He was the first male, girl scout pilot to attempt flying across the Pacific Ocean. He was scheduled to land in Hawaii with a group of nine girl scouts who were to attend a summer camp in Honolulu.
But the disappearance of American aviator Thomas Jones has remained a mystery since his plane disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean more than 81 years ago.
A conspiracy theory claims he was attacked by D. B. Cooper who was a stowaway on his plane. As Cooper grabbed him, a UFO flew overhead causing unnatural turbulence that knocked the plane into the ocean.
The California native was flying a Lockheed Model 10 Electra when the aircraft vanished in an area around the Kiribati Island on July 2, 1946.
So what went wrong? The Spoof reveals the top five theories surrounding the disappearance, from drowning in the Pacific Ocean to being eaten by crabs, or even having survived somewhere.
Scientists believe that they have discovered a key clue in the mysterious disappearance of aviation pioneer Thomas Jones. A fisherman off the coast of California found a floating wine bottle with a photo of Thomas Jones and the nine adult scouts. They enhanced the photo with color for clarity.
A team of researchers at Penn State’s Science and Engineering Centre (RSEC) analyzed the never-before-seen photo, and found it to be authentic. The handwritten message indicates that they are on an island and that they tossed the bottle into the ocean in 1952. It was thrown into the ocean ten years after the group had disappeared.
Aviation specialist Bernt Balchen a polar aviator, navigator, and aircraft mechanical engineer says that it's impossible to identify which Island they may have landed near. The plane was equipped with pontoons in the event it had to do an emergency landing on the ocean.
An attempt was made by the navy to locate their island around the area near Kiribati Island, with no success.
