Not many missing military aircraft but quite a few private.
Here is an excerpt from a very famous one:
UPDATED: We have never-before-seen documents pertaining to the search for Hale Boggs and Nick Begich!
Who:
Two high-ranking members of Congress: House Majority Leader Hale Boggs (D-Louisiana) and Rep. Nick Begich (D-Alaska).
Hale Boggs
Nick Begich
Total Persons on Board:
Four (also onboard was Begich’s aide Russell Brown, and pilot Don Jonz.)
When:
October 16, 1972
Weather:
Low clouds, fog, drizzle
Flight Route:
Disappeared on a flight from Anchorage to Juneau, Alaska
Area Believed Crashed:
Disappeared as it was approaching the Chugach mountain range in southeast Alaska.
Reason for flight:
Political junket
Type Plane:
Cessna 310C (FAA Registration - N1812H)
Search efforts:
At the time, this was the biggest search in the history of the country, involving 40 military and 20 civilian aircraft. Everything from Coast Guard helicopters and cutters, to Air Force spy aircraft, as well as numerous private aircraft. After thirty-nine days the air search was abandoned.
Click here to see the official NTSB mishap report (1.07 MB in size, Requires Abode Acrobat)
Controversy:
The Washington-based newspaper, Roll Call, which reports on Capitol Hill, found information through the Freedom of Information Act that two FBI telexes had come in from the FBI office in Los Angeles, indicating that someone had contacted the FBI and that they had knowledge of the whereabouts of the plane and that two people were still living at the site and they gave the coordinates. This was followed up by another telex two days later in which the FBI said that they had verified the authenticity of the source and established their credibility. The source was working in surveillance technologies for an undisclosed firm and they had located the plane.
See the FBI Telex - Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 UPDATE BELOW!
Some of the other interesting points surrounding the disappearance include; Boggs was taken to the airport for the first leg of the trip by a young democrat named Bill Clinton who later, as President, appointed Congressman Boggs’ wife, Lindy, to the position of US Ambassador to the Vatican after she served eighteen years in the Congress after her husband’s disappearance.
Boggs also served on the Warren Commission that investigated the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Some web sites and conspiracy theorists have reported that Boggs wasn’t happy with the commission’s findings and was pushing for the investigation to be reopened at the time of his death.
However, according to his daughter Cokie Roberts, the nationally known television journalist, she told listeners to a talk radio show in April 2004 that her father had no problems with the commission’s finding that he was not pushing for the investigation into the Kennedy assassination to be reopened. She said, “I just don’t know where people get these ideas from.”
The host replied, “The Internet.”
I have heard stories about a WW 2 crash where the plane was reportedly carrying either gold bullion or a large military payroll that has never been found.
“At the time, this was the biggest search in the history of the country, involving 40 military and 20 civilian aircraft. Everything from Coast Guard helicopters and cutters, to Air Force spy aircraft, as well as numerous private aircraft. After thirty-nine days the air search was abandoned.”
I believe the SR-71 Blackbird was called into that search as well.