On the Western Atlantic, in a region covering Bermuda, south Florida and Puerto Rico (forming a triangle), lies an area filled with enigma and mystery – the notorious Bermuda Triangle. Many anomalies occurring in that area have been recorded as early as 1492, when Christopher Columbus himself reported seeing a strange light and a great flame of fire flash across the sky.
To add to this perplexity, the Bermuda Triangle lies on approximately the same latitude (25° N) as the Zone of Silence (see "Mysterious History Part 1"), the Egyptian Pyramids and the Devil's Sea.
As Vincent Gaddis wrote in his book about the Bermuda Triangle ,“Invisible Horizons”, in 1964 - “this relatively limited area is the scene of disappearances that total far beyond the laws of chance … despite swift wings and the voice of radio, we still have a world large enough for men and their machines and ships to disappear without a trace. A mile is still a mile, and the miles can add up to a vast unknown – the same misty limbo of the lost feared by our forefathers” Powerful words.
Whether you believe in this old enigma or not, one thing is certain: it is quite hard to ignore. To date, more than 100 ships and planes have vanished into thin air and over 1000 lives have been lost in the Bermuda Triangle. Not a single body or piece of wreckage has ever been found.
In February 1928, Charles Lindberg observed magnetic anomalies while traversing the area in the Spirit of St. Louis. Both compasses malfunctioned and the liquid compass card rotated wildly.
In July of the same year, there was a second incident. A Fokker en route testing was thrown off course by a 50 percent compass fluctuation and subsequently crashed. Radio interference was also reported.
One of the most intriguing disappearances, and my absolute favourite, was that of Flight 19, an incident which inspired B.A. Robertson to write a song about it. This event, on the 5th December 1945, involved six U.S. Navy planes and their crews. The first five planes, TBM Avengers, took off from Fort Lauderdale, Florida at 2pm on that fateful day. The weather was good, the sun was out and there was a moderate north east wind. Pilots and crews from all five aircraft were very experienced so there was no reason in the world to expect any problems.
However, problems did arise about an hour after take off. The radioman at the Naval Air Station Tower at Fort Lauderdale had been waiting for news from the planes regarding arrival time and landing instructions. He received a very odd message:-
Flight Leader : “Calling Tower. This is an emergency. We seem to be off course. We cannot see land … Repeat … We cannot see land.”
Tower : “What is your position?”
Flight Leader : “We are not sure of our position. We cannot be sure just where we are … We seem to be lost ...”
Tower : “Assume bearing due west.”
Flight Leader : “We don't know which way is west. Everything is wrong … Strange … We can't be sure of any direction – even the ocean doesn't look as it should ...”
Further communications a little while later went on :-
“I don't know where we are. We must have got lost after that last turn.”
and from the Flight 19 instructor :-
“Both my compasses are out. I am trying to find Fort Lauderdale … I am sure I'm in the Keys, but I don't know how far down ...”
On being advised to fly north with the sun on the portside until he reached the Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station, he replied :-
“We have just passed over a small island … No other land in sight ...”
This pointed to the obvious fact that the aircraft in question, and indeed the entire fleet, was not over the Keys, as they would have been able to see a continuation of land.
Some time after, a Martin Mariner patrol plane with a crew of thirteen was dispatched on a rescue mission to find the missing Flight 19 planes.
Alarmingly, the rescue plane also went missing. The Tower received a message from the Martin Mariner just minutes after take off, detailing very strong winds and that was the last communication. No more messages came in, from either Flight 19 or the rescue plane.
One can imagine the shock and impotence that must have been felt at the Tower. But the story gets even more mysterious, if at all possible.
This was part of the call letters used by Flight 19. Now here is the weird part – Flight 19, which left Fort Lauderdale at just after 2pm, had enough fuel for a couple of hours. How can it be, then, that they were, apparently, sending out a message two or three hours after their fuel would have run out? Where were they? An extensive rescue mission, consisting of 240 planes, sixty-seven extra planes from an aircraft carrier, four destroyers, several submarines, eighteen coastguard vessels, hundreds of private planes, yachts and boats and even the RAF and Royal Navy, was launched at first light the following day. Nothing was found. Flight 19 and the rescue plane had definitely not landed on any outlying island or surrounding lands.
So where was the enigmatic message “FT … FT ...” being sent from at 7pm the night before? There wasn't enough fuel to still be flying at that time, and they definitely hadn't landed anywhere. Or had they? Is there a logical explanation? My money is on another dimension ... a dimension where the portal was still open, allowing Flight 19's messages to filter through somehow .....
There were numerous other incidents. A particularly busy year was 1974, with no less than five disruptions and disappearances.
But there is one particular case that really captures my attention. It was July 1966 and Don Henry, captain of the salvage tug Good News went on deck to investigate the cause of engine and compass failure. Imagine his surprise when he looked towards the stern of the boat and realised that the barge he had been towing had disappeared!
The captain also observed that, despite having, supposedly, lost the barge, the rope was still there – nice and taut! Pulling what?? As he watched, bewildered, the vessel slowly re-materialized. And to completely crush any other logical clarification, presenting the pièce de résistance – the weather was clear!
In fact, I believe that the reason why there was nothing beyond the stretched rope is because the barge was actually in another dimension already. Like a leash on a dog, the salvage tug pulled the barge straight back out of another dimension – a veritable lifeline.
There have been stories of “ghost ships” spotted in the Bermuda Triangle ... ghost ships or a temporary peek into another dimension, some lost ship’s “unknown location”?
There are many theories surrounding this big mystery – a mystery happening on very familiar ground on our home planet. But there is energy not yet harnessed by man, natural or not, that we do not understand. The consequences arising from these events have no logical explanation so we are left with a huge question mark and an exciting quest for the truth.
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