6. Christopher Columbus May Have Had an Odd Experience with the Bermuda Triangle
Supposedly strange occurrences were reported in the area which became known as the Bermuda Triangle for centuries before the loss of Flight 19. On October 11, 1492, Christopher Columbus reported seeing lights ahead from the deck of his ship. The following day he sighted land. Later writers used the sight of strange twinkling lights as evidence of eerie events in the triangle, but what is strange about seeing the lights from fires on land as it is approached from seaward? Ships were lost in the area beginning in the 15th century, including Columbus’s own Santa Maria, lost in a storm. But it was the brief focus on Flight 19 which led to the birth of the urban legend known as the Bermuda Triangle. From Eckert’s fictionalized account of radio transmissions subsequent authors built their own stories surrounding the event. Official US Navy transcripts did not include them.
Nor could US Navy personnel who were in the control tower recall Taylor referring to “white water” or other indications of panic. Nor is there evidence that Taylor’s compasses had failed, as he reported. It is far more likely that he saw islands resembling the Florida Keys below him (where he had extensive flight experience) and from them assumed he was over the Keys, causing him to distrust his instruments. Writers which followed Eckert, Gaddis, Charles Berlitz, Richard Winer, and others, used Eckert as their source, building upon his evaluation, and when US Navy records and findings conflicted with their version of events they were simply omitted. They also changed the time of several events, the weather conditions, and several other facts inconvenient to their assessment of something more sinister taking place than pilot error. Pilot error wouldn’t sell books.