Last radar ping at 9:07 a.m. over the Wassuk Range. Search of 20,000 square miles with satellites, infrared, and 50+ aircraft finds nothing. One year later, a hiker finds his FAA ID in the Madera County mountains. Wreckage located October 2008: plane exploded on impact, yet body fragments scattered over half a mile, no blood in cockpit, seat belts unbuckled. NTSB: “in-flight breakup” – but no cause found.
Lady Be Good – B-24 Liberator, April 4, 1943
Crew returning from bombing Naples gets lost in a sandstorm, overshoots Libya by 400 miles, flies into Nevada airspace on autopilot. Crew bails out over the desert. Plane continues 300 miles and lands perfectly intact in the open desert. Found 1959 by British Petroleum surveyors. No bodies. Crew’s remains discovered 80 miles away – they died of exposure after 8 days. Diaries recovered: “No sign of civilization. Water gone.”
TWA Flight 3 – January 16, 1942
Carole Lombard (actress), her mother, and 19 others die when DC-3 slams into Potosi Mountain near Las Vegas. Wreckage found weeks later, but locals still claim “strange metallic debris” mixed in that didn’t match any known aircraft.
The 1948 F-51 Mustang “Disc Chase”
Pilot Lt. James R. Wilson, flying near Groom Lake, radios: “I’m being paced by a silver disc. It’s matching my speed… now it’s pulling away at impossible acceleration.” Radio cuts out. No wreckage ever found.
The 1963 Cessna 210 “Compass Went Crazy”
Pilot reports over Area 51: “My compass is spinning. Something is wrong.” Then silence. Wreckage found 40 years later in a ravine – doors open, no occupants, engine cold.
The 1955 Pan Am Stratocruiser “Ghost Flight”
Flight 914 from New York to Miami vanishes over Nevada. Reappears 37 years later in Caracas, Venezuela (urban legend), but the real case is a 1955 Stratocruiser that vanished in the Triangle with 57 souls. No trace ever found.
The Numbers Are Insane
- 2,000+ documented missing aircraft (FAA/NTSB)
- Only 10–15 % of wrecks ever recovered
- Many found with doors open, no bodies, engines cold
- Multiple cases of pilots reporting “bright lights pacing them” before silence
- World-record downdraft of 608 mph measured near Reno
Area 51 & Nuclear Connection
Groom Lake sits dead centre. Declassified CIA docs confirm U-2, A-12 Oxcart, F-117, and B-2 testing caused thousands of “UFO” reports. But many vanishings predate those programs by decades. And some pilots reported being “chased” by objects that outran Mach 3 jets.
Theories and Likelihood
1. Extreme Terrain + Weather
Likelihood: 85%
2. Secret Military Tests / Cover-ups
Likelihood: 10%
3. Something Non-Human
Likelihood: 5% (but rising)
Final Verdict
THE DEADLIEST AIRSPACE ON EARTH. Two thousand planes swallowed by mountains, downdrafts, and secrets. Some blame physics. Some blame Groom Lake. All agree: if you fly over the Nevada Triangle, file a will first. Because whatever’s up there doesn’t give its toys back.