Posted on 12/05/2021 8:23:23 AM PST by DFG
A late friend of mine, a retired USAF Col and Master Navigator (began on B-47s), researched Flight 19 and did several navigation plots. He concluded that with the probable failure of several compasses or willful ignoring of them because the lead pilot decided not to trust his, that the lead pilot took the flight off to the north or northeast, similar to the posted graphic.
I remember years ago reading of this flight, the myths surrounding the disappearance and what really happened.
The squadron leader showed up intoxicated, flew his men over the Bahamas, but thought he was over the Keys and told them to continue NE till they came over Florida, then ditched. The ocean currents did the rest.
The rescue aircraft was known to have gasoline fume problems and was known as a flying gas can. Possibly someone lit up and the plane blew up.
After reading all this over forty years ago I never consider movies like CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND to be watchable.
I believe it was Charles Berlitz who tried to popularize this for his book on The Bermuda Triangle.
Berlitz also tried to make the claim that, in 1980, the Triangle mysteriously pulled another aircraft from Louisiana to the Atlantic.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1980/01/12/lsu-coach-presumed-killed/93071bb3-ba7d-4ee6-b397-e86e56ea5dec/
If you set down with Berlitz’ list of lost ships and planes you will find that very few disappeared in the actual Bermuda Triangle but well outside of it.
Then they went on to say the same thing about an Indonesian Triangle. It was great fodder for the checkout stand tabloids at that time.
Interesting comments by everyone. All we know for sure, is that the men and planes were never seen again. If there was bad weather it must have been very localized in the area they flew into. But in that case, why was no wreckage ever found?
And what does everyone think of the response on this thread, of one of our freepers who sailed through the Bermuda triangle and personally witness the compass go haywire?
I had heard that Flight 19 was a training mission, with experienced pilots out there. It seems odd so many experienced pilots lost their way.
This was covered by PBS about 30 years ago. Similar landmarks cause them to trust the landmarks rather than their compasses causing them to go out to sea and run out of gas.
No wreckage was found because it sank. Very little of a plane will float. And what little does float is subject to the current. Add in the fact that nobody knew where they were, you’ve got thousands of square miles of possible crash sites. Even these days with all the modern gadgets we have tracking planes and boats sometimes things just go down and nobody knows where, nothing ever gets found. Just gone, under the ocean, might get found by a wreck diver some day.
As for somebody’s compass going haywire, it happens. Who knows. Magnetic field. Somebody dicking around. Odd things happen all over.
Even experienced pilots get confused. And the ocean is a terrible place to have that happen. Very little in the way of landmarks. And there’s enough oddness in the overall run, like refusing to change radio channels, it really looks like somebody’s got the best of him, and they took a wrong turn to nowhere.
I was a navigator in the CG and I sailed in those waters for 3 years and every single time we went into that area our gyro and magnetic compasses would also go completely nuts. There is definitely some magnetic abnormality in that area.
Never had a problem getting finding my way as long as I wasn’t on an interstate. Boating in the fog, hunting unfamiliar hills in snowstorms, cruising old lumber roads at night, no problem. Stick me on an interstate, and I’ll find the shortest distance to my own rear end.
Well the weather forecaster said hurricane season ended November 30th. Now he wouldn’t lie to us, would he?😁
Damn always fake news with these guys😊
No, they didn’t, but, the visual conditions (very much like today in Vero Beach) deteriorated as the sun set. Crummy weather came in off or the Bahamas and we ended up having to run the Generator as the batteries didn’t charge enough off the solar.
I recommend the book “The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved” by Larry Kucshe. He researched the weather reports that day and found this to be so. He also wrote a Biography of Lt. Taylor.
Not so much a lie as a convenient forgetting the storms that have happened in January.
When the Bahamas finally open up again (Covid restrictions make it undesirable for us right now), we’ll sail over and find out.
But, with the thousands of recreational sailors and power boaters that spend time over there every year, I find it hard to believe that anything seriously wrong is happening.
Off subject, but this reminds me of the movie, “The Final Countdown.” Fun watch with an intrugiung plot.
I grew up in Hialeah and the guy across the street from us was actually station at ft Lauderdale when that happened. It was before my time, however, the story has always fascinated me. IMHO Taylor was either sick or hungover and shouldn’t of even been in the air that day. They ran out of fuel and ditched, Gulfstream took the survivors north of the search area.
He was just bad at reading a compass. He did the same “take a turn and think you are 100 miles away” thing in the Pacific while flying off a carrier. Sadly, this time he took the whole flight with him.
More aircraft have disappeared over the USA then the Bermuda Triangle.
Plane hits the ground and the trees whip back into place to cover the crash as an example.
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