Unsolved mystery of the 20th century: “Loss of aircraft in the Bermuda Triangle”

After a long break, the editors decided to continue a series of articles on unsolved mysteries of the 20th century. The hype around the Bermuda Triangle began in 1945 after five Grumman TVM-1 Avenger FT-19 torpedo bomber bombers of the FT-19 patrol and a rescue plane took off in search of them disappeared in the Atlantic on December 5 of this year.
On that day, five “applers” (avengers) flew from the US Navy Fort-Lauderdale airfield to carry out a training flight, the purpose of which was to work out group fun and maintain flight skills. The flight should have lasted three hours. Flight commanded by flight instructor First Lieutenant Charles Taylor.
The regular crew consisted of a pilot, a navigator-scorer and a gunner-radio operator. The training flight took place as usual. And only on the way back did something strange happen. The dispatcher in Key West received a message from the flight commander about the emergency situation, the planes lost their course.
In 1974, one radio amateur said that the last words of Lieutenant Taylor were: “Do not follow me … They look like people from the Universe …” However, the term “Universe” was scarcely used even by science fiction writers at that time.
Next, Taylor made the decision to fly towards the coast until the fuel runs out. After some time, the connection with the “organizers” was lost forever. After a few hours, three mariner Martin Mariner bomber were sent to search for the missing aircraft. These were flying boats equipped with modern radars, which were best suited to search for missing aircraft and ships and rescue their crews. They could land on the water and even take off, if the force of the wave was 3-4.5 points. The stock of fuel on the “Martin Mariner” was enough for 48 hours of flight.
However, the search for the missing link of the Evanjers did not give any result, besides, one of the flying boats of the rescuers also disappeared, and along with it 13 crew members. A total of 27 people went missing.
During negotiations with dispatchers, Taylor constantly talked about the fact that they did not know where they were, sometimes pointing out places over which they could not fly at all. He also several times reported that “the ocean does not look like it usually does,” “we descend into the white waters.”
See also: 10 most popular theories explaining the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle
The panic that swept the pilots of the missing link is understandable. From radio recordings it becomes clear that people had to face something very strange in the air. The ocean acquired a strange appearance, the water became white, the instruments refused to work normally, it was impossible to establish the correct course or even figure out where they are. The pilots searched for land for several hours but could not find it. It was as if an entire state had disappeared, and this could really deprive the pilots of reason and make them panic.
This event soon hit the pages of local newspapers, after which all of America learned about it. The public was shocked. Only four months have passed since the end of the Second World War, and suddenly, during a simple training flight, five warships were killed, which were controlled by an experienced crew that had participated in air battles more than once. In addition, the Evanjer class aircraft were the main deck torpedo bombs of the US Navy, they were considered a thunderstorm of the Japanese fleet.
During the war, the aircraft of this class more than once managed to return to the aircraft carrier in the most deplorable state. The most modern navigation equipment was installed on board the aircraft. And suddenly it turned out that under normal weather conditions, with optimal visibility, not one, but as many as five aircraft were lost. In addition, during the war, American planes flew over this area thousands of times to search for Japanese and German submarines. The area was well known to any experienced pilot.
Hundreds of ships and airplanes carried out large-scale searches in an area of ​​250,000 square miles, but no trace of the catastrophe was found. Not surprisingly, after this event, old stories about the crews missing from ships began to be recalled, and that strange phenomena were often observed in this area. I also remembered a case that happened just two months before the disappearance of the “walkers”. The passenger-airliner Lancastrien of the British airline VOAC, flying from Barbados, was ready to land when a disaster occurred under strange circumstances.
The liner was run by an experienced military team. On a broadcast, dispatchers in Florida managed to get only a few panicky phrases. Then the liner disappeared from all radar. After some time, several life rafts reached the coast, but 23 passengers and four crew members were still missing.
Until some time, mysterious stories about missing people and airplanes have been forgotten.