The Bermuda Triangle

[bm_727]

Hey everyone thought this was an interesting thing to share

so i was watchin the Discovery channel last night and i sawe this show on the Bermuda Triangle. This guy had discovered 5 avenger fighters @ the bottom of the ocean off Fort Lauderdale, Florida and they were trying to figure out what miade the flight crash.  

So they talked about how the Beermuda triangle has lage deposits of methane underneath the floor of the ocean.  Sometimes the gas breaks through and forms bubbles.  (These bubbles were also proved to sink big ships, which explains what happenede to the Marine Sulphur Queen cargo ship)

So when the bubbles are realeased into the air, they form large meathane plumes.  If a plane flies into these plumes 2 things can happen.  On the old vintage warplanes, the prop piston engines will just cut out if 1% of meathane is 'inhaled' into the copmbustion chambers!!  (oh yeah- they did a test on that too)

OR... the methane is lighter than air so this causes the airpressure to be lower.  As most of u know, the altimeter works on air pressure so it will indicate a radpid climb when it hits a large methane cloud.  However, the light methane doesnt give as much support under the wings as normal air, so the plane will actually lose altitude while the alt says it is rapidly climbing.  If you are flying in clouds, you would go by your instruments.  Well, u can see where the story ends up...

So maybe the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle has finally been solved...

BUBBLES!;D

[Woodlouse2002]

I saw a similar program. I believe the five Avenger's found are not part of that famous flight that was lost but simply five avengers lost in five seperate incidence's which just happen to be in the same area. Meaning it was a coincidence.

I don't believe this methane theory. If it did get into the engine of an aircraft and caused the engine to cut out, wouldn't the first response of the pilot be to restart the engine? I doubt that small quantities of methane in an engine can stop it from restarting. Also, the plume of methane wouldn't be a columb but a bubble, which would probably only effect the aircraft for a few seconds while the plane decended while the gas ascended. This along with the forward motion of the aircraft would make the time spent within the methane too small to make it crash.

I personally believe that the flight of avengers simply became lost due to bad weather conditions and poor navigation. Far more believeable.

[Fozzer]

.....I personally believe that the flight of avengers simply became lost due to bad weather conditions and poor navigation. Far more believable.

I've always reckoned it is dodgy flying inside a triangle, whatever part of the world it's in.... ...!.
You keep bumping against the sides, and the sharp pointed bits are really difficult to negotiate.
...No wonder they run out of fuel... ...!

LOL... ...!

Cheers all... ...!

Paul....Quick! Left hand down a bit... ...!

P.S. I remember watching a similar documentary.
It seemed that the lead pilot didn't believe what his compass was correctly telling him, and took the rest of the pilots out to sea in the wrong direction until they ran out of fuel...

[Woodlouse2002]

P.S. I remember watching a similar documentary.
It seemed that the lead pilot didn't believe what his compass was correctly telling him, and took the rest of the pilots out to sea in the wrong direction until they ran out of fuel...

I saw this one. The pilot apparently thought he was over the Florida Keys and not Bermuda (or one of the other islands in the triangle) and so took his flight eastwards instead of west.

[Hagar]

I personally believe that the flight of avengers simply became lost due to bad weather conditions and poor navigation. Far more believeable.

Agreed. A lot of legend & mystery has been built up around "Flight 19" over the years. The only reason people seem fascinated with it is the association with the so-called "Bermuda Triangle". If it had happened anywhere else I suspect it would have been forgotten long ago.

According to the facts (the official Navy enquiry into this incident) the crews were far from highly experienced as the legend would have you believe. Flight 19 was a training flight. The lead pilot, Lt. Charles C. Taylor, was a flight instructor and an experienced airman, but was unfamiliar with the Bermuda area. The other aircraft were crewed by students. When the compass failed on the lead aircraft they got lost & unfortunately perished. Far from being in fair weather as the legend goes, this would have been at night in heavy seas.

I think this is all there is to it. Like most of the other "Triangle" legends,  it makes a good story but there's very little truth to back it up.

[Scorpiоn]

How in the world does methane sink a ship?

[bm_727]

I saw a similar program. I believe the five Avenger's found are not part of that famous flight that was lost but simply five avengers lost in five seperate incidence's which just happen to be in the same area.

The plume of methane wouldn't be a columb but a bubble, which would probably only effect the aircraft for a few seconds while the plane decended while the gas ascended.

Well, youre right. The program me and woodlouse saw was about a different flight i think. (at least that was what the divers figured...)

However, the idea is that the bubbles are rising continuously, forming a constant cloud thingy.  its like a region of polluted air- like if you were flyin over L.A.

so by the time the pilot tryied to restart the engine, he would have lost too much altitude.  The flight was in bad weather, so he was obviously flying in the clouds- m,aybe only a few thousand feet up...

And if he was flying in bad weather he would have gone by his instruments, which were telling him he was rapidly ascending, so he would compensate by pushing down on the stick.

Trust me.. they tested all this out in a 737 simulator with professional pilots

[Scorpiоn]

Navigational error still appeals to logic more than any wild gas theory.  I have several of those myself...

[Fozzer]

How in the world does methane sink a ship?

The methane idea was that rising gas, from the ocean floor, reduces the densitity of the water, similar to the bottom of a waterfall, etc, where the water is full of air bubbles and unable to support a heavy object.
This will cause an object, person, boat, ship, etc, to sink.

Lots of swimmers have drowned when caught at the bottom of a weir for that same reason.

Cheers all... ...!

Paul.

P.S. In the documentary the methane gas theory only applied to missing ships in the Bermuda Triangle.... ...!

[Hagar]

Beautifully explained Paul.

P.S. In the documentary the methane gas theory only applied to missing ships in the Bermuda Triangle.... ...!

Of course, they conveniently forget to point out that this phenomenon can happen anywhere. This would spoil the whole Bermuda Triangle legend & that would never do.

[Woodlouse2002]

It can happen in the North sea too. A trawler was found sunk, completely upright in the middle of a large underwater crater. A case of wrong place wrong time. Also, I believe one of these gas releases went up under an oilrig causing it to lose bouyancy on one of it's legs causing it to fall over.

As for the Weir thing, it's not the lack of bouyancy in the water that drowns you. At the bottom of a weir the water just goes round and round. Anyone caught in this will find themselves just being tumbled over and over with out them being able to do anything. The way to get out of this is to swim deeper down and then to swim away from the plunge pool. (I know this because i've spent alot of my time messing about on weirs. Standing on lowest part of the slope and looking at the water flowing past you feet is quite a sensation.)

[bm_727]

Yeah, on the show they pointed out an example in the North Sea where there was an oil rig that just sunk because it lost its bouyancy.  The bubbles dont have to be from methane, though

They showed an Australian Navy test where a torpedo blewup under a destroyer-sized ship, and the bubble formed liteally pushed the middle of the boat out of the water, then snapped it in half...  bubbles dont always just make the vessel lose bouyancy, but when they hit the surface, they make like a miny tidal wave  that swamps the deck of the boat, helping push it under.  But that only happens if the boat encounters a really huge bubble lol


...and yes i am back

[Akula.]

(I know this because i've spent alot of my time messing about on weirs. Standing on lowest part of the slope and looking at the water flowing past you feet is quite a sensation.)

man, you must have been reeeaaallly bored!
Akula

[GWSimulations]

Well, youre right. The program me and woodlouse saw was about a different flight i think. (at least that was what the divers figured...)

It wasn't a flight at all, It was 5 unrelated aircraft, which, by co-incidence, had ended up in the same place.
They were looking for flight 19, which had navigational problens, and ditched when they ran out of fuel.

[Hagar]

They were looking for flight 19, which had navigational problens, and ditched when they ran out of fuel.

Not quite so Graham. It turned out that the Avengers that were found were completely unconnected with Flight 19 but another aircraft WAS lost that night. One of 2 Martin PBM Mariner flying boats that took off to search for the missing flight disappeared & was never seen again. An explosion was reported by a ship soon after the Mariner took off. It was assumed it had exploded in mid-air & the location was recorded. The Mariner was known as the "flying gas tank" due to the amount of fuel it could carry. It had the (perhaps undeserved) reputation of exploding without warning although it gave reliable enough service on long Atlantic patrols throughout most of WWII & also served in Korea. Smoking was prohibited on board & it was suggested that one of the crew might have ignored this & lit a cigarette. Naturally enough, this has also been put down to the curse of the "Triangle".

I remember the Avengers being found off the coast of Florida in 1991. It was assumed the missing Flight 19 had finally been discovered after all these years. This turned out to be wrong as the engine numbers didn't match. I seem to recall that they were also a long way from where it was thought likely that Flight 19 ended up. I don't recall an explanation for them being there. Maybe this needs more investigation.