Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
19 November 2010
Bermuda Triangle
Mysteries have Logical Explanations
A huge area of the Atlantic anchored by Bermuda,
Puerto Rico, and Florida has acquired an
undeserved reputation for strange events
In the popular imagination, the Bermuda Triangle swallows up ships and planes without a trace. Suggestions for the disappearances range from alien abductions to changes in the laws of physics.
Bermuda Triangle Myth Born
The notion that something strange was going on in the western North Atlantic seems to have started with an article written by an Associated Press reporter named E.V.W. Jones. His story appeared in The Miami Herald and other newspapers on September 17, 1950.
Jones’s piece, entitled told about a ship called the Sandra: “It was a 350-
British Passenger Plane Vanishes in Bermuda Triangle
Jones also wrote about a British plane, the Star Tiger that, on January 31, 1948, “approached Bermuda with 29 on board. The craft radioed its position several times. Then silence enveloped it, and mystery. To this day no trace has been uncovered.”
The official enquiry into the Star Tiger affair helped feed the imaginations of many when it said: “What happened in this case will never be known and the fate of Star Tiger must remain an unsolved mystery.”
Star Tiger Flight Mystery Solved
Now, journalist Tom Mangold thinks he has solved the puzzle of what happened to the Star Tiger. In a series produced for BBC Radio 4, Mangold explains what probably happened to that flight 60 years ago.
The plane was an Avro Tudor IV (above), a model with a very poor safety record. It was operated by British South American Airways (BSAA), a company with an equally poor safety record.
Mangold points out that in three years BSAA “had had 11 serious accidents and lost five planes with 73 passengers and 22 crew members killed.”
Mechanical Problems Noted before Disappearance
The Avro Tudor IV was on a flight from London to Bermuda. There was a refueling stop in the Azores and then a 2,000 mile flight across the Atlantic; the longest passenger flight in the world at the time.
Tom Mangold’s investigation found the plane’s “heater was notoriously unreliable and had failed en route.” To keep the plane and passengers warm the pilot had descended to 2,000 feet for the entire transatlantic flight.
At such a low height the plane would have been using fuel at a faster rate than at the planned altitude. In addition, that long flight from the Azores to Bermuda put the aircraft at the limit of its fuel range.
Mangold’s explanation is that the plane simply ran out of fuel and plunged into the ocean.
All Bermuda Triangle
Mysteries have Plausible Explanations
Since E.V.W. Jones’s article appeared plenty of writers have made money peddling
half-
One of the most successful is Charles Berlitz, whose 1974 book The Bermuda Triangle was a bestseller. But research librarian Larry Kusche delved into Berlitz’s claims and found them all to be misrepresentations of the truth and outright fabrications.
He wrote that “If Berlitz were to report that a boat were red, the chance of it being some other colour is almost a certainty.”
The Skeptics Dictionary puts all the weird stories to rest by noting “The number of wrecks in this area is not extraordinary, given its size, location, and the amount of traffic it receives.”
Many of the disasters did not even happen in the Bermuda Triangle. As the Dictionary points out, “The real mystery is how the Bermuda Triangle became a mystery at all.”
Image credit
Ian Dunster
Sources
“Sea’s Puzzles still Baffle Men in Pushbutton Age.” E.V.W. Jones, Associated Press, September 17, 1950.
“Bermuda Triangle Plane Mystery ‘Solved.’ ” Tom Mangold, BBC News, September 13, 2009.
© Canada and the World, October 2010
All rights reserved.
“The U.S. Navy does not believe the Bermuda Triangle exists. It is reported that Lloyd's of London, the world's leading market for specialist insurance, does not charge higher premiums for vessels transiting this heavily traveled area.”
FLIGHT 19
One of the enduring myths surrounding the Bermuda Triangle is what happened to Flight 19?
On the afternoon of December 5, 1945, five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger Torpedo Bombers (below)took off from a Florida base and were never seen again.
U.S. Navy
Bermuda Triangle theorists say some dark force must have come into play; the bad karma of the Triangle must have grabbed the planes and pulled them to their doom under the waves.
Unsolved Mysteries has a different view. The flight leader, Lt. Charles Taylor, was training four student pilots when his compass failed. Taylor was lost and thought he was west of the Florida panhandle so reasoned if he flew east he would find land. In fact, the five planes were east of Florida and, by flying east, they went farther out into the Atlantic Ocean.
Radio communications with the flight were disrupted so traffic controllers could not correct Taylor’s error.
At about 8 p.m. that evening, the Avengers would have begun running out of fuel. The pilots would have been forced to ditch in a moderate to rough ocean at night.
The search area would have been vast, so it’s not surprising no wreckage was ever found.
The official U.S. Navy investigation has come to this conclusion.
However, fans of the notion that the Bermuda Triangle is some sort of evil place where ships and planes are lured into disasters don’t buy the most logical explanation. In fact, they seem to believe each plausible explanation for natural occurrences and accidents is part of some vast conspiracy to cover up the truth.