Flight 19, 1945
Flight 19 was the title given to five TBM Avenger Torpedo Bombers that disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle, December 5, 1945 during a training flight. All 14 men on the flight disappeared without a trace. Later during the search, a Martin Mariner Flying Boat also disappeared over the water and was never found with 13 men on board. Flight 19 is one of the most well-known Bermuda Triangle incidents and is the focus of the science fiction movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind which show the men being taken to mars after an alien abduction. In the movie the pilots are returned to Earth by their peaceful captors.
Ellen Austin, 1881
The Ellen Austin was a large American ship that frequently traveled between New York and London. On one of these regular trips, the ship came across another sailing vessel moving quickly in the Bermuda Triangle with no one on board. The Ellen Austin transferred some of its crew to the other ship in order to try to scavenge it. The crew attempted to sail it alongside the Ellen Austin to London, but the plans changed when two days later they got separated during a storm and, after a search coming up empty, continued to London. On another trip the Ellen Austin came across the other ship once again and sent crew to salvage it, once again no one was on board and it disappeared days later.
The USS Cyclops, 1918
The USS Cyclops was a massive carrier ship that supplied fuel to the American feet in WWI. The ship set sail with 309 people on board and was full of heavy cargo. The ship was last heard from in Barbados where it stopped to load more cargo before making the final stretch of journey to Baltimore, where it was expected. It never arrived, a huge search initiative started covering the entire route of the Cyclops looking for leftover debris fearing the ship had fallen victim to the German Submarines. No trace of the ship was ever found and it makes for one of the largest losses of life in the Bermuda Triangle. In 1941, two of the Cyclops’s sister ships disappeared along the same route.
C-54, 1947
A C-54 aircraft took off from Bermuda on July 3, 1947 and was met with a large thunderstorm. The squall would have been the reason the plane totally disintegrated with no trace, according to the investigation board in Florida, but the real puzzle is why would the aircraft have entered the storm when it could have easily avoided it? On the day of the flight, there were only six people on board including the experienced pilot but the plane could have held 85 passengers. Right from the beginning the plane was heading way off course without the notice of the pilot or the navigator on board. Then it changed course twice which pushed it into the eye of the storm. The ground radio operator heard a garbled SOS which was so quiet he ignored it as a genuine call for help. Later he heard a second SOS and then silence. The plane was never seen again.
Tudor Star Tiger, 1948
On January 30, 1948, the plane left Santa Maria, Azores with 25 passengers on board the British Airliner. The radio operator received coordinates and it was agreed the time of arrival in Bermuda should be 5 a.m. The operator was never able to regain radio contact with the Tudor Star Tiger and twenty minutes before the flight was scheduled to land a state of emergency was declared. Hours after 5, the flight still hadn’t arrived or made contact and a fleet of 26 aircraft searched over 5 days and never found a trace of the Star Tiger.
Flight DC-3, 1948
On December 28, 1948 a Douglas Dakota DC-3 airplane took off from Puerto Rico, heading for Miami, Florida. When it was 50 miles from the airport, the flight sent out its final radio call to indicate its position. There was only twenty minutes to go before landing, but the flight was never seen or heard from again. It had 26 people on board, and became the first Douglas Dakota aircraft to go missing in the Florida Keys. Since then, there have been two more cases all of them around the same location in the string of islands just south of Florida.
Flight 441, 1954
Flight 441 was a huge US Military owned carrier aircraft which was one of the most successful models of all time. On the day it disappeared, it was flying 42 passengers, all naval officers and their families overseas. It was only 400 miles from the coast inside the Bermuda Triangle when it simply vanished becoming one of the largest mysteries of the infamous spot to date. The investigation included the plane, weather and pilot capabilities but nothing was found that could point to how the plane disappeared. The plane’s cargo contained life rafts which would have floated on water if the plane broke apart on landing and would have been easily traceable. The pilot never even sent an SOS call.
Witchcraft, 1967
Witchcraft was a 23-foot luxury cabin cruiser, owned by Burrack who also had a popular hotel. He invited his father onto his boat to see the beauty of the Christmas lights along the shore of Miami at night. They did not even go a mile offshore. At 9 p.m. the coast guard got a call from Burrack, who said his boat hit something, but it wasn’t an emergency they just required towing. He also said he would fire a flare to identify his position. The coast guard arrived to the location less than 20 minutes later but the ship was nowhere to be found and no flare was to be seen. A 1,200 square mile search was issued but nothing was ever found.
Piper Jets, 2005-2007
The first Piper-PA airplane disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle on June 20, 2005. It was between Treasure Cay Island of the Bahamas and Fort Pierce in Florida with three people on board. The second similar incident happened on April 10, 2007 near Berry Island. The pilot was alone on board without any passengers.
Trislander, 2008
The most recent disappearance in the Bermuda Triangle was in 2008, and after the incidents and missing crafts seem to just come to an end. Prior to the final incident, multiple unexplained occurrences happened every year in the area. On December 15, 2008 a British-Norman Islander took off from Santiago for New York with 12 people on board. Only 35 minutes after takeoff the airplane ascended and went off the radar. A massive search operation was launched by the US Coast Guard but the airplane was never seen again. The plan went missing around the West Caicos island.
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