The Sunda Trench

List of some notable planes and ships lost in the Sunda Trench:

• 1566 -- Loss of Portugese trading vessel on trip from Ambon Island
• 1693 -- Disappearance of noted early Dutch explorer Conrad Van Eyck
• 1815 -- British fighting vessel "Princess Mary" reported missing with all hands on trip from Cape Town
• 1914 -- Japanese steam freighter goes missing on expedition to New Guinea
• 1931 -- Dutch freighter vanishes returning from Timor, crew of 29 on board
• 1933 -- British warship disappears during expedition
• 1937 -- Pilot involved in search for Amelia Earhart disappears off coast of Sumatra
• 1944 -- Several American bombing planes go missing in region on routine mission, despite no reports of storms or enemy activity
• 1948 -- Dutch merchant ship SS Ourang Medan was found adrift off Indonesia with all of its crew dead. The ship subsequently caught on fire and sank.
• 1951 -- US submarine disappears during patrol of waters
• 1955 -- British plane en route to Thailand disappears with 7 crew and 13 passengers -- one week later a plane sent out on a rescue mission also vanishes
• 1957 -- US seaplane lost with 10 crewmen
• 1964 -- American aircraft carrying 55 military personnel to South Vietnam vanishes
• 1966 -- British navy boat on patrol during Indonesian confrontation vanishes -- initially this loss was thought to be due to Indonesian military, but later release of classified documents from the Indonesian government indicated this was not the case
• 1973 -- French sailor disappears during round the world yacht expedition
• 1975 -- privately-owned plane carrying Minister in Indonesian government vanishes with 6 people on board
• 1981 -- Japanese commercial plane with 2 pilots and 42 passengers disappears en route to Jakarta
• 1981 -- Pleasure craft captained by West German business tycoon disappears
• 1988 -- Indonesian commercial plane disappears over ocean, 238 people on board
• 1998 -- Taiwanese freighter lost
• 2003 -- ship High Aim 6 left Taiwan on October 31, 2002 - found floating in Australian waters without its crew on on January 8, 2003.

In addition to these, there have been reports of a high incidence of unexplained electronics failure in the area. Compasses have also been known to behave erratically.