By Brian Allan
There is one area of the planet that has, over the years, become synonymous with
transport to other realms and other times, this area lies in an area bounded by the islands of
Bermuda, Puerto Rico and the long, narrow, appendix of land that is the southern US state of
Florida; it is called ‘The Bermuda Triangle’. As with the other locations mentioned elsewhere
in this book, the same permutations of events take place here. The especially worrying factors
associated with this location are the many disappearances of ships and aircraft recorded over
the years. Perhaps the best known of these is the disappearance of Training Flight 19
consisting of five Grumman Avenger torpedo bombers out of the naval airbase at Fort
Lauderdale in Florida. The flight, which set out on December 5 th 1945 at approx 14:10hrs,
consisted of an instructor, Charles Taylor, and four trainee pilots.
The flight plan comprised a roughly triangular journey of about 120 miles, but for
some reason the instructor became convinced that his compass was defective and became
confused about his position although he was convinced that he was over the Florida Keys, but
instead of flying back towards his base he started off in another direction. By approximately
17:50 hrs communication with the flight was poor, and the base knew they were very low on
fuel and by 19:00hrs the final transmission was heard. It is presumed that all the aircraft
comprising Flight 19 simply ran out of fuel, ditched in the sea and sank. The Avenger was a
notoriously heavy aircraft, so any hope of flotation was nigh-on impossible. This still does
not explain why the pilots were unable to deploy their life rafts, which they surely would
have carried, but perhaps this is explained because of the appalling weather.
The loss of these aircraft was compounded by the additional loss of a Martin Mariner
amphibious search aircraft that was part of the team sent out to look for the unfortunate
squadron of aircraft. Just why Flight 19 was lost in the first place is, even now, a matter for
conjecture, but is generally believed that in this case at least the blame was human and not in
any way ‘supernatural’. A mixture of bad weather and an instructor who was not overly
familiar with the area all contributed to the disaster. The disappearance of the Martin Mariner
amphibious aircraft is also most likely due to non-supernatural reasons. The aircraft was
notorious for building up fuel vapours in its fuselage and a spark of any kind was always a
source of worry for the crew of these machines. Other aircraft that went to look for all of the
missing craft did notice a slick of oil in the last known position of the Mariner, so it is most
likely that, sadly, it exploded and was lost. The only additional piece of information relating
to any possible anomalous element in the disappearance of these aircraft was the final
message received from the doomed flight. This transmission was allegedly intercepted by an
amateur radio enthusiast was claimed to have heard the following: ‘Don’t come after me, they
look like they are from outer space, I’m at 2,300 feet. Don’t come after me’. It is very
doubtful that this transmission was recorded on tape and only one person made the
interception, so its validity is open to question, but if true then it certainly adds some sort of
credence to the fog of mystery and speculation surrounding the affair. While this tragedy is
probably explainable in rational terms, there is another incident however, again featuring an
aircraft, that does not have any easy answers.
One aspect of the triangle is the appearance of weird clouds, or fogs, that possess
electromagnetic properties and have measurable and testable effects upon aircraft and
instrumentation. These fogs have no known relationship to adverse weather patterns either.
Perhaps the weirdest account of all is that of Bruce Gernon, who, in December 1970, flew
through a ‘tunnel vortex’ in a cloud where he encountered temporary instrument failure and a
dislocation in conventional time flow. On this December day, Gernon, out of curiosity, flew
right into such a cloud tunnel and while in the tunnel he encountered one of the bizarre ‘fogs’.
He reported that as they travelled through it; lines on the ‘walls’ rotated anticlockwise and
there was no sign of an exit, everything was a grey haze. While in this ‘fog’ he travelled for
100 miles, which should have taken approx 30 minutes, in a time of 3 minutes. There is no
good or obvious reason for this. Other factors that occur in the triangle are unaccountable
‘white waters’, glowing waters and strange electrical phenomena in the frequent storms that
occur there.