Famous Bermuda Triangle Incidents

Flight 19

One of the best known Bermuda Triangle incidents concerns the loss of Flight 19, a squadron of five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger torpedo bombers on a training flight out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on December 5, 1945. According to Berlitz, the flight consisted of expert Marine Corps aviators who, after reporting a number of odd visual effects, simply disappeared, an account which isn't entirely true. Furthermore, Berlitz claims that because the TBM Avenger bombers were built to float for long periods, they should have been found the next day considering what were reported as calm seas and a clear sky. However, not only were they never found, a Navy search and rescue seaplane that went after them was also lost. Adding to the intrigue is that the Navy's report of the accident was ascribed to "causes or reasons unknown".

TBM Avenger bombers

While the basic facts of Berlitz's version of the story are essentially accurate, some important details are missing. The image of a squadron of seasoned combat aviators disappearing on a sunny afternoon is inaccurate. Rather, it was a squadron of lost, inexperienced flight trainees forced to ditch their out-of-fuel airplanes into unknown stormy waters in the dark of night. As for the Navy's report, it is claimed that the original report blamed the accident on the commander's confusion (Lt. Taylor abandoned his airplanes twice in the Pacific after getting lost returning to his carrier), but the wording was changed in deference to the wishes of his family.

Another factor to consider is that the TBM Avenger Aircraft were never designed for crash-landing into water. Wartime experience in the Pacific showed that an Avenger aircraft would sink very quickly if landed on the water. Especially with novice pilots at the helm, an Avenger would be very difficult to land on calm water, let alone the perilous rough seas in the Bermuda Triangle.

Star Tiger

Another well-known loss is that of a four-engine Tudor IV airliner named Star Tiger, in the predawn hours of January 31, 1948. Piloted by Captain B. W. McMillan, the airliner, which carried twenty-nine passengers and crew on board, had left hours earlier from Santa Maria, Azores, one of numerous scheduled fuel stopover points on its route from London, England to Havana, Cuba. While approaching Bermuda, McMillan made the expected contact with Kindley Field, the next stopover, requesting a radio bearing to calibrate his navigation systems and ensure he remained on course. With the response indicating that the plane was slightly off course, its position was corrected after Bermuda relayed a first-class bearing of 72 degrees from the island. At this point, with Star Tiger less than two hours flight away, McMillan gave confirmation of an ETA of 05:00 hours, an hour late due to strong headwinds; no further transmission from the aircraft was ever received.

Star Tiger, a four-engine Tudor IV airliner

Armed with precise reports of the plane's last known position, rescue operations were launched after the craft was determined overdue for arrival; but no trace of the aircraft was ever found.

In the report issued soon thereafter by the Civil Air Ministry, numerous hypotheses as to what might have occurred during the flight's final two hours are given, before each being subsequently rejected: "There would accordingly be no grounds for supposing that Star Tiger fell into the sea in consequence of having been deprived of her radio, having failed to find her destination, and having exhausted her fuel." "There is good reason to suppose that no distress message was transmitted from the aircraft, for there were many radio receiving stations listening on the aircraft's frequencies, and none reported such a message." "...The weather was stable, there were no atmospheric disturbances of a serious kind which might cause structural damage to the aircraft, and there were no electrical storms." It was ruled that the aircraft could not have gone off course, as the broadcast bearing from Bermuda, with winds prevailing, would have brought it within thirty miles of the island: "The aircraft could hardly have failed to find the island in a short time, in the conditions of visibility which prevailed." Engine difficulty was ruled out as a likely cause, since at such late stage in the flight, without the added weight of extra fuel aboard, the aircraft might have been flown safely on three, or even two, engines instead of the four it had. The probability of the aircraft entirely losing three engines in the course of under two hours was considered absurd.

Faced with the accumulation of evidence, or perhaps lack thereof, the board of investigation addressed the loss of the Star Tiger with remarked eloquence: "In closing this report it may truly be said that no more baffling problem has ever been presented for investigation. In the complete absence of any reliable evidence as to either the nature or the cause of the accident of Star Tiger the Court has not been able to do more than suggest possibilities, none of which reaches the level even of probability. Into all activities which involve the co-operation of man and machine two elements enter of a very diverse chaarcter [sic?]. There is an incalculable element of the human equation dependent upon imperfectly known factors; and there is the mechanical element subject to quite different laws. A breakdown may occur in either separately or in both in conjunction. Or some external cause may overwhelm both man and machine. What happened in this case will never be known and the fate of Star Tiger must remain an unsolved mystery."
The list of Bermuda Triangle incidents concerns all maritime incidents that occurred in the Bermuda Triangle and incidents that are claimed to have occurred in the Bermuda Triangle.

Incidents in air

• TBF Avenger 1942
• PBY Catalina 1942
• TBF Avenger 1943
• Lockheed PV-1 Ventura x4 1943
• PV4Y Privateer 1943
• PBY Catalina 1944
• PB4Y Privateer 1944
• SBD-5 Dauntless 1944
• PBY-5A Catalina 1944
• B-24 Liberator 1945
• PV4Y Privateer 1945
• Flight 19, lost on December 5, 1945
• Martin Mariner, lost on December 5, 1945
• C-54 1947
• DC-3 NC16002, lost on December 28, 1948
• Star Tiger, lost on January 30, 1948
• Star Ariel, lost on January 17, 1949
• Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat 1950
• Grumman F9F-2 Panther 1950
• C-46 British York transport, lost on February 2, 1952
• TV-2 Texan 1953
• USN Super Constellation, lost on October 30, 1954
• Martin Marlin, lost on November 9, 1956
• Super Sabre, lost on March 18, 1960
• Pogo 22, lost on October 15, 1961
• KB-50 Aerial Tanker, lost on January 8, 1962
• C-133 Cargomaster, lost on May 27, 1962
• C-133 Cargomaster, lost on September 22, 1963
• USAF KC-135 Stratotankers, lost on August 28, 1963
• C-119 Flying Boxcar, lost on June 5, 1965
• Cessna 172, lost on June 6, 1969
• Phantom II Jet "Sting 27", lost on October 10, 1971
• Caribbean Flight 912, lost November 3, 1978
• DC-3 N407D, lost on September 21, 1978
• Fighting Tiger 524, lost on February 22, 1978
• Beechcraft N9027Q, lost on February 11, 1980
• Ercoupe N3808H, lost on June 28, 1980
• Beech Bonanza, lost on January 6, 1981
• Piper Cherokee N3527E, lost on March 26, 1986
• Grumman Cougar Jet, lost on October 31, 1991

 

Incidents at sea

• General Gates; went missing 1780 (no British warship claimed her sinking)
• USS Insurgent, a 36-gun French-built warship with 340 crew; went missing September 1799
• USS Pickering; went missing on voyage to West Indies, on or around August 20, 1800
• USS Wasp; galleon that severely harassed British shipping in the War of 1812, went missing on Caribbean cruise, October 1814
• Epervier, while carrying original peace proposals for War of 1812; left Algiers for Norfolk, and went missing, 1815, delaying the ending of hostilities (rare instance of maritime disappearance directly connected to international politics)
• USS Wildcat, crew of 31; went missing after leaving Cuba, October 1824
• Schooner Lynx, crew of 40; went missing in far western Atlantic, 1824
• Schooner Hornet, victor over HMS Peacock in 1812; went missing in far western Atlantic, 1824
• Rosalie; went missing in Sargasso Sea, 1840
• Grampus; went missing sailing south of the Carolinas, March 1843
• HMS Atalanta, crew of 290; went missing, after departing Bermuda for home, 1880
• Spray, piloted by renowned world-circumnavigator Joshua Slocum, considered "finest sailor of his age"; went missing after departing Miami, November 14, 1909
• Timandra, 1,579 gross-ton freighter, crew of 21 under Captain Lee; went missing, while bound for Buenos Aires from Norfolk in cargo of coal, sometime between March 6 and March 27, 1917; sent no wireless/radio communication, despite capability
• Collier USS Cyclops, crew and passengers of 309 under Lieutenant Commander George Worley; went missing after leaving Barbados for Baltimore, sometime after March 6, 1918; sent no wireless/radio communication, despite capability
• Tramp steamer SS Cotopaxi, crew of 32 under Captain Meyers; went missing, after leaving Charleston, South Carolina for Havana, Cuba, December 1, 1925; sent no wireless/radio communication, despite capability
• Freighter SS Suduffco, crew of 29; went missing, while sailing from New York City to Los Angeles, March 14, 1926, though owner waited approximately one month before reporting her overdue; sent no wireless/radio communication, despite capability
• British freighter Anglo Australian, 5,500 tonnes, crew of 38 under Captain Parslow; went missing, bound from Cardiff, Wales for British Columbia, March 1938; last reported by wireless/radio off Azores: "Passing Fayal this afternoon. All well."
• The Evelyn K; lost on March 6, 1948
• SS Samkey; lost on January 31, 1948
• Home Sweet Home; lost on January 13, 1955
• Connemara IV; lost on September 26, 1955
• Revenoc; lost on January 1, 1958
• SS Marine Sulphur Queen; lost on February 3, 1963
• Sno Boy; lost on July 2, 1963
• Enchantress; lost on January 13, 1965
• El Gato; lost on October 28, 1965
• Witchcraft; lost on December 22, 1967
• El Caribe; lost on September 10, 1971
• Dawn; lost on April 22, 1975
• Sylvia L. Ossa; lost in October 1976
• SS Poet; lost on October 26, 1980