Airports lose things every day—luggage, sunglasses, even passengers. But in 2006, Orlando Sanford International Airport in Florida lost something a little bigger: an entire commercial aircraft.
It started like any other quiet night on the maintenance runway. A Boeing 727 belonging to a now-defunct charter company was parked for routine service. The plane, which hadn’t flown commercially for weeks, was being serviced by an external crew. At some point after midnight, it disappeared.
No flight plan.
No clearance.
No radio communication.
No records.
Just… gone.
Airport security was thrown into chaos. First, they assumed it had been moved to another hangar. Then they checked surveillance footage—which showed nothing but the aircraft just… not being there anymore. No one had noticed it take off.
Was it stolen? Hijacked? Had it been flown under the radar?
The FAA, not exactly known for their humor, immediately launched an investigation. For nearly 18 hours, the jet’s whereabouts were completely unknown.
Eventually, word came in from St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport—over 600 miles away. The aircraft had landed safely there. Turns out, the maintenance crew had flown it out without filing any documentation, believing they had verbal approval. They were wrong.
When asked how such a thing could happen, an airport spokesperson admitted:
“We weren’t hijacked. We were just unorganized.”
The incident, while never dangerous, highlighted critical flaws in airport oversight. The maintenance crew received disciplinary action, and airport operations were restructured.
But the internet had its own take:
“How do you lose a 100-ton plane? Florida, man. Florida.”
