80 years later, Glenn Miller's sudden disappearance remains unsolved

December 14, 20245:00 AM ET
By Julian Ring


Glenn Miller wearing an American military uniform.
D. Hess/Getty Images/Hulton Archive

It was Christmas Day, 1944, when people heard the news: Glenn Miller, one of music's biggest stars, had vanished.

He had boarded a military plane from Britain, bound for Paris, where he was scheduled to perform for American troops during World War II. But neither crew nor passengers made it across the English Channel. ... There is no wreckage of Glenn Miller's plane, and no definitive answers. Eighty years ago this week, he disappeared without a trace.

Miller wasn't even supposed to be on board the small prop plane. But, anxious to get going after multiple weather delays, he'd hitched a ride without authorization. It took days for anyone to realize he'd gone missing.

The rest of his band eventually arrived in France. And on Christmas Day, as news of Miller's disappearance hit the papers, they played their show — without the man who had brought them together in the first place.

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