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Myth:
“A check of Lloyd’s of London’s accident records by the editor of Fate in 1975 showed that the triangle was a no more dangerous part of the ocean than any other. U.S. Coast Guard records confirmed this and since that time no good arguments have ever been made to refute those statistics. So the Bermuda Triangle mystery disappeared, in the same way many of its supposed victims had vanished.”
Fact:
This is completely false. Lloyd’s does not insure the smaller stuff, so all yachts go unreported and uncataloged in statistics. Lloyd’s seldom insures the smaller charter and private aircraft, so likewise for them. Lloyd’s is not the ultimate source. It is not a marine investigation bureau. It reports on sailing news relevant to insurance.
US Coast Guard SAR (Search and Rescue) statistics for all districts are published yearly in a thick voluminous report. This details the statistics for calls of assistance, causes of accidents, weather, deaths, conditions, whatever. However, missing vessels are not readily included. In reality, the designation Overdue Vessels are more important. But because it is hard to determine the number of people on board and exactly where the vessel last was, “missing” or “overdue” cannot be easily calculated. They may be catagorized under “caused by other factor” if at all. I have just received a list of vessels from the 7th district after 12 years of asking for and being denied missing vessel statistics, always receiving the reply “nobody tracks such statistics.” For the last 2 fiscal years this includes about 300 vessel names or types. And now I must start my search, to see which reported back to port (if any), what the weather conditions were like, etc.
The Coast Guard is not even capable of accurately determining the numbers, and therefore could never have conducted a study. What they probably did was comment on the popular notion that 20 aircraft and 50 ships are missing. That number was bandied about incessantly in the 1970s and is still in the Encyclopedia Britannica. This number is not extraordinary for 100 years, though it is more aircraft than elsewhere over seas.
NTSB database searches reveal that in the last decade only a handful of aircraft disappearances have occurred off New England while over 30 have happened in the Triangle. These are American statistics only, and do not reflect other nationalities.
Then there are those who claim the disparity is due to the Triangle’s greater amount of traffic. In reality, the 1st Coast Guard district answers about just as many calls for assistance as the 7th, but the number of disappearances is still remarkably different.
www.bermuda-triangle.org...
In the early 1980s, geologist Richard McIver published an article in the AAPG Explorer suggesting that methane hydrates — a crystalline solid of methane gas and water, similar to ice (see sidebar) — on the ocean floor could break apart and release giant methane gas bubbles that could cause ships or airplanes to sink or explode. The article was sort of tongue-in-cheek, Dillon says, but the explanation for the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle struck a chord and quickly propagated through the media. And because most geologists might go so far as to say it is conceivable, Dillon says, the explanation has stuck around, despite some inherent flaws.
Methane hydrate is located in great volume all over the world, mostly on continental margins in the ocean or in permafrost in the Arctic, in places where the cold sea or land temperatures and extensive pressures hold them stable. Mapping has shown vast hydrate deposits off the East Coast of the United States from New Jersey to Georgia, although few, if any, in the actual area of the Bermuda Triangle, Dillon says.
“While hypothetically I think bubbles could release and cause boats to sink, the likelihood is so remote that it just can’t explain” the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle, Hutchinson says. To sink a ship, it would have to be floating at just the right spot at just the right time. Furthermore, she says, as remote a possibility as it is that one boat would encounter a bubble and sink, the probability is even lower that such a phenomenon could cause more than one disappearance.
Another problem with the methane hydrate explanation, Durham says, is that methane gas released from a trap below the hydrate deposits would likely dissolve in the ocean water before reaching the surface. And, Dillon adds, if disturbed enough to break apart, the deposits themselves would likely float to the surface and then very slowly release gas, not in an explosive bubble.
www.geotimes.org...
Originally posted by LucidDreamer85
I like the fact that none have ever sent out a distress call as to what was happening or an sos or any recent coordinates as to where they are .......
The Disappearance of flight N3808H, Puerto Rico, 1980
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8838bcf99047.jpg[/atsimg]
Location. Mona Channel, Caribbean Ocean near Puerto Rico
Date: June 28 1980 Time: 2003
At 1810 Jose Antonio Maldonado Torres and his friend, Jose Pagan Santos, took off from Las Americas International Airport in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in an Ercoupe aircraft marked N3808H.
The Ercoupe was owned by Santo’s father Jose Pagan Jimenez, an Aero
Police officer in Puerto Rico.
They were bound for home in Puerto Rico. At 2003 the Las Mesas radar site and several aircraft picked up radio transmissions from N3808H:
“Mayday, Mayday, Ercoupe ocho cero, eight zero, zero, Hotel. We can see a strange object in our course, we are lost, Mayday, Mayday.”
An Iberia Airlines flight IB-976 en route from Santo Domingo to Spain responded to the Mayday and received a reply:
“Ah we are going from Santo Domingo to ah San Juan International but we found ah a weird object in our course that made us change course about three different times we got it right in front of us now at one o’clock, our heading is zero seven zero degrees…our altitude one thousand six hundred a zero seven zero degrees…our VORs got lost off frequency…”
Iberia Flight IB-976 then relayed a message from San Juan Center asking N3808H to turn on their transponder.
N3808H replied that the Ercoupe was not equipped with a transponder. At 2006 Iberia IB-976 asked for their call sing and estimated position and received this reply:
“Right now we are supposed to be a about thirty five miles from the coast of Puerto Rico but we have something weird in front of us that make us lose course all the time I changed our course a second (unintelligible) our present heading right now is three hundred we are right again in the same stuff sir.”
They were not heard from again. At 2012 the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range verified the last radar position of N3808H as thirty five miles west of Puerto Rico. A search that included Santos’s father was then mounted which centered on this last radar position. It was discontinued after two days when no trace had been found. No trace was ever found.
Recording of last words from pilot Jose Pagan Santos:
www.bermuda-triangle.org...
1908 Coast of Delaware.
The English ship "Mohican,"piloted by Capt. Urghart, was going to Philadelphia when it was surrounded by a thick, luminous cloud which "magnetized" everything on board. The compass was observed to swing wildly. When seamen tried to move some chains on the bridge, they found that they were glued to the metal floor. Suddenly the cloud rose and was seen above the sea for some time.
The Magonia Database
While the Brazilian and French authorities have expressed pessimism over finding any survivors, latest news reports say that the debris that were found by the Brazilian Air France on Thursday, Jun 4 is not that of the crashed Air France Flight AF 447.