Monday, September 21, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Mafia assassin gets life for 4 NYC murders
NEW YORK – An aging hit man once used as an enforcer by mob boss John Gotti has been sentenced to life in prison for four cold-blooded killings.
Charles Carneglia (kahr-NAY'-glee-uh) was sentenced Thursday in Brooklyn federal court.
Prosecutors portrayed him as a feared Gambino organized crime family soldier who was eager to please his superiors.
During a 1990 ambush in the World Trade Center parking lot, Carneglia pumped four bullets into a man who ignored Gotti's invitation to a social club.
Other victims included a security guard, gunned down during an armored car heist at Kennedy International Airport.
Charles Carneglia (kahr-NAY'-glee-uh) was sentenced Thursday in Brooklyn federal court.
Prosecutors portrayed him as a feared Gambino organized crime family soldier who was eager to please his superiors.
During a 1990 ambush in the World Trade Center parking lot, Carneglia pumped four bullets into a man who ignored Gotti's invitation to a social club.
Other victims included a security guard, gunned down during an armored car heist at Kennedy International Airport.
Lab tech charged with Yale grad student's murder
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – A Yale lab technician appeared in court and was charged with murder Thursday hours after his arrest in the killing of a graduate student whose body was found stuffed in the wall of the research building where they both worked.
Raymond Clark III, 24, kept his head bowed during the three-minute appearance in the suffocation death of Annie Le, also 24. He didn't enter a plea and said, "Yes, your honor," when asked whether he understood his rights. The judge then set bail at $3 million and sent him to a holding cell.
New Haven Police Chief James Lewis said Le's death was a case of workplace violence and elaborated little except to say reports that the two had a romantic relationship were untrue "to my knowledge."
"It is important to note that this is not about urban crime, university crime, domestic crime but an issue of workplace violence, which is becoming a growing concern around the country," Lewis said, adding he wasn't ruling out additional charges.
Clark appeared in court with two public defenders. One of the attorneys, Joseph Lopez, said they would be handling Clark's case, which had previously been handled by a different lawyer. Lopez said he was still reviewing the case and declined to comment.
Clark was arrested earlier Thursday at a Super 8 hotel in Cromwell, about 25 miles north of the Ivy League campus, where he got a room shortly after being released from police questioning in Le's death.
Le was found dead on Sunday, her body hidden in the basement wall of a building where she worked as a medical researcher, on the day she was to marry her college sweetheart, Columbia University graduate student Jonathan Widawsky. The Connecticut medical examiner said Wednesday that Le died of "traumatic asphyxiation."
Authorities released no details on how she died, but traumatic asphyxiation could be consistent with a choke hold or some other form of pressure-induced asphyxiation caused by a hand or an object, such as a pipe.
Clark was under constant surveillance after he was released, and police spent Wednesday night and Thursday morning staking out the Super 8 hotel where Clark was staying.
Shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday, police moved closer, shutting down the highway outside the hotel and blocking the road leading into the hotel as they made the arrest. Clark was wearing a white shirt with tan stripes and tan pants as police ushered him into the back of a dark sedan with tinted windows. The car then sped off toward the highway, and arrived at the New Haven police department about an hour later.
Richard Levin, the president of Yale, released a statement shortly after the arrest, saying Clark's employment history gave no indication he was capable of such a crime.
"This incident could have happened in any city, in any university, or in any workplace. It says more about the dark side of the human soul than it does about the extent of security measures," Levin said in a message sent to the Yale community.
The family of Le's finace, Jonathan Widawsky, issued a statment on Thursday, thanking people who were involved in preparations for "a wedding that was not to be."
Raymond Clark III, 24, kept his head bowed during the three-minute appearance in the suffocation death of Annie Le, also 24. He didn't enter a plea and said, "Yes, your honor," when asked whether he understood his rights. The judge then set bail at $3 million and sent him to a holding cell.
New Haven Police Chief James Lewis said Le's death was a case of workplace violence and elaborated little except to say reports that the two had a romantic relationship were untrue "to my knowledge."
"It is important to note that this is not about urban crime, university crime, domestic crime but an issue of workplace violence, which is becoming a growing concern around the country," Lewis said, adding he wasn't ruling out additional charges.
Clark appeared in court with two public defenders. One of the attorneys, Joseph Lopez, said they would be handling Clark's case, which had previously been handled by a different lawyer. Lopez said he was still reviewing the case and declined to comment.
Clark was arrested earlier Thursday at a Super 8 hotel in Cromwell, about 25 miles north of the Ivy League campus, where he got a room shortly after being released from police questioning in Le's death.
Le was found dead on Sunday, her body hidden in the basement wall of a building where she worked as a medical researcher, on the day she was to marry her college sweetheart, Columbia University graduate student Jonathan Widawsky. The Connecticut medical examiner said Wednesday that Le died of "traumatic asphyxiation."
Authorities released no details on how she died, but traumatic asphyxiation could be consistent with a choke hold or some other form of pressure-induced asphyxiation caused by a hand or an object, such as a pipe.
Clark was under constant surveillance after he was released, and police spent Wednesday night and Thursday morning staking out the Super 8 hotel where Clark was staying.
Shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday, police moved closer, shutting down the highway outside the hotel and blocking the road leading into the hotel as they made the arrest. Clark was wearing a white shirt with tan stripes and tan pants as police ushered him into the back of a dark sedan with tinted windows. The car then sped off toward the highway, and arrived at the New Haven police department about an hour later.
Richard Levin, the president of Yale, released a statement shortly after the arrest, saying Clark's employment history gave no indication he was capable of such a crime.
"This incident could have happened in any city, in any university, or in any workplace. It says more about the dark side of the human soul than it does about the extent of security measures," Levin said in a message sent to the Yale community.
The family of Le's finace, Jonathan Widawsky, issued a statment on Thursday, thanking people who were involved in preparations for "a wedding that was not to be."
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
bermuda
The Bermuda Mystery Remains Forever
One hypothesis says that the Bermuda Triangle is a time hole...
This article is about a place traditionally considered to be one the most horrible and mysterious places on the planet. This is a place where many ships and planes have disappeared forever. The majority of these accidents have occurred after the year 1945. Over one thousand people have been victims of this place over the last 26 years. However, there have never been a dead body or even a fragment found.
This description is a very typical when people start talking or writing about the Bermuda Triangle. The area between Florida, Cuba, and the Bermuda islands has been considered an anomalous, mysterious site for many years. Is it really that as horrible as depicted in movies and described in papers?
A thousand victims over a quarter of a century is definitely way too many. However, this does not seem really scary if you compare it to other facts. The number of victims of car accidents in Russia on an area of the same size is 15 times larger over the same period of time. It is reasonable to compare Bermuda Triangle and road victims, since the area of the Bermuda Triangle is rather a busy traffic site. Needless to mention, that the triangle does not kill every ship or plane that travels there. So, where does this fame come from?
Everything started after WWII. The phenomenon of the psychological situation of the American nation of that time period is still waiting for its researchers. The United States of America possessed a very powerful army during 1945-1949. The USA had nuclear weapons at its disposal, so it seems that the Americans should have felt superior over the rest of the world. However, the feeling of superiority was suppressed by fear. The Americans felt that they were totally unprotected in from other more powerful forces: Martians, aliens, ghosts, and so on. In 1947, America was gripped with a fear of aliens after someone saw another UFO somewhere in the United States. This was the time that gave birth to unconventional science of ufology. However, the story started two years earlier, with the fear of the "omnivorous ocean."
December 5th, 1945 was a usual day for the American Air Force base in Florida, Fort Lauderdale. There were many experienced pilots serving there, so air crashes or other such incidents were rare. Lieutenant Charles Taylor was one of those pilots. A group of pilots was given a very easy task: to fly over to Chicken Shoal, which is to the north of Bimini Island. The weather was superb, so five Avenger bomber planes took off and flew eastwards. The fuel that the planes had in their tanks was enough for 5.5 hours of flying.
No one ever saw them again. Only God knows what happened to them. There were many versions and hypotheses proposed to explain the mystery. However, they were all a big understatement: the missing planes were not found. The details of this story were taken from the investigation and publication materials of the official chronicles of Florida.
The planes were returning around 3:30 p.m. Several minutes later, their command received a strange message: "We have a state of emergency. Most likely, we have lost our way. We do not see the ground. I repeat, we do not see the ground." A flight control officer asked them to report their whereabouts. The answer from the pilots to such an easy question was really surprising: "We can not do this. We do not know where we are at the moment." It seemed that it was not an experienced pilot talking, but a perplexed amateur. At 6:45 p.m., Charles Taylor transmitted very strange information: "We are above the Gulf of Mexico." A flight control officer decided that the pilots were either confused or went mad. The planes eventually disappeared.
Reporter and writer A. Ford wrote that Taylor's last words were as follows: "Do not follow me. They look like they came out of the Universe." If there was such a phrase said, most likely, it was reinterpreted. Back in those days, people were used to saying "they came from Mars," rather than "they came from the Universe."
More and more mysterious stories started appearing one after another after the accident with Avengers. A simple disappearance was not enough for people, and there was a strong need for rumors. Newspapers were doing their business very well. As a matter of fact, the truth of all the commotion actually made up only ten or fifteen percent. The worst thing about it is the fact that no one can explain any of those incidents. That mysterious "something" never left any eyewitnesses. However, there could be other witnesses found: audio tapes, radar records, and so on.
As far as the Avengers are concerned, there can be one conclusion made. The pilots had to deal with something unusual and strange. That meeting was the first of its kind for them. They knew or heard nothing about it before, which may explain the reason for their perplexity. They said that the ocean looked strange, and that the water was white. This can definitely frighten common people, but not experienced pilots. The pilots were searching for land in the west for some 1.5 hours. Then they started seeking land both in the west an in the east. They failed. The pilots made a mistake: they spent all their fuel searching for the land in the west. Most likely, they landed on the water and then sank. One of those Avengers was found in 1987 on the shelf bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Nevertheless, it is still not clear how the planes moved 700 kilometers westwards without being noticed by anyone?
Other super-fast flights were registered as well. All those occasions have one common fact. They all happened in some strange white clouds or fog. An airliner that was approaching Miami once vanished from radar screens and then appeared again in ten minutes. However, all clocks on board the plane were ten minutes behind the actual time. There was not even a passenger who noticed anything weird about it.
It goes without saying that the hypothesis about a time hole above the Bermuda Triangle stirred up more rumors, and more horrific stories appeared as a result. American News magazine published an article that told the story of an American submarine. The submarine was travelling under the water at the depth of 70 meters (200 feet). The submariners suddenly heard a strange noise. Then they sensed a vibration that lasted for about a minute. Afterwards, it was noticed that all members of the crew added some years to their age. When the submarine surfaced, the satellite navigation system showed that the submarine was in the Indian Ocean, 300 miles off the eastern coast of Africa and about ten miles off the Bermudas. However, making any conclusions about this story is a premature thing to do. The US Navy never confirmed or rejected the information.
The friends of the Avenger pilots still do not know why lieutenant Taylor gave the command to land on the stormy sea if the planes could fly for two more hours looking for the land. Taylor gave the order, and all the pilots executed it. It is only possible to understand this act of suicide if there was no fuel in the tanks. Probably, the pilots were alive after their planes sank into the ocean. Most likely, they were swimming in the water wearing life vests. Nevertheless, the sea won the battle.
It is worth mentioning that a Marine Mariner boatplane searched for the Avengers and disappeared as well. The last thing that the pilot of the boatplane mentioned was something about a strong wind at the height of 1800 meters. The victims of this story make up 27 people.
The most surprising piece of news about the Avengers appeared later. The bomber planes were found in the Atlantic Ocean, only ten miles from their airbase. The pilots' relatives said that they were extremely sorry to discover this piece of information. It was horrible for them to realize that their men died just a couple of minutes from home. At first, there were four planes found, then a fifth one, marked as 28. This was Taylor's number.
The Russian and American Press Center helped to discover the details of the incredible finding. The Deep Sea vessel of the Scientific Search Project was searching for a Spanish galleon in 1991. The crew of the ship were making jokes about the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle. Four Avenger planes were found on the bottom of the sea, at a depth of 250 meters. The fifth one was a mile away from the others. The archives mention only that one group of five planes disappeared in December of 1945, although the number of air crashes in the Atlantic Ocean, which happened to Avenger-type planes, totaled 139 accidents. A further examination of the planes proved that they landed on the water. However, there were no bodies found in the cockpits.
The story was not over. Another sensation arrived in the summer of 1995. Specialists from the Deep Sea vessel made a conclusion based on their research. The numbers on the planes found were FT-241, FT-87, FT-120, and FT-28. The numbers of the missing planes were: FT-3, FT-28 (Taylor), FT-36, FT-81, FT-117. Only one number matched. The mystery remains. Where did the Avengers go? Where did those planes come from?
An official government committee concluded the following in 1996. First, the planes on the bottom of the sea were not real; they were models. Second, they were placed there on purpose, for a bombing exercise.
Only stupid people might believe that official proclamation. The divers were laughing their heads off about that delirium from the government. The divers' reports described the numbers of the planes, and it was said there that the propellers of the planes were curved due to the crash landing. Nothing like that could have happened to modeled planes. Any kind of bombing exercise is out of the question as well. The planes were lying at the depth of 250 meters. This is like shooting at a target that is behind the Great Chinese Wall. As can be seen, the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle will remain forever.
One hypothesis says that the Bermuda Triangle is a time hole...
This article is about a place traditionally considered to be one the most horrible and mysterious places on the planet. This is a place where many ships and planes have disappeared forever. The majority of these accidents have occurred after the year 1945. Over one thousand people have been victims of this place over the last 26 years. However, there have never been a dead body or even a fragment found.
This description is a very typical when people start talking or writing about the Bermuda Triangle. The area between Florida, Cuba, and the Bermuda islands has been considered an anomalous, mysterious site for many years. Is it really that as horrible as depicted in movies and described in papers?
A thousand victims over a quarter of a century is definitely way too many. However, this does not seem really scary if you compare it to other facts. The number of victims of car accidents in Russia on an area of the same size is 15 times larger over the same period of time. It is reasonable to compare Bermuda Triangle and road victims, since the area of the Bermuda Triangle is rather a busy traffic site. Needless to mention, that the triangle does not kill every ship or plane that travels there. So, where does this fame come from?
Everything started after WWII. The phenomenon of the psychological situation of the American nation of that time period is still waiting for its researchers. The United States of America possessed a very powerful army during 1945-1949. The USA had nuclear weapons at its disposal, so it seems that the Americans should have felt superior over the rest of the world. However, the feeling of superiority was suppressed by fear. The Americans felt that they were totally unprotected in from other more powerful forces: Martians, aliens, ghosts, and so on. In 1947, America was gripped with a fear of aliens after someone saw another UFO somewhere in the United States. This was the time that gave birth to unconventional science of ufology. However, the story started two years earlier, with the fear of the "omnivorous ocean."
December 5th, 1945 was a usual day for the American Air Force base in Florida, Fort Lauderdale. There were many experienced pilots serving there, so air crashes or other such incidents were rare. Lieutenant Charles Taylor was one of those pilots. A group of pilots was given a very easy task: to fly over to Chicken Shoal, which is to the north of Bimini Island. The weather was superb, so five Avenger bomber planes took off and flew eastwards. The fuel that the planes had in their tanks was enough for 5.5 hours of flying.
No one ever saw them again. Only God knows what happened to them. There were many versions and hypotheses proposed to explain the mystery. However, they were all a big understatement: the missing planes were not found. The details of this story were taken from the investigation and publication materials of the official chronicles of Florida.
The planes were returning around 3:30 p.m. Several minutes later, their command received a strange message: "We have a state of emergency. Most likely, we have lost our way. We do not see the ground. I repeat, we do not see the ground." A flight control officer asked them to report their whereabouts. The answer from the pilots to such an easy question was really surprising: "We can not do this. We do not know where we are at the moment." It seemed that it was not an experienced pilot talking, but a perplexed amateur. At 6:45 p.m., Charles Taylor transmitted very strange information: "We are above the Gulf of Mexico." A flight control officer decided that the pilots were either confused or went mad. The planes eventually disappeared.
Reporter and writer A. Ford wrote that Taylor's last words were as follows: "Do not follow me. They look like they came out of the Universe." If there was such a phrase said, most likely, it was reinterpreted. Back in those days, people were used to saying "they came from Mars," rather than "they came from the Universe."
More and more mysterious stories started appearing one after another after the accident with Avengers. A simple disappearance was not enough for people, and there was a strong need for rumors. Newspapers were doing their business very well. As a matter of fact, the truth of all the commotion actually made up only ten or fifteen percent. The worst thing about it is the fact that no one can explain any of those incidents. That mysterious "something" never left any eyewitnesses. However, there could be other witnesses found: audio tapes, radar records, and so on.
As far as the Avengers are concerned, there can be one conclusion made. The pilots had to deal with something unusual and strange. That meeting was the first of its kind for them. They knew or heard nothing about it before, which may explain the reason for their perplexity. They said that the ocean looked strange, and that the water was white. This can definitely frighten common people, but not experienced pilots. The pilots were searching for land in the west for some 1.5 hours. Then they started seeking land both in the west an in the east. They failed. The pilots made a mistake: they spent all their fuel searching for the land in the west. Most likely, they landed on the water and then sank. One of those Avengers was found in 1987 on the shelf bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Nevertheless, it is still not clear how the planes moved 700 kilometers westwards without being noticed by anyone?
Other super-fast flights were registered as well. All those occasions have one common fact. They all happened in some strange white clouds or fog. An airliner that was approaching Miami once vanished from radar screens and then appeared again in ten minutes. However, all clocks on board the plane were ten minutes behind the actual time. There was not even a passenger who noticed anything weird about it.
It goes without saying that the hypothesis about a time hole above the Bermuda Triangle stirred up more rumors, and more horrific stories appeared as a result. American News magazine published an article that told the story of an American submarine. The submarine was travelling under the water at the depth of 70 meters (200 feet). The submariners suddenly heard a strange noise. Then they sensed a vibration that lasted for about a minute. Afterwards, it was noticed that all members of the crew added some years to their age. When the submarine surfaced, the satellite navigation system showed that the submarine was in the Indian Ocean, 300 miles off the eastern coast of Africa and about ten miles off the Bermudas. However, making any conclusions about this story is a premature thing to do. The US Navy never confirmed or rejected the information.
The friends of the Avenger pilots still do not know why lieutenant Taylor gave the command to land on the stormy sea if the planes could fly for two more hours looking for the land. Taylor gave the order, and all the pilots executed it. It is only possible to understand this act of suicide if there was no fuel in the tanks. Probably, the pilots were alive after their planes sank into the ocean. Most likely, they were swimming in the water wearing life vests. Nevertheless, the sea won the battle.
It is worth mentioning that a Marine Mariner boatplane searched for the Avengers and disappeared as well. The last thing that the pilot of the boatplane mentioned was something about a strong wind at the height of 1800 meters. The victims of this story make up 27 people.
The most surprising piece of news about the Avengers appeared later. The bomber planes were found in the Atlantic Ocean, only ten miles from their airbase. The pilots' relatives said that they were extremely sorry to discover this piece of information. It was horrible for them to realize that their men died just a couple of minutes from home. At first, there were four planes found, then a fifth one, marked as 28. This was Taylor's number.
The Russian and American Press Center helped to discover the details of the incredible finding. The Deep Sea vessel of the Scientific Search Project was searching for a Spanish galleon in 1991. The crew of the ship were making jokes about the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle. Four Avenger planes were found on the bottom of the sea, at a depth of 250 meters. The fifth one was a mile away from the others. The archives mention only that one group of five planes disappeared in December of 1945, although the number of air crashes in the Atlantic Ocean, which happened to Avenger-type planes, totaled 139 accidents. A further examination of the planes proved that they landed on the water. However, there were no bodies found in the cockpits.
The story was not over. Another sensation arrived in the summer of 1995. Specialists from the Deep Sea vessel made a conclusion based on their research. The numbers on the planes found were FT-241, FT-87, FT-120, and FT-28. The numbers of the missing planes were: FT-3, FT-28 (Taylor), FT-36, FT-81, FT-117. Only one number matched. The mystery remains. Where did the Avengers go? Where did those planes come from?
An official government committee concluded the following in 1996. First, the planes on the bottom of the sea were not real; they were models. Second, they were placed there on purpose, for a bombing exercise.
Only stupid people might believe that official proclamation. The divers were laughing their heads off about that delirium from the government. The divers' reports described the numbers of the planes, and it was said there that the propellers of the planes were curved due to the crash landing. Nothing like that could have happened to modeled planes. Any kind of bombing exercise is out of the question as well. The planes were lying at the depth of 250 meters. This is like shooting at a target that is behind the Great Chinese Wall. As can be seen, the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle will remain forever.
bermuda
If you have ever traveled to the Caribbean from South Florida, be it by ship or plane, then you have ventured into the Bermuda Triangle. Are you scared yet?
Stretching from Bermuda to Miami to Puerto Rico, the Devil's Triangle, as it is also called, isn't recognized by any geographical organization. It's an imaginary zone where spooky stuff seems to occur. The fact is that an abundance of boats and planes have entered the triangle, never to be heard from again.
It was December 5, 1945. The war had ended and the world was once again at peace. Military personnel were back on training missions and this was precisely the case for the boys of Flight 19. The men from the Navy and the Marine Corps were to practice bombing submarines near the Bahamas.
After 2pm, the entire squadron of TBM Avengers left its base at Fort Lauderdale and soon began their diving runs. The single engine Avenger was a sturdy aircraft and had proven itself against Axis powers in previous years. The aviators believed themselves quite safe.
Lieutenant Robert F. Cox was an instructor pilot flying by the Florida coast. He was intending to join up with his squadron of students when just before 4pm, he heard about their disappearance. The boys were on the airwaves indicating that they were lost and that their compasses were malfunctioning. Attempts to redirect the planes to base failed and communication was lost after more than two hours. Flight 19 had disappeared forever.
At around 6pm, the Navy launched a number of aircrafts to locate the missing Avengers. Half an hour later, one of the PBM Mariners didn't report back. Another pilot maintained he had seen an explosion in mid-air and later a pool of oil on the sea surface. But the rescue plane was never found. It seemed that the Bermuda Triangle had claimed another victim. Twenty-seven men and six aircrafts were lost that day in an event the Navy still cannot explain.
What could be the secret of the Devil's Triangle? Giant octopi have been cited as being monsters that reach out and pull ships and aircrafts under the tide. Others believe the triangle is home to the lost civilization of Atlantis and crafts are being swiped through its magical power ray.
Yet, there's another theory that is widely popular. This one focuses on UFOs, which use a magnetic field to allow humans to travel to their dimension, a theory that was sponsored by Steven Spielberg's classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, in which the lost Avengers reappeared and the pilots of Flight 19 returned.
More theories, and will the hype surrounding the Bermuda Triangle ever disappear? Find out...
It's always more intriguing to believe in myths and legends rather than the scientific data used to support theories. One such scientific theory states that the Bermuda Triangle, at the 80th meridian, is one of two spots on Earth where compass variation is unnecessary. At this agonic line, where actual north and magnetic north are aligned, sailors must compensate.
The region is also host to high magnetic activity, which could perhaps cause compasses to go wild. Meso-meteorological storms also share the blame. These weather systems are composed of thunderstorms, miniature cyclones and tornadoes, and they can appear without warning as they follow abnormal weather patterns.
Another explanation is that methane is often released from the planet's core, which diminishes the water's density and is said to cause a vessel to sink or capsize in an instant. This is what some believe happened to the USS Cyclops in March 1918. The ship was reported to have an eccentric captain at its helm, a man who would apparently pace along the quarterdeck in his underwear. It was this event that allegedly inspired Paul Gallico to write The Poseidon Adventure.
It is widely believed that most boats or crafts that disappeared suffered from human error. Even the men of Flight 19 could have made mistakes; had they known about the peculiar environment in this area, they probably could have saved themselves.
The fact is that the area covered by the Bermuda Triangle is one of the most frequented spots for pleasure boating in the world. Given the area's popularity, people want to know if they are in any danger should they choose to vacation there. Could you be the next victim? The term is likely searched as a precautionary measure.
And let's not discard the media frenzy over the matter. A week doesn't go by without one documentary or another popping up on cable somewhere, be it TLC, the Discovery Channel, or the History Channel.
The first media mention of the mystical phenomenon dates back to October 1952, when George X. Sand wrote a short article entitled "Sea Mystery at Our Back Door" in Fate magazine. Later, a string of articles appeared in the '60s that elaborated on the subject. It was Vincent Gaddis who first mapped the area and gave us its famous name in his article "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle," in the February 1964 issue of Argosy magazine.
Over the years, a dozen exploitative minor films have been released and as many books have been published. It seems that even if scientists have come up with reasonable explanations for the various disasters that have occurred, few people really want to accept them as fact. It's much more interesting to believe in unexplained incidents and speculate about them. And so the myth of the Bermuda Triangle is here to stay
Stretching from Bermuda to Miami to Puerto Rico, the Devil's Triangle, as it is also called, isn't recognized by any geographical organization. It's an imaginary zone where spooky stuff seems to occur. The fact is that an abundance of boats and planes have entered the triangle, never to be heard from again.
It was December 5, 1945. The war had ended and the world was once again at peace. Military personnel were back on training missions and this was precisely the case for the boys of Flight 19. The men from the Navy and the Marine Corps were to practice bombing submarines near the Bahamas.
After 2pm, the entire squadron of TBM Avengers left its base at Fort Lauderdale and soon began their diving runs. The single engine Avenger was a sturdy aircraft and had proven itself against Axis powers in previous years. The aviators believed themselves quite safe.
Lieutenant Robert F. Cox was an instructor pilot flying by the Florida coast. He was intending to join up with his squadron of students when just before 4pm, he heard about their disappearance. The boys were on the airwaves indicating that they were lost and that their compasses were malfunctioning. Attempts to redirect the planes to base failed and communication was lost after more than two hours. Flight 19 had disappeared forever.
At around 6pm, the Navy launched a number of aircrafts to locate the missing Avengers. Half an hour later, one of the PBM Mariners didn't report back. Another pilot maintained he had seen an explosion in mid-air and later a pool of oil on the sea surface. But the rescue plane was never found. It seemed that the Bermuda Triangle had claimed another victim. Twenty-seven men and six aircrafts were lost that day in an event the Navy still cannot explain.
What could be the secret of the Devil's Triangle? Giant octopi have been cited as being monsters that reach out and pull ships and aircrafts under the tide. Others believe the triangle is home to the lost civilization of Atlantis and crafts are being swiped through its magical power ray.
Yet, there's another theory that is widely popular. This one focuses on UFOs, which use a magnetic field to allow humans to travel to their dimension, a theory that was sponsored by Steven Spielberg's classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, in which the lost Avengers reappeared and the pilots of Flight 19 returned.
More theories, and will the hype surrounding the Bermuda Triangle ever disappear? Find out...
It's always more intriguing to believe in myths and legends rather than the scientific data used to support theories. One such scientific theory states that the Bermuda Triangle, at the 80th meridian, is one of two spots on Earth where compass variation is unnecessary. At this agonic line, where actual north and magnetic north are aligned, sailors must compensate.
The region is also host to high magnetic activity, which could perhaps cause compasses to go wild. Meso-meteorological storms also share the blame. These weather systems are composed of thunderstorms, miniature cyclones and tornadoes, and they can appear without warning as they follow abnormal weather patterns.
Another explanation is that methane is often released from the planet's core, which diminishes the water's density and is said to cause a vessel to sink or capsize in an instant. This is what some believe happened to the USS Cyclops in March 1918. The ship was reported to have an eccentric captain at its helm, a man who would apparently pace along the quarterdeck in his underwear. It was this event that allegedly inspired Paul Gallico to write The Poseidon Adventure.
It is widely believed that most boats or crafts that disappeared suffered from human error. Even the men of Flight 19 could have made mistakes; had they known about the peculiar environment in this area, they probably could have saved themselves.
The fact is that the area covered by the Bermuda Triangle is one of the most frequented spots for pleasure boating in the world. Given the area's popularity, people want to know if they are in any danger should they choose to vacation there. Could you be the next victim? The term is likely searched as a precautionary measure.
And let's not discard the media frenzy over the matter. A week doesn't go by without one documentary or another popping up on cable somewhere, be it TLC, the Discovery Channel, or the History Channel.
The first media mention of the mystical phenomenon dates back to October 1952, when George X. Sand wrote a short article entitled "Sea Mystery at Our Back Door" in Fate magazine. Later, a string of articles appeared in the '60s that elaborated on the subject. It was Vincent Gaddis who first mapped the area and gave us its famous name in his article "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle," in the February 1964 issue of Argosy magazine.
Over the years, a dozen exploitative minor films have been released and as many books have been published. It seems that even if scientists have come up with reasonable explanations for the various disasters that have occurred, few people really want to accept them as fact. It's much more interesting to believe in unexplained incidents and speculate about them. And so the myth of the Bermuda Triangle is here to stay
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