Now you see it, now you don`t!

Disappearances have always been a timeless phenomenon, if one can say so, because no matter how much conviction and consensus there is that the worst has happened - there always remains the hope that somewhere out there, somehow, some... managed to cheat death, what's more, that they may be living better than before the disappearance, a diluted version of the myths of an afterlife in which, unfortunately, too many people believe, to whom pre-mortal existence brings only misery.

A Boeing B-707 in a cargo version of the Brazilian company Varig took off from Tokyo to Rio on January 30, 1979 with six crew members and no passengers. Communication with flight control was normal, the weather conditions were ok, there was nothing special... until half an hour after takeoff, all communication abruptly ceased, which was actually the pilots' last contact with this dimension. There are similarities with the case of the Malaysian plane from last year, except that there were other factors at play here.

The investigation quickly reached a dead end, and a statement was later issued that it was a case of cabin decompression - without any evidence, absolutely nothing to support such a claim. The factor that was unofficially significant was the presence of 153 paintings by Japanese painter Manabu Mabe, estimated at $1.3 million at the time (more than $4 million today).

Was that amount enough for the crew to see a way to secure a carefree future? Maybe. Considering that rumors later emerged that some of the paintings had surfaced through private collections and auctions for closed-door clients, it is possible that the crew had made a calculation.

The problem with this theory is that it is unlikely that all six would agree to separate themselves from their families, friends, careers, and their entire lives up to that point with a total cessation of communication with anyone. Another problem is the landing. The B-707 is a first-generation long-haul jet airliner and required a fairly long, concrete runway. Not that it couldn't have landed on an improvised one, especially if it was a one-off situation, but it's still unlikely. And where would that runway be?

Other theories followed later, such as custom and order, for example that the KGB made a deal with the pilots to land in North Korea, probably based on a similar case when Japanese citizens, members of the (then) infamous urban guerrilla group known as the Japanese Red Army, hijacked a passenger plane and landed in Pyongyang (to the usual interdimensional creatures and the on-duty aliens who love airplanes and ships, because they are collectors of retro technology from planet Earth. Nothing definitive was revealed, the official report declared war on elementary logic and the case remains another in a series of mysteries.

(Roger Mortis, 057)