Bermuda Triangle
Submitted by cindy on Monday, May 09 @ 09:32:31 EDT

The Bermuda Triangle is one of the modern day mysteries that seems never to be resolved, despite the scientific proof that has been put forward in recent years, explaining away what grew in to one of the strangest phenomenon's. The triangle is just that, a Triangle created by the island of Bermuda, the coast of southern Florida, and Puerto Rico. Also known as the devil's island it covers an area of 1,140,000 sq km. So it's no wonder that in such a large expanse of water, there have been countless tales of missing aircraft and disappearing ships. Scientific evaluations of the Bermuda Triangle have concluded that the number of disappearances in the region is not abnormal and that most of the disappearances have logical explanations. Paranormal associations with the Bermuda Triangle persist in the public mind, however. And here are a few mysterious disappearances that have made the Triangle a legend:

On December 5th, 1945, five Avenger torpedo bombers left the Naval Air Station at Fort Lauderdale. They never returned home. The Avenger bombers contained 14 men, 13 of those were trainees in the last stages of their training along with Lt. Charles Taylor. The five pilots had been recently transferred from the Miami Naval Air Station. Lt. Taylor knew the Florida Keys well but had no knowledge of flying over the Bahamas which was the direction Flight 19 was headed in. Their mission on that day was for practice bombing at hens and Chicken Shoals fifty-six miles away. Once that was accomplished, the Avengers were to continue on eastward for another sixty-seven miles, then head north seventy-three miles. Following that they would turn southwest and head for home. In other words they were flying a triangular flight path through what would be called the Bermuda Triangle. At 3.50pm that afternoon a pilot and his flight instructor, Lt. Robert Cox were about to land at Fort Lauderdale. They overheard a radio transmission addressed to someone named Powers. Powers replied, "I don't know where we are. We must have got lost after that last turn."

A little later on Lt. Cox managed to establish radio contact with another of the Pilots on the lost Avengers out at sea. Speaking with Lt. Taylor he was informed that Taylor's compasses were not working and he was sure that they were in the "keys", meaning Florida keys, and that he didn't know how to get to Fort Lauderdale. Cox urged him to fly north toward Miami "If you are in the keys." Taylor was badly mistaken, he in fact was not in the keys as thought. He was in the Bahamas and by taking Cox's advice and flying north he would only go further out to sea. Efforts by Cox and others to establish the location of Flight 19 were hampered by poor communications. At one point Taylor was urged to turn over control of the flight to one of the students, though apparently he did not do so.

As dusk slowly approached Fort Lauderdale realized with great horror that Lt. Taylor and his Avengers had no idea of where they were, they were completely lost. The atmospheric interference with the radio signals got a lot worse at sunset and communication was almost impossible with Flight 19. Lt. Taylor exclaimed that they would fly north-northeast for a short time, then head north. The continued on with their course changing to veer slightly off to the east when the contact made with Fort Lauderdale at 5.15pm by Taylor. "We are now heading west" exclaimed Taylor as he was overheard addressing his companions and telling them that they should join up; as soon as one of them ran out of fuel, they would all go down together.

The sun sank down on Fort Lauderdale at 5.29pm. Bad weather was moving in from the north and the situation was escalating into a full blown emergency. No one knew where Flight 19's location was and there was much speculation as to where they could be. At 6.00pm reception improved for a short time. Taylor was urged to switch to 3,000 kilocycles, the emergency frequency. Taylor refused to do so for fear he and the other planes would fall our of communication; unfortunately, interference from Cuban commercial stations and the inability of other coastal stations to translate the Fort Lauderdale training signal easily would effectively shut off Flight 19 from the rest of the world.

At one point the ComGulf Sea Frontier Evaluation Center thought it had pinpointed the flight's approximate position; east of New Smyrna Beach, Florida, and far to the north of the Bahamas.

The first rescue craft was sent out at 6.20pm. It was a Dumbo flying boat and it soon lost contact with the shore, leading all to believe that they had also lost the Dumbo. The problem turned out to be and iced over antenna.

Within the hour more aircraft joined in the search. The weather was overcast and the seas were reported as rough and turbulent. One flight a Martin Mariner (Training 49) failed to make its scheduled rendezvous and did not answer radio calls. At 7.50pm the crew of a nearby ship reported of seeing an enormous sheet of fire caused by the explosion of an aeroplane. The ship reported of passing through a large pool of oil soon after and not finding any survivors or bodies of the crashed aircraft. They did not try to retrieve any debris from the ocean as weather conditions were at this point deteriorating rapidly making it impossible for any kind of retrieval.

Flight 19 by this time had exhausted their fuel and were assumed to be down. Taylor's last transmission was heard at 7.04pm. The search for the lost Avengers continued on through the rough night and hundreds of planes and ships joined the search the next day.

No trace of the Mariner or Avengers have ever been found!!

He are a few more mysterious disappearances:

1947: Army C-45 Superfort vanishes 100 miles off Bermuda.
1948: Four-engine Tudor IV lost with 31 lives.
1948: DC-3 lost with 32 passengers and crew.
1949: Second Tudor IV vanishes.
1950: Giant US Air Force Globemaster lost.
1950: American freighter, SS Sandra, 350 ft long, sinks without trace.
1952: British York transport plane lost with 33 aboard.
1954: US Navy Lockheed Constellation vanishes with 42 aboard.
1956: US Navy seaplane, Martin P5M, disappears with crew of ten.
1962: US Air Force KB-50 tanker plane lost.
1963: Marine Sulphur Queen, 425-ft-long American freighter, vanishes with entire crew. No Mayday signals and no wreckage ever found. Two US Air Force giant stratotankers disappear on simple exercise. C-132 Cargomaster also vanishes.
1967: Military YC-122, converted to cargo plane, lost.
1970: French freighter Milton Iatrides disappears.
1972: German freighter Anita, 20,000 tons, lost with crew of 32.
The following is a report prepared by the U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters and the Naval Historical Center.

The U. S. Board of Geographic Names does not recognize the Bermuda Triangle as an official name and does not maintain an official file on the area.

The "Bermuda or Devil's Triangle" is an imaginary area located off the southeastern Atlantic coast of the United States, which is noted for a high incidence of unexplained losses of ships, small boats, and aircraft. The apexes of the triangle are generally accepted to be Bermuda, Miami, Fla., and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

In the past, extensive, but futile Coast Guard searches prompted by search and rescue cases such as the disappearances of an entire squadron of TBM Avengers shortly after take off from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., or the traceless sinking of USS Cyclops and Marine Sulphur Queen have lent credence to the popular belief in the mystery and the supernatural qualities of the "Bermuda Triangle."

Countless theories attempting to explain the many disappearances have been offered throughout the history of the area. The most practical seem to be environmental and those citing human error. The majority of disappearances can be attributed to the area's unique environmental features. First, the "Devil's Triangle" is one of the two places on earth that a magnetic compass does point towards true north. Normally it points toward magnetic north. The difference between the two is known as compass variation. The amount of variation changes by as much as 20 degrees as one cir*****navigates the earth. If this compass variation or error is not compensated for, a navigator could find himself far off course and in deep trouble.

An area called the "Devil's Sea" by Japanese and Filipino seamen, located off the east coast of Japan, also exhibits the same magnetic characteristics. It is also known for its mysterious disappearances.

Another environmental factor is the character of the Gulf Stream. It is extremely swift and turbulent and can quickly erase any evidence of a disaster. The unpredictable Caribbean-Atlantic weather pattern also plays its role. Sudden local thunder storms and water spouts often spell disaster for pilots and mariners. Finally, the topography of the ocean floor varies from extensive shoals around the islands to some of the deepest marine trenches in the world. With the interaction of the strong currents over the many reefs the topography is in a state of constant flux and development of new navigational hazards is swift.

Not to be under estimated is the human error factor. A large number of pleasure boats travel the waters between Florida's Gold Coast and the Bahamas. All too often, crossings are attempted with too small a boat, insufficient knowledge of the area's hazards, and a lack of good seamanship.

The Coast Guard is not impressed with supernatural explanations of disasters at sea. It has been their experience that the combined forces of nature and unpredictability of mankind outdo even the most far fetched science fiction many times each year.

Are big bubbles escaping from the sea bed the cause of this phenomenon?

Mitra Malek writes in the Herald Tribune that some scientists think giant gas bubbles in the Bermuda Triangle could be what is sucking ships down into the deep. Hollywood special effects artist Phil Beck, of Awesome FX, has recreated the phenomenon in order to test this theory. The Bermuda Triangle stretches from Florida to Bermuda and Puerto Rico. Many ships and airplanes have disappeared there, but no one can figure out why. Beck forced compressed air through an underwater grid in the ocean, forcing bubbles to the surface. After five tries, he was able to suck a Sea Ray cruiser under the water.

"The bow went up, the stern went down, and it went under," he says. "I've sunk lots of boats, but I've always just blown holes in them." This experiment has been carried before out in tubs with tiny boats, but never in the ocean with a life sized boat. "It was doing it out on the ocean. That was the key," says Steve Wilkinson of BBC, which, along with the Discovery Channel, is filming the experiment. "It's one thing to test in a tank, but to do it out in the water with currents…is another…We're looking at the Bermuda Triangle mysteries with fresh eyes.

There is background to some of the myths." The bubbles may come from methane gas frozen in the ocean floor. If the floor becomes warmer or develops cracks, the methane gas may be released, producing huge bubbles a mile wide. This explains why ships are lost in the Bermuda Triangle, but it doesn't explain why planes are lost there as well. According to the Navy, the Bermuda Triangle is one of two places on earth where a magnetic compass points to true north instead of magnetic north. A navigator who didn't compensate for that "could find himself far off course and in deep trouble," according to the Navy website.

Planes could also be affected by the giant bubbles. If one reached the surface, it could explode in the air, creating an air current that would pull the plane down into the ocean. There are many undiscovered secrets that control the way our world works. (www.unknowncountry.com)

Many thanks to Castle of Spirits for their help.



Source: www.thesupernaturalworld.co.uk

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