It Did What? 5 Secrets about the Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle has fascinated theorists and paranormal followers for years, and rightly so with the number of strange goings on and disappearances from planes and boats (both military and commercial), and has even sparked scientists to come forward with logical facts about all of these.

A triangular shaped area in the North Atlantic Ocean, from Bermuda Island to Miami, USA and Puerto Rico and also known as the Devils Triangle to give even more credence to the myth, the following are my top 5 bermuda triangle mysteries

Flight 19

One of the most fascinating and biggest stories of the the triangle involves 5 Avenger bombers codenamed Flight 19. The 5 bombers took off from the Naval base at Florida on 5th of December 1945, but never returned. U.S Navy’s final report mentioned “Reasons Unknown” when citing the cause of the incident.

Flight 19 was a training flight with five TBM Avengers or Torpedo Bombers and was led by Commander Charles Taylor. Each was a 3-seater plane, very robust, safe and US Navy’s best bombing planes to destroy enemy submarines. It could carry up to 2,000 pounds of bombing ammunitions and had a range of 1,000 miles.

As per plans, the flight’s path was to first go towards East into the sea for 56 miles up to Hens and Chicken Shoals to practice bombings. Then they were supposed go further east for another 67 miles towards the Bahamas. At this point they would turn north and go for 73 miles. Then turn back and head straight for the Naval Base back in Florida. This way they would cover a triangular area over the sea.

Immediately an instruction was given from the tower to turn north and fly towards Miami, only if he was sure that they were at the Florida keys. However, Taylor’s idea of being close to the Keys was wrong. They had probably gone to the East as originally planned, but for some reason he got confused. As he guided the flight more towards north, further out to the sea the avengers traveled.

At 3.45 p.m., Taylor’s voice was heard again at the control towers. This time he sounded worried and confused … “Cannot see land, we seem to be off course”. At this stage there was another transmission that was picked up when one trainee student said to the other “If we would just fly west, we would get home.” They were never seen again…
The ironic twist to this story is that two Search and rescue planes were also dispatched that day to find the missing planes…..these too simply vanished without a trace!

[bctt tweet=”The Bermuda Triangle may never give up its biggest secrets..but then again would you want it too?” username=”MarkhMedium”]

Flight DC3

On December 28, 1948, the flight Douglas Dakota  DC-3 (NC16002) took off at 10.03p.m. from San Juan airport of Puerto Rico heading for Miami (Florida). While it was only 50 miles south of Florida, it sent the last message to indicate its position. Only 20 minutes to go, the flight was never seen or heard of again.

It disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle area with all its 28 passengers and 3 crew members.This was the first instance of a DC-3 aircraft disappearing. There were subsequently two more such cases, all of them happened within 50 miles of Florida Keys. The Keys is a string of small islands just south of Florida.

Tudor Star

On January 30, 1948, the Star Tiger, a Tudor aircraft was on its way to Bermuda. The long 12 hours journey from Santa Maria in Azores was almost coming to an end. At 3:15 a.m., the radio operator of the aircraft received the radio position of the plane.

Carroll A. Deering

Carroll A. Deering was a large cargo ship, 255-foot long, more than 44-foot wide, weighing 1,879 tons and having five masts. She passed through a long stretch of the triangle area before it was found abandoned and wrecked without a soul on board.

And interestingly, none of the crew members ever surfaced or could ever be traced.

When coast guards boarded the grounded ship, Deering was under full sail. There was nobody on board, not a single crew. Some food were found at the galley which was perhaps getting prepared for next day’s meal. So it seemed the abandonment happened in hurry.

RT @MacGyverCBS: Should the team listen to Jack before they venture into the Bermuda Triangle?

However several things were missing including the two life boats. The ropes were hanging from two sides of the ships suggesting that the lifeboats were used to evacuate. All papers and documents including the log, navigational instruments, chronometer etc were also missing.

When the Captain’s cabin was inspected, several pairs of boots were found which indicated that the room was used by several persons at the end. Another strange observation… red lights were run up the mast which suggested that somebody wanted to signal that help was required.

A large map on a ship is used to record day to day route and movement of the ship. When this large map was inspected in Deering, it was observed that Captain Wormell marked the map till January 23rd as evident from his distinct handwriting, but after that it was someone else’s handwriting on the map.

USS Cyclops

USS Cyclops was a massive carrier ship and supplied fuel to the American fleet during the World War-I.  On January 8, 1918, the ship started sail from the snow covered Norfolk navy port towards Rio of Brazil under the command of Lt. Commander Worley. The ship was only a few years old.

On January 28, the ship reached Rio. It would now dock here for two weeks.  On the day of its departure, surprisingly some 73 local sailors were asked to board the ship. And more surprisingly, the American Consulate General of Rio, Gottschalk also boarded the ship. When asked why? He mentioned that he wanted to enlist his name in the US army to serve the nation during the war.

USS Cyclops then set sail again on February 16th with 309 persons on board and huge load of cargo. It was homebound for Baltimore via Bahi. Now there was another odd turn to the story. After the ship left Bahi, instead of sailing straight towards Baltimore, the captain took it to Barbados in West Indies on March 3rd. He said that they needed more fuel and supplies.

Although the US Consul General in Barbados did not feel the necessity of loading more coal and supplies, but the captain insisted, and it was finally done.On March 4th, Cyclops set sail again and was scheduled to reach Baltimore on March 13th. But… it was never heard of again. When the ship did not reach Baltimore as scheduled, a massive search was initiated soon along her whole course.