Case file · High strangeness
The 'Lady Be Good'
On 4 April 1943 a US B-24 bomber returning from Naples overshot its base in Libya in the dark and flew deep into the desert. The wreck was found 710 km inland only in 1958–59.
1943 CE · 26.71, 24.02 · status: explained
The account
The crew bailed out believing they were over the sea. Diaries recovered with their remains in 1960 show they walked more than 100 km north before dying of thirst. One man was never found. Parts salvaged from the plane were fitted to other aircraft, and stories spread of a 'jinx' after a C-47 with her parts crashed into the Mediterranean.
The sceptical view
Navigation error and a tailwind explain the loss. The jinx stories are coincidences retold.