Bermuda triangle - fact or fiction.

[scottmandue]

This is the third time I have tried to post this coincidence?

I live twenty four mile across from Catalina Island and people unfortunately disappear between here and there quite often on calm sunny days.

So given the size of the area and number of people using it are the number of people that have disappeared in the "triangle" that unusual?

I am interested in what the pilots out there have to say.

[VaSteve]

I saw a great episode of something on Discovery. They said that the cause of the plane wrecks and boat sinkings are pockets of methane coming up through the ocean. When these bubbles hit the surface, they'd upset boats and sink them. When inhaled into a plane's engine, it would stall it out and into the ocean they'd go. They didn't test it on a jet, IIRC.

"Silent but deadly. "

[livi]

Intriguing topic!

Apparently you are both 'Living the legend '(driving a Porsche) and Living close to a legend.

[scottmandue]

Marcus,

I'm on the west coast Bermuda is off the east coast, my point being I can see Catalina island from my front porch and "the triangle" is (off the top of my head) is between Bermuda, Cuba, and Florida. That is (I think) hundreds of miles of ocean! And yet people disappear over here (west coast) on a one hour power boat ride.

Although Catalina island does have a song written about it so I suppose it is a "legend"

Steve,

I saw the same documentary and I would think the methane would dissipate before it could hundreds or thousands of feet into the air to mess up airplanes.

I prefer the theory that this was the previous site of Atlantis.

[vash]

i think it is a giant sea turtle that lurks in the area causing all the trouble.

[Joeaksa]

Not the least bit worried flying in that area and have done so for years. That said, there are some very interesting things that have happened in that area over the years.

Someday someone will find the airplanes lost and thus find the cause.

[VaSteve]

Originally posted by scottmandue


Steve,

I saw the same documentary and I would think the methane would dissipate before it could hundreds or thousands of feet into the air to mess up airplanes.

IIRC correctly, it took very little gas to stall out the engines.

My first hand experience with methane is that it fails to dissapate rapidly. Even with the Targa roof off and the windows down.... oops, did I just say that?

[nostatic]

Rodan

[Vipergrün]

The "Channel" of the Channel Islands is not to for the novice and can be a very wicked place. There is a section called "Windy Lane" where rogue waves can swamp your boat. There are also HUGE freighters being towed by tugs......1/4 mile away. Folks have been known to hit the tow cables. That said, there are some great anchorages and places to explore, dive and surf out there.....

[svandamme]

if somebody is willing to sponsor me, with a cigarrete boat and some supplies(fuel, booze, girls, diving and camera equipment, weed,lsd), i'm willing to go investigate it... movie rights go to the sponsor, i get 5% of the movies revenue...i'll make Ballard look like a boy scout...

[sammyg2]

People do stupid things and are sometimes just unlucky.

There ya go, that is an explanation that is about a zillion times more credible that some stupid triangle story.

[singpilot]

All my life I’ve had that tiny little box to fill my ‘Place of Birth’ in, sized for only one or two words………..


My story starts in North Africa, Dad was a medical officer in the Air Force. My mom was 8 months pregnant, and no amount of husbandly convincing was going to soothe her nerves about my being an American citizen while actually having her first born on a North African military base. Dad arranged a last minute MAC flight to the States, and even got the base doc to certify her as OK to fly. The MilitaryAirliftCommand Lockheed L-1028 Connie flight was over 9 hours from Morocco to McDill AFB, Florida. 5 hours still to go to Florida, Mom goes into labor. I was born somewhere in the Bermuda triangle, which (if you know me) probably explains a lot of things…..

The MAC Connie Aircraft Commander was concerned about having a newborn aboard without proper medical attention, so he diverted to the West Palm Beach AFB. He asked to taxi directly to the onfield base hospital, and an airstair was hastily delivered. I was carried down the stepladder and after a complete medical exam, my parents were handed a birth certificate that, under place of birth, stated:

“West Palm Beach Air Force Base International Airport Arrivals Building H22.”

The long stories I tell, and my vagabond life started out that way. It’s not really my fault, after all.

[M.D. Holloway]

Sing - some people get lost in the triangle, your parents are the first ones that I have heard of that 'found' someone. Cool story.

[450knotOffice]

From 1992 to 1998 I flew literally thousands of flights right through that area (being based at that time in Miami). Day and night. Good weather and bad. Not once did I encounter even the slightest anomaly. No compass swings. No lost radio transmissions. No strange navigation situations. Nothing.

Personally, I think the "Bermuda Triangle" is simply a fairy tale that has taken on a life of it's own.

[M.D. Holloway]

not unlike the democratic party...

[Dixie]

cause of the plane wrecks and boat sinkings are pockets of methane coming up through the ocean….

Who would have thought it's all because of farting whales?

[ben parrish]

I live in the middle of the "Bermuda Triangle". The little island I call home, Green Turtle Cay, as well as other islands around here are inhabitaded by many generations of fisherman. The general consesus is that most of the missing boats and planes have been victim of weather.
Water spouts are VERY common in the Bahamas as well as off the coast of the US. If you fly over the shallows of the Bahamas, you will see many white circular spots in the bottom; water spout trails. A large sail boat (William H Albury) was sunk on it's maiden voyage in the 40's by a water spout close to here. The owner and his wife were unhurt but the boat was overtaken by a waterspout and filled to the gunnels. She went down in 30'; she was raised and repaired and still sails to this day.
As an avid sailor, I have had two very close calls with waterspouts. The one that scared the hell out of me happened about a year ago. My wife, one year old daughter and I were headed toward Abaco one morning with storm clouds on the horizon. We watched a water spout form about 4 miles away but were not too concerned about our safety. Well, it got HUGE; solid colum, not the long, whip like ones you may have seen on T.V.. It was still miles away so we kept sailing our course that looket to be basically parallel to its course. The wind all of a sudden died and the sails went flat. They then began to fill but the air appeared to be coming UP FROM the water. The water surface began to get "peaked" and a mist quickly formed all around us. I didn't know what to do but I had a pretty good idea what was happening. A water spout was attempting to form in the exact area we were in and I had no where to go. As quickly as it started, the mist settled and the wind picked back up the way it had been blowing. Long story short, it never formed and we were safe.
There is a good book, written in the 80's about the Bermuda Triangle with all the theories in it. I believe it is called The Bermuda Triangle Mysteries. A good read.
Weather and human error are not as exciting as aliens and methane gas.

[Jims5543]

Originally posted by ben parrish
I live in the middle of the "Bermuda Triangle". The little island I call home, Green Turtle Cay, as well as other islands around here are inhabitaded by many generations of fisherman. The general consesus is that most of the missing boats and planes have been victim of weather.
Water spouts are VERY common in the Bahamas as well as off the coast of the US. If you fly over the shallows of the Bahamas, you will see many white circular spots in the bottom; water spout trails. A large sail boat (William H Albury) was sunk on it's maiden voyage in the 40's by a water spout close to here. The owner and his wife were unhurt but the boat was overtaken by a waterspout and filled to the gunnels. She went down in 30'; she was raised and repaired and still sails to this day.
As an avid sailor, I have had two very close calls with waterspouts. The one that scared the hell out of me happened about a year ago. My wife, one year old daughter and I were headed toward Abaco one morning with storm clouds on the horizon. We watched a water spout form about 4 miles away but were not too concerned about our safety. Well, it got HUGE; solid colum, not the long, whip like ones you may have seen on T.V.. It was still miles away so we kept sailing our course that looket to be basically parallel to its course. The wind all of a sudden died and the sails went flat. They then began to fill but the air appeared to be coming UP FROM the water. The water surface began to get "peaked" and a mist quickly formed all around us. I didn't know what to do but I had a pretty good idea what was happening. A water spout was attempting to form in the exact area we were in and I had no where to go. As quickly as it started, the mist settled and the wind picked back up the way it had been blowing. Long story short, it never formed and we were safe.
There is a good book, written in the 80's about the Bermuda Triangle with all the theories in it. I believe it is called The Bermuda Triangle Mysteries. A good read.
Weather and human error are not as exciting as aliens and methane gas.

Did you post something here in this quote because I cannot see it.



I have flown and boated many times through the triangle and never gave it a second thought.

Well, there was that one flight from Nassau to Miami through a nasty thunder storm... I thought we were going to die.

[ben parrish]

Did I post something?
Huh?
Me no understand.

[Victor]

Here is all the evidence you need:


* In the 1991 film The Addams Family, Abigail Craven tries to pass off her son Gordon as the long-lost Uncle Fester, explaining his long absence with an onset of amnesia after a vacation in the Bermuda Triangle.

* In a 1978 episode of Scooby-Doo titled "A Creepy Tangle in the Bermuda Triangle", the gang enters the Triangle on a ship helmed by an evil captain and becomes involved in many mysterious incidents.

* An episode of Disney's DuckTales (episode #27: "Bermuda Triangle Tangle") left Scrooge a prisoner in the mysterious Sargasso Sea after a search for his missing ships.

* A season-6 The X-Files episode, aptly named "Triangle", featured a Bermuda Triangle storyline about a 1939 luxury liner that appeared in the present day.





Edit: Barry Manilow sang a UK no. 15 hit in 1981 titled "Bermuda Triangle"........take care out there guys. There is some nasty scheisse out there.