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- [00:00]
McLeod Andrews
Atblinds.com it's not just about window treatments. It's about you. Your style, your space, your way.
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Brian Sigley
Whether you DIY or want the pros.
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McLeod Andrews
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Brian Sigley
Made to fit your life and your windows. Because@blinds.com the only thing we treat better.
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McLeod Andrews
Than windows is you.
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Brian Sigley
Visit blinds.com now for up to 40% off site wide plus a professional measure at no cost.
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McLeod Andrews
Rules and restrictions apply.
- [00:30]
Narrator
This is the story of the One he's responsible for keeping a leading healthcare facility clean and safe. And he trusts Grainger's high quality H Vac cleaning and safety products combined with their world class supply chain to consistently deliver, ensuring he's covered inside and out so he can focus on keeping his facility clean to help protect the health of everyone inside. Call 1-800-granger clickranger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. This is the story of the One. He's responsible for keeping a leading health care facility clean and safe and he trusts Grainger's high quality H Vac cleaning and safety products combined with their world class supply chain to consistently deliver, ensuring he's covered inside and out so he can focus on keeping his facility clean to help protect the health of everyone inside. Call 1-800-GRAINGER clickranger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
- [01:37]
McLeod Andrews
Some regions of the world defy explanation, and in one stretch of ocean, planes vanish, compasses spin and radios crackle with voices that should be long gone. Again and again, those who enter this elusive zone find that the rules of reality don't always apply, and those who vanish leave being behind only questions and legends, all of which point to the same infamous place. The Bermuda Triangle welcome to Sightings, the series that takes you inside the world's most mysterious supernatural events. Each episode brings you a thrilling story that puts you at the center of the action, followed by a discussion that dives into the accounts that inspired the story and our takes on them. I'm McLeod.
- [02:24]
Brian Sigley
And I'm Brian, and welcome back after another week's break, though, for those of you who are QCO subscribers, we hope you enjoyed our bonus Listener Story episode just for you.
- [02:34]
McLeod Andrews
That's right. If you want to get Sightings ad free and get cool bonus content like a new Listener Stories episode coming at the end of this August, subscribe to Q code + right now on Apple podcasts. Because last week's bonus story. Woo. It's making me rethink ever wanting to send my kids to summer camp.
- [02:54]
Brian Sigley
Well, then you're gonna love this episode. I think it's also a summer inspired story, McLeod. This time to the myster place called the Bermuda Triangle.
- [03:05]
McLeod Andrews
Yes, where everybody wants to vacation. So grab some sunscreen and venture with us into the heart of the Atlantic, where one group of pilots is about to find themselves very, very lost. Will they make it home in one piece? Find out on this episode of Sight.
- [03:46]
Brian Sigley
This is an ad by BetterHelp. Hey, skeptical geckos. I know the world out there can be a daunting place. Maybe you've got monsters in your closet or ghosts in your basement, or maybe you just have a lot going on in your life. I know I do. And I have to be honest. It has been hard finding good information on the Internet about mental health and wellness. But that's where BetterHelp comes in. They use trusted resources and live therapists to get you personalized recommendations and help you break through the noise. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp has served over 5 million people globally. And it's convenient. You can join a session with the click of a button, helping you fit therapy into your busy life. Plus, you can switch therapists at any time. As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. So talk it out with BetterHelp. And right now, Sightings listeners get 10% off their first month@betterhelp.com citings. That's betterhelp.com sightings. Thanks, BetterHelp, for sponsoring this episode. And now onto the story.
- [05:08]
McLeod Andrews
My name is Arthur Curtis. Right now, it's three in the morning on December 11, 1945, and five days ago, I sent the 14 men of Flight 19 to their deaths. The search operation officially ended yesterday. 930 sorties, over 100,000 square miles of ocean searched for what? It was the biggest rescue effort in naval history. And we found nothing. Not one piece of debris, not a life vest, not even an oil slick. It's like Flight 19 simply ceased to exist. And now that I need to write my report, I'm stuck with the same question running over and over again in my head. How do you explain the impossible? I've been the aviation training officer at Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale for three years now. In that time, I saw over 400 pilots earn their wings. And the boys in my program, they were prepared for anything. Combat emergencies, bad Weather. I drilled them on every scenario, every contingency, every possible disaster they might face in the cockpit. That is, except what happened to Flight 19. The morning they left started normal enough. The weather was decent. 67 degrees with good visibility. And we had multiple training missions scheduled for the day. Flight 19, the 19th of those missions, was supposed to be routine. Just another navigation exercise for 14 of our most advanced students. Five TBM Avengers would fly a triangular pattern over the Atlantic. East to Hen and Chicken Shoals for torpedo practice. Then north to Great Stirrup Cay, then home. Total flight time, three hours. But even before wheels up, something felt off. About 19. Lt. Charles Taylor, who was supposed to lead the mission, ran late. All the students were in the ready room by 1300 hours. And when Taylor walked into my office at 1310, he was still in his service dress uniform instead of flight gear. And the moment I saw his face, I knew something was wrong. He looked like he'd spent the night wrestling demons. His eyes were bloodshot and his hand shook as he asked me to relieve him from leading Flight 19. Now, I've had pilots request relief for anything from family emergencies to mechanical concerns. But never because of what Taylor told me next. He said he had a bad feeling about flying that day. Not about the weather or the aircraft. Just a feeling that something terrible would happen if he took those boys up. I explained to Taylor that a bad feeling wasn't good enough to ground him. And then I made the decision that will haunt me for the rest of my life. I denied his request. I watched the briefing through my office window. Taylor went through the flight plan methodically with his students. He covered headings, timing, navigation, checkpoints, emergency procedures. But I could see the tension in his posture, the way he kept checking his watch. I made a mental note to have a serious conversation with him about pre mission nerves after he returned. At 14:10 hours, 25 minutes behind schedule. Flight 19 rolled down the Runway and lifted into the overcast sky. I watched the five aircraft form up and head east over the Atlantic. Their engine noise fading until all I could hear was the chatter of ground crews. For the next hour and a half, everything proceeded exactly according to plan. We picked up radio transmissions confirming they'd reached the bombing area. And were conducting their torpedo exercises. One pilot reported dropping his final bomb. And another acknowledged the order to proceed to the next checkpoint. The timeline matched perfectly with their flight plan. And soon they should have been turning north towards Great Stirrup cay. Then at 1540 hours, Lieutenant Robert Cox, who was flying a separate training mission in the Same area intercepted an unusual transmission. Someone from Flight 19 was asking for a position check. But when Cox listened more carefully, he realized that all of the pilots in the crew seemed genuinely confused about their location. Cox radioed Flight 19 directly, asking what their trouble was. And that's when we heard Taylor's voice for the first time since takeoff. And what he said made no sense at all. He told Cox that both his compasses were malfunctioning, that he was trying to find Fort Lauderdale, and that he was over land but couldn't determine his position. Then he said something that stopped everyone in the tower cold. He said he was sure they were over the Florida Keys, and if that were true, they'd somehow flown in the wrong direction for over an hour without realizing it. According to their flight plan and timeline, Flight 19 should have been over the Bahamas somewhere between Hen and Chicken Shoals and Great Stirrup Cayden. For them to be over the Florida Keys would have required simultaneous compass failure on all five aircraft, plus complete spatial disorientation on the part of 14 experienced aviators. Cox tried to help, telling Taylor to put the sun on his port wing and fly north up the coast. It was simple, foolproof navigation that should have gotten them home within an hour. But Taylor's response was even more disturbing. He couldn't find the sun, and none of his instruments were giving reliable readings. Worse, he said, his backup compass was also malfunctioning due to rough air. That's when I took over radio communications myself. I'd been training pilots for years, and I'd dealt with disoriented students before. Usually you could talk them through it. Check your headings, trust your instruments, follow standard procedures. But as I listened to the chatter back from Flight 19, I realized this wasn't a case of student pilot nerves. These men were genuinely lost. Taylor kept asking his other pilots what their compasses read, and none of their readings matched. And soon panic began washing across the entire team. They all sounded confused, disoriented, like they'd never seen this part of the ocean before. I coordinated with bases throughout South Florida, trying to get radar fixes on Flight 19's position. But our radar coverage over the Atlantic was limited, and their signal kept fading in and out. And by 1630 hours, the weather began to deteriorate, and I realized we were running out of options. And right then, that's when Taylor made a decision that defied all logic and training. He told his flight they were going to turn east. Cox and I tried to talk him out of it. If he really was over the Keys, then east would take them out over the Atlantic with no hope of reaching land before their fuel ran out. Standard emergency procedure was crystal clear. If you're lost over the Atlantic, turn west until you hit the Florida coast. It's basic survival. But Taylor was now convinced they were somewhere west of Florida, possibly over the Gulf of Mexico. He thought turning east would bring them home. I listened helplessly as Flight 19 executed that fatal turn, their radio signals growing weaker as they flew further from shore. And by 1700 hours we could barely hear them at all.
- [12:44]
Brian Sigley
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- [13:22]
Narrator
This is the story of the one he's responsible for keeping a leading healthcare facility clean and safe and he trusts Grainger's high quality H vac cleaning and safety products combined with their world class supply chain to consistently deliver, ensuring he's covered inside and out so he can focus on keeping his facility clean to help protect the health of every everyone inside. Call 1-800-granger clickranger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
- [13:59]
McLeod Andrews
After we lost radio contact with Flight 19, the Gulf and Eastern Sea Frontier Station managed to get a radar fix on their position. They were 120 miles east of Daytona beach, flying out into the open Atlantic. They weren't over the Keys nor over the Bahamas. They were over empty ocean with storm clouds building and fuel running critically low. I coordinated with radio stations throughout Florida to try and establish contact through different frequencies and relay stations. I had operators at every major airfield attempting to reach Flight 19, but it was like shouting into a hurricane. The scattered signals we did pick up suggested the young students were questioning their leaders decisions and panic was consuming the entire mission. Taylor's voice was growing more confused and desperate with each transmission, and we gathered that his gyro compass had failed. His magnetic compass was spinning wildly and he'd lost all confidence in his instruments. I hoped he'd come to his senses and turn west towards the coast. But at 1720 hours, we caught fragments of him ordering his crew to continue east. He told them that if they were near land, they should be able to see lights. And since they couldn't see lights, they must still be over the Gulf of Mexico. It was madness. Taylor was ignoring every principle of navigation, every emergency procedure, and everything I'd taught him over the years. And the students were following him deeper into the storm, deeper into darkness, because that's what they did. They followed orders even when they made no sense. Then things got even stranger. We picked up a fragment from one of the student pilots. I think it was Bosie, and his voice was shaking as he said the ocean looked wrong. Not just rough from the approaching storm, but wrong somehow, like the water was moving in patterns that didn't make sense. Then Peterson reported that his altimeter was giving impossible readings. One Moment it showed 2,000ft, the next 4,500, then down to 300. It was as if they were flying through invisible mountains, climbing and diving without moving the stick. But the thing that left us speechless in the tower was a report from Cosmer that he could see islands below them, small green islands arranged in a perfect circle. Given their position, we knew there wasn't land for over a hundred miles in any direction. But Bozie added that he saw them too, except it was one huge circle. And Peterson? He said he saw nothing at all by 1750 hours. Taylor's voice cut through the static and he sounded like a man losing his mind. He said his compass was spinning non stop and that even though they were flying straight, the sun appeared to be moving strangely on the horizon, cutting across the sky far faster than it should have been. Bosie disagreed. He said the sun was directly overhead. Then Lightfoot said he couldn't see the sun at all. I looked out the tower windows myself and saw the sun settling in the western sky, exactly where it should be. So what in the world were these men seeing out there? At 1800 hours, fragments of the most disturbing transmission yet came in. One of the pilots, his voice so distorted by static I couldn't identify him, said there was something else in the sky with them, something large, keeping pace with their formation but staying just out of sight. He asked if anyone else had seen it, and from the fragments we picked up, it seemed like no one could agree on what was happening. One said something was above them, another claimed it was surrounding them, but that made no sense at all. The last transmission came in at 1804 hours. Taylor's voice, barely audible through the static, told his crew that he was nearly out of fuel. But he thought if they just pressed a bit further, they'd reach the coastline. So he ordered his pilots to tighten their formation. They needed to stay together, he said, because whatever was out there was waiting for them to separate. And that's when the entire flight went silent. No mayday. No final transmission. No final garble. As the radio fell out of range, the signal just stopped, like someone had thrown a switch and erased those five planes from the face of the earth. I immediately ordered the launch of rescue aircraft. Training 49, a Martin Mariner with a crew of 13, took off at 1830 hours to search for survivors. They headed southeast towards Flight 19's last known position. And for the first hour, everything seemed routine. But by 1930 hours, Training 49 reported something unusual. The radio operators said they were getting strange readings on their direction finder signals that seemed to be coming from flight 19, but from multiple directions at once. And when they tried to vector toward the strongest signal, their own instruments were. Began malfunctioning. It's. It's difficult to describe the feeling of helplessness that swept through the tower at that point. Clearly, something was happening out there. Problem was, no one had the faintest idea what. We tried to stay in contact with training 49, but their communication soon became just as garbled as 19s were. But through the static, we heard reports of compasses spinning, a failed gyroscope, and a complete inability to determine their position. Then training 49 vanished, too. Thirteen men vanished into the same mystery that had swallowed Flight 19. For the last five days, I've coordinated the largest search and rescue operation in naval history. Cutters, destroyers, patrol boats, civilian vessels, everything that could float or fly was looking for some trace of our missing aircraft. And all that time, manpower and effort has yielded nothing. No debris, no oil slicks, no life rafts. It's as if those six planes simply vanished without a trace. These were men I knew, men I mentored. And what happened to them was downright impossible. So what can I possibly say in my report to explain what happened? I was there in that tower, listening to those final transmissions. I felt the terror in those voices as reality itself seemed to unravel around them. I heard them describe impossible things. The sun moving erratically, islands that weren't there, and something in the sky around them. And I was powerless to help as their instruments began failing one by one. Except equipment doesn't fail in perfect synchronization across multiple aircraft. Experienced pilots don't all become disoriented simultaneously, and storms don't erase every last trace of their aircraft from the ocean. I've replayed that day dozens of times in my mind. If I'd granted Taylor's request to be relieved of duty, would those men still be alive? If I'd insisted on a different radio frequency earlier, could we have guided them home? And if I'd sent a rescue mission sooner, might we have averted even more catastrophe? The families of the airmen have all asked me these questions, and I have to be honest, I have no good answers. Because the truth is, nothing about December 5th made any logical sense. Had the men been simply swallowed up by the sea or air or both. Every once in a while, the radio will flicker to life, catching chatter from some random mission, and I always hope it's those men from Flight 19 calling for help, calling for home. But like everything else about this strange series of events, I know that's utterly, inescapably impossible.
- [22:41]
Brian Sigley
Sightings will be back just after this. Hey, skeptical geckos and believer beavers. I want to recommend one of my favorite paranormal podcasts that I think you're going to love. Monsters Among Us brings you supernatural stories from real people, everything from ghostly sightings to eerie encounters with strange creatures. But unlike here on Sightings, these stories are told by the witnesses themselves in real audio recordings that get straight to the meat of every terrifying story. You'll hear from witnesses like Julie, who drove past a car accident only to realize a spirit joined her in the passenger seat. Or Mack from Mississippi, who broke his back when he fell out of a tree stand on, only to be nursed back to health by a sympathetic Sasquatch. I know I want to hear that story right now, but in all seriousness, I think you'll love the spooky and nostalgic vibe that host Derek Hayes has curated with Monsters Among Us. And if you want more shivers down your spine, listen to Monsters Among Us podcast now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [23:52]
McLeod Andrews
Welcome back to solid ground, everybody. Hopefully here on Sightings, the Bermuda Triangle. Obviously, all of us, I think, have heard about the Bermuda Triangle. Broadly. I don't think I've ever heard of this particular story. Now that I think about it. I don't know if I have in my brain any one specific story.
- [24:14]
Brian Sigley
Interesting.
- [24:15]
McLeod Andrews
Yeah, it's just kind of this cloud of terror and confusion and mystery. Yeah, there's so many cool things to wonder about in the Bermuda so what drew you to this story, Brian?
- [24:26]
Brian Sigley
Well, this is Kind of the most famous of the stories, I think it actually. I don't know if you remember this, but at the beginning of Close Encounters with the Third Kind, the movie. There's these airplanes that appear out of nowhere and land in, like, 1970. And they're all 1945 aviators and things like that. Those were pilots from Flight 19.
- [24:45]
McLeod Andrews
Oh, cool.
- [24:46]
Brian Sigley
Who apparently went in the Bermuda Triangle, went through a time warp and showed up in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But, yeah, this is kind of the big story that kind of conceptualized and cemented in people's minds like, oh, the Bermuda Triangle is a thing. So before we talk about the Bermuda Triangle and some other cool stories that happen there, let's kind of dive into Flight 19. Because there's a little bit to unpack here. I feel like I should say that everything that happened in the story until the end basically happened. You know, these pilots, these five planes did go out into the ocean. All their instruments started failing. They got completely lost. No one knew what was going on or why these people could not find their way home. They disappeared. The rescue plane went out. That disappeared as well. I did take some dramatic liberties at the end, though, where, you know, like, oh, is something in the skies with us? Oh, I'm seeing this weird circular island. That kind of stuff was a little bit embellished. But the fact that these guys who are all trained pilots. Seem to have no idea what was actually happening is pretty terrifying. And certainly laid the foundation for the allure and mystery of the Bermuda Triangle. I feel like, you know, so is.
- [25:58]
McLeod Andrews
This one of the earliest? Kind of.
- [26:00]
Brian Sigley
There were earlier ones, which we'll talk about. But this one happened in 1945. And when this happened, the Bermuda Triangle as a concept was not a thing that wasn't introduced until the 60s.
- [26:09]
McLeod Andrews
Okay, interesting.
- [26:10]
Brian Sigley
But in terms of this actual event, it was December 1945. It was five TBM Avengers, these planes. There were 14 men. This happened to be the final mission that these students had to go on and complete before graduating.
- [26:25]
McLeod Andrews
Yeah, that's pretty tragic.
- [26:26]
Brian Sigley
Yeah. And kind of ironic. On this particular flight, they were testing their dead Reckoning skills, which is a navigation technique where if you have no idea where you are.
- [26:36]
McLeod Andrews
Yeah. That's fascinating, though, that, like, that they were testing for the very thing that. It was their undoing.
- [26:43]
Brian Sigley
Yeah. To clarify, four of the planes were flown by students. The fifth is flown by Taylor, who was mentioned in the story. He was an experienced World War II pilot. He was like a trainer. And he's the one who had cold feet beforehand.
- [26:54]
McLeod Andrews
And that's documented.
- [26:56]
Brian Sigley
That happened. Absolutely. No one knows quite why, but yeah, there's just too many weird things. And there are transcripts of a lot of this. And granted, a lot of the. The radio equipment in the 1940s was not amazing. So they were out of radio contact for a lot of this. And we were picking up random signals and, like, some other planes were picking up signals. And, you know, it's kind of just trying to piece together where these guys were was easier said than done. Our radar was also not amazing, so we couldn't track them for most of their flight. So we were kind of just guessing where they were. We did know where they weren't though, right? Not in the Gulf of Mexico, not over the Bahamas.
- [27:36]
McLeod Andrews
And truly, did they vanish like, in the story? Like, no trace.
- [27:40]
Brian Sigley
They vanished. No trace of them, like, happened in the story. It was the biggest rescue mission in naval history. Apparently one of the Martin Mariner seaplanes that went out had 13 people on it. That plane also vanished. Vanished completely without a trace.
- [27:53]
McLeod Andrews
Wow.
- [27:54]
Brian Sigley
Someone did say they saw an explosion in the sky, though, that night. So maybe that plane just blew up.
- [28:00]
McLeod Andrews
And you would assume that there'd be, you know, stuff that would float, like, not everything would just sink to the bottom of the ocean.
- [28:06]
Brian Sigley
Yeah. So that's kind of the facts that we have to work with here. But after this happened, it kind of became fodder for, like, sci fi novellas and pulp magazines and things like that.
- [28:16]
McLeod Andrews
Yeah.
- [28:16]
Brian Sigley
And I think things started to blow up a little bit and became a little sensationalist. Kind of like I took it in the story by the end there, but there was talk of, oh, maybe they actually saw a ufo.
- [28:27]
McLeod Andrews
Right.
- [28:27]
Brian Sigley
But again, there's. There's no mention of anything, quote unquote, supernatural happening in the transcripts. It's just a lot of our compass is broken. We don't know where we are. We're over land. We don't know what land this is. We have no idea what's happening.
- [28:40]
McLeod Andrews
Right. There's something that's been banging around in the back of my head. Like there's something that's maybe wondering. Maybe Taylor was nervous because of a plan he had or something he wanted to do. And maybe it was something to the effect of, I'm gonna abscond with these five other pilots. Oh, that he had brought them in on some sort of conspiracy. Or maybe like, I don't know, maybe they were gonna go disappear themselves to become CIA pilots or something. Like, listen, you guys are our Top recruits. And we're gonna go off somewh if.
- [29:11]
Brian Sigley
That is the case. And I mean, we're jumping the gun on the theories here. But this is really cool. If that's the case, though, like, where could they have gone? I mean, like, this was pre Red scare or anything like that. So I was gonna say, like, could they have gone to Cuba or something? But, like, they flew out into open water.
- [29:26]
McLeod Andrews
Yeah. These planes could not cross the Atlantic, right?
- [29:29]
Brian Sigley
No, no, they did not have that capacity. I think they could go about a thousand miles all in.
- [29:33]
McLeod Andrews
And that obviously, that doesn't explain the Martin Mariner search plane.
- [29:40]
Brian Sigley
That's right.
- [29:40]
McLeod Andrews
Disappearing 13 people.
- [29:42]
Brian Sigley
Yeah. So that's kind of the story, and.
- [29:45]
McLeod Andrews
What a story it is. And, you know, I imagine there must be now hundreds of stories about the Bermuda Triangle and planes and ships disappearing. So can we discuss the elephant in the room, the triangle in the corner?
- [30:01]
Brian Sigley
Yeah. Like I said earlier, it wasn't a thing until 1964, when a reporter was writing about Flight 19 in a magazine. And in that article he coined the term the Bermuda Triangle.
- [30:12]
McLeod Andrews
So this was our little green men moment. Kind of like our Kelly Hopkinsville?
- [30:16]
Brian Sigley
Pretty much, yeah. I mean, there's always been the idea that something weird might be happening there, but it didn't have a name or it wasn't conceptualized fully.
- [30:23]
McLeod Andrews
Right.
- [30:23]
Brian Sigley
Until 1964, when the Bermuda Triangle was coined. And he defined the points of the triangle as being Miami in the west, Bermuda in the northeast, which is kind of like up in the middle of the Atlantic a little bit, and then Puerto Rico. So it's not a perfect equilateral triangle by any means, but it's very large. And there have been more than 50 ships and 20 planes that have vanished in that area.
- [30:51]
McLeod Andrews
So, okay, 50 ships, 20 planes. So aside from Flight 19 hours, what else has happened there?
- [30:59]
Brian Sigley
Well, let's go back in time quite a bit to 1492.
- [31:02]
McLeod Andrews
Christopher Columbus.
- [31:04]
Brian Sigley
Christopher Columbus happened to sail through the Bermuda Triangle on his way to the Americas. And while he was in there, apparently he saw a strange light rising from the sea. And we know this because he and two other sailors wrote about it in their journals.
- [31:20]
McLeod Andrews
Wow.
- [31:20]
Brian Sigley
They say they thought the light that they were seeing meant that they were close to land, but they kept sailing, and then the light disappeared. Some said that, I guess it went straight up into the sky and they could never explain what it was or where it came from. So that's kind of an interesting, pretty famous historical context for this. But flash forward, I guess, 300 to 400 years. In 1918, there was a 550 foot long freighter run by the US military called the USS Cyclops.
- [31:54]
McLeod Andrews
Oh, whoa, what a name.
- [31:55]
Brian Sigley
I know, I love it. This thing had 300 crew members, apparently, and it was carrying 11,000 tons of manganese ore.
- [32:02]
McLeod Andrews
Okay.
- [32:03]
Brian Sigley
It was sailing from Brazil to Baltimore, which meant it was coming up through the Bermuda Triangle, I guess south to north. And when it was in there, it completely vanished in fair weather, no distress signal, no nothing, no wreckage was ever found. No evidence of any kind. It just. The ship disappeared.
- [32:22]
McLeod Andrews
Yeah. Although, I mean, like, it's funny, like I narrated an article about a treasure hunter looking for a famous boat that was carrying like tons of gold from basically the west coast that had come around and like, and it sank off the coast of the Atlantic. And like, they found it, it was just at the bottom of the ocean and just piles of gold lying on the seafloor. Which is just to say that, yeah, a ship can literally just sink and sink to the bottom, but with 300.
- [32:57]
Brian Sigley
Sailors on board, you would think at least one of them would have made it off in some capacity with a boat or a life vest or something. But I guess there was a three month search for that ship. It was the biggest loss in American naval history that didn't involve combat.
- [33:10]
McLeod Andrews
Wow.
- [33:11]
Brian Sigley
Those are kind of the two most infamous stories, along with Flight 19, obviously there have been a lot of other reports of smaller ships, you know, some weird compass phenomena.
- [33:20]
McLeod Andrews
These are the infamous ones.
- [33:22]
Brian Sigley
These are the infamous ones of those ones that have vanished.
- [33:26]
McLeod Andrews
Sure.
- [33:27]
Brian Sigley
So maybe we should segue into theories a little bit here. Now, I don't want to throw water on the fire here, so to speak, but it is worth noting that statistically speaking, the Bermuda Triangle is no more prone to shipwrecks or plane disappearances than any other place on Earth.
- [33:44]
McLeod Andrews
That was kind of a big question in my mind.
- [33:46]
Brian Sigley
It just so happens that it is a heavily trafficked area.
- [33:50]
McLeod Andrews
So more boats, more shipwrecks.
- [33:52]
Brian Sigley
I think what's weird though is that of those shipwrecks, a lot of them seem to have vanished without a trace, which meant either they sunk straight to the bottom or. I don't know.
- [34:02]
McLeod Andrews
But I mean, I guess it's worth noting because I think I often have this feeling of like. Like we have fancy tools and fancy equipment. Like you can find anything people can find. But like, no. Like the ocean is vast and deep.
- [34:19]
Brian Sigley
And the Bermuda Triangle is a massive space.
- [34:22]
McLeod Andrews
Massive space. And like you have currents. I think it's worth remembering how hard it is to find stuff in the ocean.
- [34:31]
Brian Sigley
Agreed. But let's do our due diligence here and look at flight 19.
- [34:35]
McLeod Andrews
Yep.
- [34:36]
Brian Sigley
So the official report from the Navy placed the blame square, squarely on the shoulders of Lieutenant Taylor. So that's how they ended up writing this off. But again, no wreckage from these planes has been found. No one has any idea what happened to these guys. In terms of explaining away this plus all the other stuff that's been going on in the Bermuda Triangle. Theoretically, I think the first place to look is navigational equipment, compass related stuff. As was mentioned in the story. It seems like a stretch for all five of these aviators compasses for them all to fail basically, and them have no idea what direction they were going. Seems like a stretch.
- [35:15]
McLeod Andrews
Yeah.
- [35:16]
Brian Sigley
And a lot of the theories surrounding the Bermuda Triangle are like, oh, this is just a place where there's these weird electromagnetic anomalies.
- [35:23]
McLeod Andrews
Right.
- [35:24]
Brian Sigley
I tried to dig into them and some of them are just so out there that I don't even think they're worth getting into here. Like there was some weird thing that's like these weird electromagnetic water tornado kind of things that like can basically warp space time. And it just seems so fantastical that I'm like, let's, let's set that aside. Another theory, and it's less geomagnetic, involves methane gas pockets erupting from the seafloor.
- [35:49]
McLeod Andrews
Whoa.
- [35:50]
Brian Sigley
And this doesn't necessarily apply to the planes, but I guess could explain if these planes crashed in the water and were floating on the water, where do they go? Or in the case of a boat that just vanished. So I think the theory behind this, and again, I am no geologist, is that these gas pockets can erupt from the seafloor and they're so big that when they hit the surface, if they hit right where a boat is or a plane is down or something like that.
- [36:17]
McLeod Andrews
Right.
- [36:18]
Brian Sigley
It just engulfs the entire thing and the thing just sinks instantly.
- [36:20]
McLeod Andrews
Right. It's like almost like it aerates the water basically.
- [36:23]
Brian Sigley
Or just like a giant bubble coming up and just boom, the ship just drops, you know.
- [36:29]
McLeod Andrews
Oh, wow.
- [36:29]
Brian Sigley
Because of that, and this is a thing, apparently now my mind automatically thinks, well, you'd have to have a lot of bad luck to be a giant boat in the middle of the giant ocean. And you hit in the exact spot at the exact time that one of these things.
- [36:44]
McLeod Andrews
But then again, it's like one of those, like if you have enough traffic, it's logical that it could happen to someone at some point.
- [36:50]
Brian Sigley
Yeah. So there's that and then there's the Atlantis theory.
- [36:54]
McLeod Andrews
I think I've heard this theory before and obviously I love it because it's so. Just Atlantis. Amazing.
- [37:03]
Brian Sigley
So Atlantis, of course, we'll have to do an episode on it at some point.
- [37:06]
McLeod Andrews
I'll do an accent.
- [37:11]
Brian Sigley
So Atlantis started back with Plato in ancient Greece, spoke of an entire civilization out in the water somewhere, reached his pinnacle and then vanished somehow. No one knows where Atlantis could be. Edgar Cayce, who was a famous psychic and clairvoyant in the 19th century, 20s, 1930s, well before the Bermuda Triangle became popularly conceptualized, he said that Atlantis was in the area that is now the Bermuda Triangle. Okay. It is worth noting that there is something in the Bimini Islands called the Bimini Road, which is a series of like rectangular limestone blocks. They're like 20ft underwater. It looks basically like a man built road kind of, or a wall of some kind. But scientists dug in on this and it's likely a natural formation. So still very cool. Still very cool. Absolute. But again, no one has found Atlantis, especially in that part of the Atlantic Ocean. But people say that, well, if maybe it hasn't been found yet because the ocean is deep and there's a lot of mystery and blah, blah, blah.
- [38:11]
McLeod Andrews
Yeah. But then it's like, okay, so assuming there is Atlantis underneath there, why does that matter?
- [38:17]
Brian Sigley
Yeah, no, I'm thinking back to like the Lake Baikal story that we did where there's maybe some advanced race that's hidden down there and.
- [38:25]
McLeod Andrews
Right. And so it's like us getting messed up by it is just a side effect of they're not like targeting us, they're just like we're doing our own thing and like.
- [38:32]
Brian Sigley
Oh, oh. But again, kind of a stretch.
- [38:34]
McLeod Andrews
Yeah, sure.
- [38:35]
Brian Sigley
Which ultimately I guess brings me back to could the Bermuda Triangle itself kind of have just been blown out of proportion?
- [38:44]
McLeod Andrews
Blown out of the water, if you will.
- [38:46]
Brian Sigley
Oh, look at you. That was good. That was good. Because like I said, there is no higher incidence of maritime disaster there than anywhere else in the world.
- [38:56]
McLeod Andrews
Right.
- [38:57]
Brian Sigley
So this is kind of what this show's about in a weird way where like you have the kernel of some really compelling mystery. Yeah. And in this case, you have some really high profile weird things that have happened in the Bermuda Triangle that can.
- [39:08]
McLeod Andrews
Probably be explained away, but we are inherently storytellers. Humans are storytellers and pattern seekers. And so put forward a like tasty kernel of a story and people will glom onto that, I think.
- [39:23]
Brian Sigley
Absolutely. So I think once it became named in 1965. It's become a thing in popular culture. You know, there have been movies about it. There have been lots of books, all sorts of stuff. Because who doesn't like a good mystery, Especially one where you've got this vast stretch of ocean and stuff just vanishes.
- [39:41]
McLeod Andrews
It's like the pyramids. It's like, is it more fun to be like, aliens built the pyramids? Or like. No, they just had a whole lot of people pulling ropes on, like, logs and it's like, oh, okay, you're making.
- [39:54]
Brian Sigley
Me want to do a, you know, an ancient aliens and pyramid episode.
- [39:58]
McLeod Andrews
I know, right?
- [39:58]
Brian Sigley
At some point. But that's the Bermuda Triangle, though, everyone. But we do want to hear what you think. If you've had a weird incident experience in the Bermuda Triangle, hit us up, as we mentioned earlier. Leave us a review, too, on Apple, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts or hit us up on Instagram, itingspod.
- [40:16]
McLeod Andrews
Yeah, everyone. So, Brian, where are we heading in two weeks?
- [40:19]
Brian Sigley
So we are continuing our kind of summer vacation vibe here. We just. We just hit the Caribbean for a little beach time, I guess. Even though it's not very pleasant, I.
- [40:27]
McLeod Andrews
Would prefer some calmer beach going.
- [40:30]
Brian Sigley
We're gonna head to, I guess, a great summer destination, an amusement park, next week. I'm not going to say where, though, or what, because there are actually a few amusement parks with some cool supernatural lore associated with them, but get ready to take a little trip.
- [40:45]
McLeod Andrews
That's awesome. We haven't been to an amusement park on this show yet. It's making me want to just go to an amusement park. Although maybe not after we read whatever this story is going to be.
- [40:54]
Brian Sigley
I guess you have to wait to find out. See you in two weeks, everybody. Same time, same place, right here on Sightings.
- [41:01]
McLeod Andrews
Take care.
- [41:05]
Brian Sigley
Sightings is hosted by McLeod Andrews and Brian Sigley. Produced by Brian Sigley, chase Kinzer and McLeod Andrews. Written by Brian Sigley. Story music by Madison James Smith. Series music by Mitch Bain. Mixing and mastering by Pat Kicklater of Sundial Media. Artwork by Nuno Sarnatis. For lists of this episode's sources, check out our website at. Sightings Podcast Sightings is presented by Reverb and Q Code. If you like the show, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you're first to hear new episodes. And if you know other Supernatural fans, tell them about us. We'd really appreciate it.
- [41:45]
Narrator
This is the story of the One. He's responsible for keeping a leading healthcare facility clean and safe. And he trusts Grainy Granger's high quality H Vac cleaning and safety products combined with their world class supply chain to consistently deliver, ensuring he's covered inside and out so he can focus on keeping his facility clean to help protect the health of everyone inside. Call 1-800-GRAINGER clickranger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. This is the story of the one he's responsible for keeping a leading healthcare facility clean and safe and he trusts Granger's high quality H Vac cleaning and safety products combined with their world class supply chain to consistently deliver, ensuring he's covered inside and out so he can focus on keeping his facility clean to help protect the health of everyone inside. Call 1-800-GRAINGER clickranger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.