"The Arrival" is the second episode of the third season of The Twilight Zone, and was first broadcast in September of 1961. It starred Harold Stone as Federal Aviation Administration inspector Grant Sheckley.
At an airport somewhere in upstate New York, a DC-3 passenger airliner comes in to a landing. When the ground crew comes to unload the passengers and cargo, they find the airplane absolutely empty. This is, of course, a mystery. Like the story of the Mary Celeste, but more so: while an abandoned ship is improbable, it seems impossible that an airplane could land without its crew. The befuddled airline staff call in Sheckley to figure out what happened. While every Twilight Zone episode has a twist, this episode has at least two major twists, neither of which were expected for me. It also has a moment of great suspense.
As I mentioned in my review of "The Odyssey of Flight 33", there are several aspects of travel by airplane that are perfect vehicles for The Twilight Zone. Although our conscious minds might understand what holds airplanes aloft, there is still something mysterious about going into a metal cylinder, to disappear and then reappear somewhere else in the world. On a sub-conscious level, the idea that the passengers of an airplane could totally disappear in transit makes some sort of sense. It is probably because of this that despite the seemingly impossible nature of the story, it strikes a chord of fear with the viewer.