A ghost plane (a term sometimes used interchangeably with ghost flight) may refer to: Rendition aircraft, an aircraft used by national governments to move prisoners internationally An empty or near-empty flight carried out to preserve a landing slot, or for logistical purposes — to get an aircraft where it needs to be, to support other scheduled flights Regarding air crash, a "ghost plane" or "ghost flight" occurs when the plane, already in the air, suffers some type of accident that has incapacitated the crew and passengers due to hypoxia (lack of oxygen), but the aircraft continues to fly thanks to the autopilot until it runs out of fuel and ends up crashing, after getting out of its flight path. These types of accidents are usually caused by slow uncontrolled decompression, which affects cabin pressurization. There have been no survivors in this kind of accident and it is very possible that even landing the plane intact, the damage due to lack of oxygen would be irreparable for those on board. Examples include: A Cessna 441 which crashed in 1980 carrying Bo Rein 1999 South Dakota Learjet crash, of golfer Payne Stewart's Learjet 2000 Australia Beechcraft King Air crash, Queensland Helios Airways Flight 522, 2005 A Cessna 421C Golden Eagle III which crashed into the Gulf of Mexico in 2012 2022 Baltic Sea Cessna crash, a Cessna 551 which crashed into the Baltic Sea near Ventspils in 2022 "Ghost Plane", an episode of Canadian TV series Mayday about Helios Airways Flight 522; see List of Mayday episodes What was once supposedly a rare occurrence, ghost flights have become more frequent within the last few years. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the term 'ghost flight' has begun to make an appearance within the aviation world. A ghost flight is a term used when airlines operate a regularly scheduled route with a plane containing less than 10% of the airline's total capacity. Some say these flights are unnecessarily adding to the environmental crisis, by contributing to carbon emissions without a significant benefit. In the beginning of 2019, over 5,000 planes have flown to and from United Kingdom airports with no passengers. In addition, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) confirmed that over 35,000 flights had less than 10% of passenger capacity. The reason for these low capacity/empty flights is unknown [to this author]. Airlines are not required to publish data explaining pollution practices. The