Secrets of the Bermuda Triangle

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00:00:00Bermuda, a beautiful, remote paradise set in turquoise seas.

00:00:08This tiny territory in the Atlantic Ocean is full of rare treasures.

00:00:13Coral reefs, pink sands, sparkling waters, and the Bermuda Triangle.

00:00:23This notorious stretch of water has been blamed for the unexplained disappearances of hundreds

00:00:29of ships and aircraft, and for the loss of many lives.

00:00:35We'll be investigating the truth about the triangle, using the latest scientific research

00:00:41to unpick its terrifying reputation.

00:00:54The Bermuda Triangle is said to cover half a million square miles of the Atlantic Ocean.

00:01:01Three points define its reach, the US port city of Miami, the Caribbean island of Puerto

00:01:06Rico, and the remote outpost of Bermuda.

00:01:11Coming up, I'll be investigating one of the Bermuda Triangle's most infamous disappearances,

00:01:17the USS Cyclops in 1918, with the loss of over 300 lives.

00:01:23And see how scientists are starting to get a grip on hurricane intensity in and around

00:01:28the triangle by creating their own.

00:01:33I'll be finding out about a deadly ocean phenomenon in this part of the world, a rogue wave.

00:01:43And witness what a plane crash site really looks like.

00:01:48The plane is smashed to smithereens, like it's scattered everywhere.

00:01:58This must be one of the most isolated views on earth.

00:02:01The nearest land is over 700 miles away.

00:02:05The Bermuda Triangle is out there, an area of ocean held responsible for the mysterious

00:02:10disappearance of many, many ships.

00:02:14Nearly 100 years ago, the triangle claimed one of its most notorious victims, the cargo

00:02:18ship USS Cyclops.

00:02:23In 1918, the Cyclops set off into the Bermuda Triangle with more than 300 crew on board.

00:02:30She was never seen again.

00:02:37Her sudden disappearance has baffled everyone ever since.

00:02:42To trace her story, I'm heading to the port of Miami.

00:02:46It's the largest cruise ship terminal in the world, and one of the largest container ports

00:02:50in the United States.

00:02:53An appropriate place to explore the loss of such a vast American naval cargo ship.

00:03:02Now this is the vessel in question, the USS Cyclops herself.

00:03:07Now she was built specifically for the US Navy to ferry thousands of tons of coal across

00:03:12the oceans, refueling naval steam vessels mid voyage.

00:03:17These masts that you can see across her length are crane gantries, and these were used to

00:03:21load and unload coal from the bowels of her vast hull.

00:03:26It's quite difficult to convey how small I am next to this massive vessel.

00:03:34Now this is about the same size as the USS Cyclops, but these are a lot more commonplace

00:03:39now than back then.

00:03:42And in 1918, something of this size would have been quite a stupendous sight.

00:03:50Today, massive cargo ships coming to Miami are guided through narrow channels by highly

00:03:55skilled pilot boat operators.

00:03:57For six years, Jeffrey Poole has been maneuvering these monster vessels.

00:04:02The best way to really describe it is if you take a skyscraper, put it on its side, and

00:04:08then imagine driving it, turning it, and stopping it.

00:04:12I actually can't believe the size of these vessels, and the fact that they float.

00:04:19Yeah, absolutely.

00:04:21The comparisons with the USS Cyclops' size are clear.

00:04:28With America's entry into World War I, the Cyclops joined the war effort.

00:04:33She was transporting more than 10,000 tons of manganese ore from Barbados to the steelworks

00:04:39in Baltimore, a course that would take her through the Bermuda Triangle.

00:04:45Steaming out of Barbados on Monday the 4th of March 1918, she should have arrived in

00:04:50Baltimore nine days later, but she never did.

00:04:54Barbados was her last officially recorded sighting.

00:04:59Something devastating must have happened en route.

00:05:02The Cyclops vanished without a trace.

00:05:06It was the largest single loss of life in U.S. Navy history not directly involved in

00:05:11combat.

00:05:12Hundreds of young Navy men like Ernest Crammer and Andrew Theodore Raskin never came home.

00:05:23A couple of tantalizing clues about the disappearance of USS Cyclops later came to light from records

00:05:29of her short stop in Barbados.

00:05:35It seems Cyclops was running on just one of her two engines, and that she was floating

00:05:41low in the water and listing heavily.

00:05:46What impact does that have on navigation of such a vessel?

00:05:49I mean, it'd be pretty scary as a mariner to be on a ship, you know, listing that much

00:05:55that frequently.

00:05:56You could take water over the side of the ship if it's listing that much, and it could

00:06:01also lead to cargo moving.

00:06:06Could her listing have been caused by the fact that Cyclops was carrying such a weighty

00:06:10cargo?

00:06:11The manganese ore was far heavier than her usual shipment of coal.

00:06:17At the time, the disappearance of Cyclops only became known when she failed to show

00:06:22up in Baltimore.

00:06:24That's when the press got hold of it.

00:06:26There was a deluge of articles speculating what could have happened and where the Cyclops

00:06:31might be.

00:06:33Some speculated that a German U-boat had sunk the ship and the crew had been taken captive.

00:06:41One or two articles even speculated that perhaps the ship had been taken under the sea by a

00:06:46giant multi-tentacled monster of the deep.

00:06:56There was no shortage of theories, but the authorities never discovered a reason for

00:07:00why she vanished.

00:07:02Massive searches for the USS Cyclops never found a single item of wreckage.

00:07:10All that's left of the USS Cyclops are the facts that surround her disappearance.

00:07:15The manganese cargo, heavier than coal, it was Cyclops' first time carrying it.

00:07:21The reports that she was listing and floating low in the water and that one of her two engines

00:07:28was out of action.

00:07:29At the time, the USS Cyclops was a state-of-the-art seagoing vessel, one of the first military

00:07:35ships to be equipped with radio.

00:07:39If she did get into difficulty, why did she not send out a distress call?

00:07:47Whatever happened to that giant ship and the 309 souls aboard her, the USS Cyclops

00:07:54remains one of the greatest and most mysterious stories of the Bermuda Triangle.

00:08:06Coming up, we'll investigate what might have made the Cyclops disappear.

00:08:11Could she have fallen foul of one of the ocean's deadliest waves?

00:08:17In the open ocean, size is no protection.

00:08:24Even vast vessels can find themselves at the mercy of the waves.

00:08:36We've been investigating the disappearance of the USS Cyclops, a cargo ship that vanished

00:08:41in the Bermuda Triangle in 1918, with more than 300 souls aboard.

00:08:46Could she have fallen victim to the Triangle's vicious waters?

00:08:51Today, there are more than 50,000 merchant ships carrying cargo, some in the world's

00:08:57roughest seas.

00:09:09This simulator at Warsash Maritime Academy in Southampton trains modern mariners to prepare

00:09:15for the sort of seas Cyclops might have faced.

00:09:21Captains Mark Bee and Zakharul Bhuiyan are senior lecturers at the academy.

00:09:28Just look at the environment that's been simulated now.

00:09:31It's very harsh, very rough.

00:09:33It's very representative of what they're going to find at sea.

00:09:37It could be about 10 to 12 metre height of wave.

00:09:44If a Force 10 gale had hit the Cyclops, it would have been pretty grim for the mariners

00:09:48on board.

00:09:49When I was on my last ship, I was coming down the coast of the United States during their

00:09:56hurricane season.

00:10:00And the ship was rolling for about two weeks straight, about 30 degrees.

00:10:04And I remember just sitting at my desk sort of holding on for dear life, almost, as everything

00:10:09sort of falling off, off my shelves.

00:10:13A basic rule of seamanship is to lock everything down in heavy weather.

00:10:21This Pacific Sun cruise liner was caught in strong winds off New Zealand in 2008.

00:10:27Forty-two people were injured when unsecured furniture, including a piano, was hurled around

00:10:33the ship.

00:10:35I'd say the thing that was hardest for me was seasickness, really, really bad.

00:10:44And the ship was constantly moving around, rolling for about a week.

00:10:48And you can't escape from it, and you just literally have to work through it.

00:10:53It's just literally hell, really.

00:10:59Even huge ships like the Cyclops can be tossed about by a wave and pushed off course.

00:11:07Sometimes you have sea that's coming from your side, you call the beam sea.

00:11:13And that is giving the very violent rolling.

00:11:16So you need to stop that rolling, because there's synchronized loading may develop,

00:11:20and that means they might capsize the ship.

00:11:26If your engines fail, as apparently one did on the Cyclops, you can completely lose control

00:11:32of your ship in a beam sea.

00:11:36This cruise ship got forced side-on to the waves in the Mediterranean when two of her

00:11:41engines failed.

00:11:43Without power, she was in danger of capsizing.

00:11:47But capsizing in a beam sea might not have been the only fate awaiting the Cyclops in

00:11:52the Bermuda Triangle.

00:11:55There's one deadly phenomenon that is incredibly rare in the ocean, but can be recreated in

00:12:01controlled conditions.

00:12:04The rogue wave.

00:12:06The University of Southampton has just the facility to capture it, with the help of over

00:12:11two million litres of water.

00:12:14What an amazing place this is.

00:12:16What is it, and what's it for?

00:12:18It's basically a flume tank, and it's designed primarily for looking at ship science, to

00:12:22understand how ships move, ship design.

00:12:24But we use it to bring the oceans inside.

00:12:29Some of the research Simon and his colleagues are doing here is looking at the effect stormy

00:12:33seas have on ships.

00:12:37Sally Bennett has been researching how a ship's design makes a big difference to its performance

00:12:42at sea.

00:12:44Could Cyclops' flat-bottom shape have caused her problems in the Bermuda Triangle?

00:12:50Sends down the wave.

00:12:52Here they come.

00:12:53Quite exciting.

00:12:54Sally shows me how a cargo ship built like the Cyclops behaves when faced head-on with

00:12:59a heavy sea.

00:13:00There's always anticipation before it actually arrives.

00:13:04So you can see the boat is pitching forward and backwards, and a bit of water is coming

00:13:09onto the deck area.

00:13:13It's moving around quite a lot.

00:13:15It's rolling, and it just looks less stable.

00:13:18Yeah, I don't think you'd want to be someone on board.

00:13:20I'd absolutely hate it.

00:13:22You can really see it starting to move side-to-side now.

00:13:26That is twisting and turning.

00:13:28It's making me feel quite queasy looking at it.

00:13:33You don't want to be side-on to waves if you've got that much roll going on, because there

00:13:37would be a high risk of capsize in that case.

00:13:41Given that it's less stable, why would you choose to have a boat with a flat bottom?

00:13:45If you've got the more flat bottom, the more essentially square-shaped hull form, then

00:13:50you can get more on board.

00:13:51So it's got more space, you can load it up with more stuff.

00:13:55Yes.

00:13:56So we know that the USS Cyclops' flat-bottom design would have allowed her to carry a lot,

00:14:02but also made her more vulnerable to capsizing in heavy seas.

00:14:08Is there anything about the Bermuda Triangle that could increase that risk even more?

00:14:13Bermuda is in the open sea, in the open ocean, so it's very exposed.

00:14:17And so you have storms perhaps in the southern section of that part of the ocean, you also

00:14:22get maybe storms up sort of to the north, and those two storms can come together.

00:14:27And if you then add additional storms off the coast of Florida, it means you can get

00:14:31three storm systems coming.

00:14:33The result of these storms converging is a terrifying and potentially deadly ocean phenomenon,

00:14:40the rogue wave.

00:14:42In the open ocean, storms can blow for days, and of course you can get very strong winds.

00:14:48So that combination creates waves that, when they come together, they add up, they get

00:14:53this constructive-destructive interference.

00:14:58So this is a rogue wave, that's exactly what we're looking at.

00:15:00This is a rogue wave.

00:15:01And those rogue waves are steep, they are high.

00:15:05We've certainly measured rogue waves in excess of 30 metres, and they can cause a lot of

00:15:10damage.

00:15:11On board ships, cameras have built up evidence of massive waves.

00:15:18But rogue waves have turned out to be even bigger than these.

00:15:27Because they only appear for a few minutes at a time, they've been almost impossible

00:15:32to capture.

00:15:35It wasn't until 1997 we first observed rogue waves using satellites, and that first one

00:15:41that was picked up was off the coast of South Africa, and it was measured as 29.8 metres.

00:15:49And this data has allowed Sally to simulate a rogue wave in the tank.

00:15:53Oh, it's thumping away, isn't it?

00:15:57Oh, yeah.

00:15:58Could this have been the reason for the cyclops' disappearance?

00:16:01Ooh.

00:16:03So it got hit by the first one that made its bow point down, so then the next one, which

00:16:08was maybe a little bit smaller, came over the top of the bow.

00:16:12Exactly.

00:16:13So if the ship has climbed up and over the rogue wave, the ship doesn't have time to

00:16:16recover, and the following wave will then just break over the top of it.

00:16:23A long tanker like this is exposed to incredible stresses when pummeled by different forces

00:16:29along its length.

00:16:32Perhaps a big enough sea could have caused the cyclops to suffer structural failure.

00:16:39So could rogue waves be responsible for some of those unexplained disappearances like that

00:16:44of the cyclops, then?

00:16:45Yes, they could.

00:16:46The bigger the boat gets, the more damage it's done, and if you can imagine sort of

00:16:50a rogue wave, a peak here, a peak here, and the sort of ship supported both sides, then

00:16:55of course what happens is nothing in the middle, really heavy ship, relies on water

00:16:59to support it, it snaps in two.

00:17:01So a massive container ship could just snap in two?

00:17:04Snap in two.

00:17:05And of course if that happens, it can sink in a matter of two or three minutes.

00:17:13That was fascinating.

00:17:14It sounds like a rogue wave could have engulfed the USS Cyclops, a boat with a flat bottom

00:17:20prone to rolling.

00:17:22It might even have been snapped in two.

00:17:24Either way, it would have gone down very quickly and with no time to radio for help.

00:17:35But the loss of the Cyclops 100 years ago was by no means the first mysterious event

00:17:40in the Bermuda Triangle.

00:17:43Ever since 1492, when the famous seafarer Christopher Columbus saw something strange

00:17:48while sailing in these waters, mariners have believed this area was treacherous.

00:17:57Columbus wrote that a flame of fire crashed into the sea and that a strange light rose

00:18:03and lifted up.

00:18:05He also said his compass was playing up.

00:18:08As you can imagine, his crew were absolutely terrified of these unknown waters and threatened

00:18:14with mutiny and a return to Spain.

00:18:21As the years followed, sailors came back with terrifying stories of shipwrecked boats and

00:18:26monster waves.

00:18:29But despite its dreaded reputation, it was only in the middle of the 20th century that

00:18:34the Triangle waters became a worldwide phenomenon.

00:18:40And it started here in Miami.

00:18:42In September 1950, a journalist by the name of Edward Van Winkle Jones wrote an article

00:18:48which drew attention to a series of mysterious disappearances in the area between South Florida

00:18:54and Bermuda.

00:18:55It soon became a hot topic for many other journalists.

00:18:59One of those writers was Vincent Gaddis, who came up with a catchy name for the area that

00:19:03ate up so many planes and ships.

00:19:05In his article in Argosy magazine, he named it the deadly Bermuda Triangle.

00:19:12Since 1945, so the story goes, hundreds of ships and planes and thousands of people have

00:19:17mysteriously and completely vanished.

00:19:22But the Bermuda Triangle didn't achieve global notoriety until author Charles Berlitz devoted

00:19:28an entire book to it in 1974.

00:19:32His family ran a travel agency, and Berlitz apparently became fascinated when travellers

00:19:37refused to cross the region.

00:19:40Berlitz's dramatic storytelling turned this book, simply titled The Bermuda Triangle,

00:19:45into an international bestseller, selling 10 million copies in 30 different languages.

00:19:50Overnight, everyone was talking about the Triangle.

00:19:54Charles Berlitz certainly knew how to tell a good story and, more importantly, how to

00:19:59sell one.

00:20:00He was convinced these mysterious disappearances had supernatural explanations.

00:20:06According to him, there were malevolent forces at work in this part of the world.

00:20:12I think enough things have happened in the area to indicate that there is something wrong

00:20:17with the area.

00:20:18Something is happening which sort of reverses the laws of nature with which we are presently

00:20:23familiar.

00:20:25Berlitz's bestseller tapped into a growing public appetite for investigating strange

00:20:30phenomena and paranormal activity.

00:20:34Stories sprang up about alien visitations and otherworldly forces at work in this sinister

00:20:39stretch of ocean.

00:20:43Triangle mania spilled over into films, songs and visitor attractions.

00:20:49The oldest UFO society in America believes the Bermuda Triangle has yet to give up its

00:20:54secrets.

00:20:55There's bizarre things there.

00:20:57There's artifacts.

00:20:58There's ruins.

00:20:59People have all kinds of weird sightings.

00:21:01So there's something there.

00:21:02There's some kind of energy.

00:21:04I believe that there are energies in that area.

00:21:07What they are, I don't know.

00:21:09And a lot of things have happened there.

00:21:10Ships have gone missing.

00:21:11Planes have gone missing.

00:21:13Have we got enough evidence to prove something?

00:21:15No.

00:21:16But are we always looking?

00:21:17Yes.

00:21:18But are strange forces responsible for the Triangle's voracious appetite?

00:21:24Or might there be another, more earthly reason?

00:21:30There have been many claims of strange sightings in the sky in the Bermuda Triangle, but perhaps

00:21:34none stranger than the ghost ship, an eerie vessel floating above the sea.

00:21:40Was it supernatural or something altogether more earthly?

00:21:47Ghost ships are ships apparently suspended in the air.

00:21:50They seem to appear out of nowhere and are sometimes not even recognisable as man-made

00:21:56objects.

00:21:58Probably the most famous ghost ship of all is the Flying Dutchman, lost around the Cape

00:22:03of Good Hope.

00:22:04It was said that the Dutchman was condemned to sail for eternity and never make landfall.

00:22:10If sailors witnessed a spectral ship, it was a sign of impending doom.

00:22:18But what are these mysterious apparitions in our atmosphere?

00:22:22The physicist Dr Simon Foster of Imperial College London can reveal how they occur.

00:22:30While these ghost ships might appear that they're floating on the water or just above

00:22:33it, it's actually down to the air and how light moves through the air.

00:22:37It's basically a mirage.

00:22:40The speed of light changes according to the medium it's travelling in.

00:22:45It moves at different speeds in cold air and warm air and bends when going from one to

00:22:51the other.

00:22:53Simon's going to demonstrate this light-bending and mind-bending effect.

00:23:00So what have we got here then?

00:23:01So here we've got a tank of water and that's going to represent the atmosphere and I've

00:23:04filled it up and I've actually also poured in loads and loads of sugar and because when

00:23:09that sugar dissolves in the water it becomes denser, you've got at the bottom a real dense

00:23:14sugary mix and at the top you've got pure water.

00:23:17And so the dense sugary water at the bottom is representing our cold air and then the

00:23:22regular water at the top is representing our warm air.

00:23:25Exactly.

00:23:26With the help of a laser pen we can actually see what happens to a beam of light as it

00:23:30travels through the two layers of water.

00:23:33If I shine it at the top, because it's basically the same density, it's travelling in a straight

00:23:39line.

00:23:40In a straight line, yeah.

00:23:41And as we move down we're going to hopefully start shifting from one body to the other

00:23:45Oh yeah, starting to bend now.

00:23:48Bending.

00:23:49Oh, bending quite a lot.

00:23:50So if I was looking here, I would project that back in a straight line and assume that

00:23:55the light was coming from up there.

00:23:57Exactly like with a mirage.

00:23:58It would seem a lot higher.

00:24:00This is the physics that explains the ghost ships floating above, but there's another

00:24:03level to this and that's Fata Morgana.

00:24:07To observers in the past, these floating ships in the Bermuda Triangle must have looked like

00:24:13sorcery.

00:24:14The name Fata Morgana itself comes from Morgan Le Fay, King Arthur's sister and a powerful

00:24:20enchantress.

00:24:21Fata Morgana is an atmospheric optical illusion basically that causes something on the horizon

00:24:28to be seriously or severely distorted.

00:24:32There is a real ship creating these images, but in most cases it's too far away to be

00:24:38seen.

00:24:40So the mirage appears on its own, making it even more eerie.

00:24:45So how does that work then?

00:24:47Under normal atmospheric conditions, you can imagine that near the earth it's nice and

00:24:51warm and as you go higher up, closer to space, the atmosphere starts getting colder and colder

00:24:55and colder.

00:24:56Well, that's what we expect, so that's how we see.

00:24:58Our eyes are attuned to that.

00:25:00But if you reverse that and have a cold body of air locked at the bottom with warm air

00:25:05above it, as we've seen, light starts to behave in peculiar ways.

00:25:09So that was what gave us our superior mirage.

00:25:11Exactly.

00:25:12And that's then going to cause the light coming from these objects to distort and bend and

00:25:17give us these peculiar effects that we see in the atmosphere.

00:25:20And hopefully you'll be able to see it in action.

00:25:22So I've got your tiny boat.

00:25:26So if I set it up and if you position yourself, you should be able to see this.

00:25:31Yes.

00:25:32Yeah.

00:25:33It's weird.

00:25:34So I've got an inverted boat on top of the actual boat.

00:25:38It's not a true Fata Morgana because it's not beyond the horizon, but it just gives

00:25:42you an understanding of the physics at play, basically, what's going on and how these kind

00:25:47of effects can come into play.

00:25:48If I move my head really elongated, it's very odd.

00:25:53It's just weird.

00:25:54It's floating.

00:25:55It's flying.

00:25:56You know, this is in all effects a ghost ship, but actually just a very complicated trick

00:26:01of light.

00:26:02Exactly.

00:26:08Coming up, I sail into the Bermuda Triangle.

00:26:11Just a few hours ago, this was a calm and serene environment.

00:26:17And discover just how quickly things can change.

00:26:23We've seen how even huge ships can struggle in the open ocean.

00:26:27But what happens to little boats?

00:26:31And how bad can it be for them in the Bermuda Triangle?

00:26:37A good place to find out is the Port of Miami, a city that's a magnet for yachting.

00:26:46The Florida coastline has the greatest number of leisure boats in the whole of the United

00:26:50States.

00:26:51In 2016, nearly a million of the USA's recreational boats were registered here.

00:27:01Considering the Bermuda Triangle is out there, are people throwing caution to the wind by

00:27:06choosing to venture out in these waters?

00:27:11Gary Fretz has been sailing for 56 years.

00:27:15He runs the oldest sailing school in America and has taught thousands of students, even

00:27:20though sailboat training here isn't compulsory.

00:27:23Well, in America, all you need is the money to buy a boat.

00:27:30And we're one of the countries that doesn't require a license or certification to go out

00:27:36on your boat and sail off into the sunset.

00:27:39You could sail over the Atlantic or down to the Caribbean or whatever you want.

00:27:45Many countries, including the UK, don't require you to have any training as a leisure boat

00:27:49owner.

00:27:52Could this lack of experience mean people are more vulnerable in the Bermuda Triangle?

00:27:57In this area, we have reefs that are as hard as concrete.

00:28:03We have sandbars that you can't really see until you're right up on them.

00:28:09Right now, the winds are calm.

00:28:10We have smooth seas, and it just looks beautiful.

00:28:15But this can change very quickly.

00:28:20To show me some of the dangers that can catch out rookie sailors in the Bermuda Triangle...

00:28:24Permission to come aboard?

00:28:25Locked on board.

00:28:26Come on in.

00:28:27Gary and his colleague, Bud Price, take me sailing.

00:28:31Can I just say, this is a unique experience for me.

00:28:34I have never set foot on a sailing boat.

00:28:37Never.

00:28:38Good luck.

00:28:39You're in for a treat.

00:28:41In calm conditions, under engine power, I take to steering the boat like a duck to water.

00:28:47He looks like a pro already.

00:28:49Thanks, man.

00:28:50That's why they got me doing this instead of Rick.

00:28:55If you're a novice sailor, these inland conditions could give you a false sense of confidence.

00:29:01But as soon as we've put up the sails in open water, everything changes.

00:29:06So you've cut the engines now, and the sails have been fully hoisted?

00:29:10Yes.

00:29:11So we are wind power, 100% now?

00:29:15Right.

00:29:16And this is where the risks become much clearer.

00:29:20To control a sailing boat in the Bermuda Triangle requires a high level of technical skill.

00:29:25See how it's nice and full now?

00:29:29The ropes that control these sails can exert a force of several tons, and even experienced

00:29:34sailors can be overwhelmed by them.

00:29:37Let's start sailing.

00:29:39Look what happens when a professional yachtswoman gets caught up in her ropes in a race.

00:29:44Help me, help, help, help.

00:29:49She's flung against the safety wires with incredible force, and is lucky not to break

00:29:54her leg.

00:29:55You OK?

00:29:56Yeah.

00:29:57Another weapon in the wrong hands is the metal base of the sail, known as the boom.

00:30:05If the wind gets on the wrong side of the sail, the boom could hit you hard enough to

00:30:09cause serious injury, as seen here in another professional race.

00:30:17The boom is at its most unpredictable during a basic manoeuvre called the jibe.

00:30:22Ready to jibe?

00:30:23Ready.

00:30:24Jibe hold.

00:30:25You see that?

00:30:26Whoa!

00:30:27It can take you by surprise.

00:30:29If you're a newbie, that sail comes slamming over, and if you're standing anywhere near

00:30:36it, you know, it can hurt you, too.

00:30:39Or knock you clean off the boat.

00:30:41It could, and it has.

00:30:46A swinging boom also has another nasty trick up its sleeve.

00:30:50It can roll the boat into a violent capsize.

00:30:53If you're sailing along and all of a sudden this big puff or gust comes, you have to be

00:31:02ready to adjust your sails for that, or the boat could turn over on its side, and then

00:31:06some people could fall in the water when that happens.

00:31:11Another danger is fast-changing weather.

00:31:15I discover this out in the Bermuda Triangle when the wind suddenly picks up from a gentle

00:31:20breeze to a bracing 20 knots.

00:31:25The ride feels a lot quicker, and the waters are a lot choppier, and yet just a few hours

00:31:32ago, this was a calm and serene environment.

00:31:38I mean, I'm now a lot more unsettled in these waters than I was a few hours ago.

00:31:45And I'm still a newbie.

00:31:47So this is when accidents can happen very easily to a newbie who's not used to this.

00:31:54Strong winds can be a sign of squalls, localized storms that can spring up almost out of nowhere.

00:32:01The coastline of Florida, one whole side of the Bermuda Triangle, is notorious to sailors

00:32:07for its violent weather.

00:32:09You know, in the summer here, we also get these thunderstorms that build up inland,

00:32:17and they come faster than you think.

00:32:19Like you might think it's 30 minutes away, but no, it's about five minutes away.

00:32:24And then you get hit with this 60-knot gust where the boat lays over like this, and that

00:32:29can cause problems.

00:32:33All this goes to show that inexperience is definitely one of the reasons why people still

00:32:38go missing here.

00:32:41Of all the disappearances in the Triangle, perhaps the most infamous was that of Flight 19.

00:32:47This event, more than any other, cemented the notorious reputation of this area.

00:32:52In 1945, five Navy Avenger aircraft set out from Miami on a routine training flight straight

00:32:59into the Bermuda Triangle.

00:33:00They were never seen again.

00:33:05Fort Lauderdale International Airport in Florida is the starting point for this, the most eerie

00:33:12and baffling mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.

00:33:17This was once a US Naval Air Station where young pilots trained to fly bomber planes.

00:33:23On the 5th of December 1945, a small fleet of planes took off on what should have been

00:33:30a routine flight.

00:33:32For the 14 young men commemorated on this plaque, their lives were to come to a tragic

00:33:36and mysterious end, when not one, but five aircraft that they were crewing vanished,

00:33:42without trace, somewhere out there, in the skies above the Bermuda Triangle.

00:33:51Aviation is a passion of mine, and I'm curious to know how these marine pilots could completely

00:33:57disappear.

00:34:00I've come to the last outpost of their training base, now a museum that keeps their memory

00:34:05alive.

00:34:09These are the 14 airmen who were operating flight 19.

00:34:13One of the aircraft had a crew of two, each of the others had three, pilot, radioman and

00:34:19gunner.

00:34:22All proud Americans, and just one flight exercise stood between the pilots and their future

00:34:28in the Navy.

00:34:30This is Lieutenant Charles Taylor, aged 27.

00:34:34He was the flight leader and instructor.

00:34:38The Avengers took off at 2.10 in the afternoon from the base in Fort Lauderdale, in good

00:34:45flying conditions.

00:34:47Their intended route, head out east, drop practice bombs, head north, and then return

00:34:54to base.

00:34:57A completely routine three-hour mission.

00:35:02Flight 19 successfully completed the bombing stage of its exercise and prepared to head

00:35:07home.

00:35:09But the transcripts of conversations between those on board and the ground stations tell

00:35:14us that the planes seemed to have flown off course.

00:35:18Taylor radios the ground.

00:35:20Both my compasses are out, and I'm trying to find Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

00:35:25I am over land, but it's broken.

00:35:27I'm sure I'm in the Keys, but I don't know how far down.

00:35:33That last radio broadcast doesn't make sense.

00:35:36They'd just been here, dropping bombs according to plan.

00:35:41Now Lieutenant Taylor is saying they're over this clutch of islands here, miles away.

00:35:50The ground stations did try to offer advice to Flight 19, but for whatever reason, it

00:35:56wasn't taken.

00:35:57From here on in, the pilots sound completely disorientated.

00:36:01We're heading 030 degrees for 45 minutes, then we'll fly north to make sure we're not

00:36:07over the Gulf of Mexico.

00:36:10Change course to 090 degrees for 10 minutes.

00:36:16Wherever they were, four hours after departing, the Avenger aircraft would have been running

00:36:21out of fuel.

00:36:25All planes close up tight.

00:36:27We'll have to ditch unless landfall.

00:36:30When the first plane drops below 10 gallons, we all go down together.

00:36:40Man.

00:36:42And that was the last message ever heard from Flight 19.

00:36:49By now it was getting dark and the weather had deteriorated badly, with thick grey clouds

00:36:55and strong winds.

00:36:57The odds would have been stacking up against their safe return.

00:37:03Murray Morton is a volunteer at the Naval Air Station Museum and knows all about the

00:37:08fascination that surrounds this baffling disappearance.

00:37:13Can you speculate at all what happened to Flight 19?

00:37:16There have been dozens of people before me that have speculated, and some of them included

00:37:22the Supernatural and was included in the Steven Spielberg movie even.

00:37:27Here at the museum, we have a member that flew a search mission for Flight 19, and he

00:37:34told me they flew day and night for eight days looking for Flight 19, but found no trace

00:37:40of an oil slick or debris, anything that would indicate that there was a flight gone down.

00:37:46So that gave rise to the mysterious aspect of it.

00:37:51The official status of Cause Unknown has kept this mystery alive for more than 70 years

00:37:57and cemented the Bermuda Triangle's reputation as a place of terror.

00:38:02How could these pilots become so lost that they flew to their deaths?

00:38:12Coming up, I'll find out what really could have happened to Flight 19, and see how easy

00:38:18it is to get disorientated in the skies.

00:38:21Oh my goodness, right, ha ha ha ha.

00:38:30The Bermuda Triangle, an infamous stretch of water in the Atlantic Ocean.

00:38:37And for planes, a place where nature can deliver its worst and make it a real challenge for

00:38:42pilots.

00:38:45We've been following the story of Flight 19, the routine mission that mysteriously vanished

00:38:50in the Bermuda Triangle in 1945.

00:38:53None of the pilots ever returned.

00:38:56There have been many theories as to why they disappeared, including alien activity and

00:39:00loopholes in time, but the real reason could be down to something very human and much more

00:39:06common.

00:39:09The lack of plane wreckage or any trace of the crew makes the riddle of Flight 19 so

00:39:15much more difficult to solve.

00:39:17One thing that's clear from the pilots' radio transcripts is that they were all very confused

00:39:23by what was happening to them.

00:39:25It's not making much sense.

00:39:27We should be seeing land by now.

00:39:30There's nothing out there.

00:39:31We don't know which way is west.

00:39:35Everything is wrong.

00:39:38The most experienced pilot, Lieutenant Charles C. Taylor, seemed very disorientated, insisting

00:39:43his compasses were broken and he could no longer see land.

00:39:47So how did the lead pilot become so bewildered?

00:39:51I want to see what it's like to lose my sense of direction in mid-air by taking the controls

00:39:56in a flight simulator.

00:39:59And we're airborne.

00:40:01Dr. Stuart Smith of Cranfield Aviation Training School is going to show me how pilots can

00:40:07become confused.

00:40:08There you are, Otis.

00:40:09You're at 6,000 feet now.

00:40:12Yep.

00:40:13Flying west.

00:40:14Yep.

00:40:15Use all your available instruments to achieve that.

00:40:18OK.

00:40:19I need to maintain this westerly course and I have two compasses to help me do this.

00:40:25I think I'm heading in the right direction.

00:40:28What heading are you flying?

00:40:30I'm still west.

00:40:32And what's that showing up there on your standby compass?

00:40:37Oh, wait.

00:40:40While I was paying so much attention to flying on course, I didn't check that all of my instruments

00:40:46were giving me consistent information.

00:40:48Stuart had put an error in one of my compasses and I trusted it.

00:40:53That's east up there.

00:40:55That's the real east.

00:40:58There's something wrong here.

00:41:00An error in just one of my instruments led me to go the wrong way completely.

00:41:05I got confused even in perfect flying conditions.

00:41:09But at least this wasn't for real.

00:41:16I'm really hoping that in midair, my other senses can step up and give me more information

00:41:21about which way I'm going.

00:41:23See those white buildings over there?

00:41:26Yes.

00:41:27OK.

00:41:28Let's aim at those now.

00:41:29Feel what we're flying like, wings level, yeah?

00:41:31Yes.

00:41:32We're coming at 700 feet.

00:41:33700 feet.

00:41:34I want you to close your eyes.

00:41:35Close?

00:41:36Yeah, close your eyes and try and keep the plane as it is now with your eyes shut.

00:41:40Shut your eyes now.

00:41:42You're just flying by your sensations, your seat-of-the-pants sense, as they say.

00:41:48OK.

00:41:53It's really uncomfortable.

00:41:57Without sight, we tend to trust other physical indications such as pressure, touch and the

00:42:03sensation of acceleration.

00:42:05But in flight, these simply do not work as well.

00:42:11This is a long time for me to keep my eyes closed at the helm of the plane.

00:42:15Well, why not open them now?

00:42:17Oh, my goodness.

00:42:19Right.

00:42:20But that was the beginning of a spiral descent.

00:42:23That was the beginning of a spiral descent.

00:42:25OK.

00:42:26So I was immediately aware that we were leaning to the left.

00:42:28And I had no sensation of that.

00:42:30There was no...

00:42:31When it was happening.

00:42:32No physical feedback.

00:42:33Imagine if we were in cloud if that happened.

00:42:35You'd have to get that from your instruments that that was actually happening.

00:42:39That took about 30 seconds.

00:42:41We are going in the wrong direction by about 40 degrees.

00:42:44Over there we were meant to be flying.

00:42:47I can now better understand how the Flight 19 pilots lost their way so completely.

00:42:55It turns out that becoming disorientated in midair is easier and more common than I thought.

00:43:03But what really makes the situation even worse for pilots is bad weather.

00:43:08Thick clouds, strong winds and approaching storms.

00:43:13Thunderstorms are so dangerous to aircraft that even the most experienced pilots treat them with respect.

00:43:22One of the corners of the Bermuda Triangle is Miami, Florida, where thunderstorms are common.

00:43:27As many as 130 days per year.

00:43:31It's a dazzling weather phenomenon.

00:43:35And has contributed to the loss of many aircraft.

00:43:38Could a thunderstorm have played a part in the disappearance of Flight 19?

00:43:43Mention thunderstorms and most people think of lightning.

00:43:47The Earth experiences around 760 thunderstorms every hour and is struck an incredible 10 times a second by lightning.

00:43:56But lightning isn't the only hazard that makes flying into a storm extremely dangerous.

00:44:01My flying instructor, Dr. Stuart Smith, knows all too well what these risks are.

00:44:07Stuart, for pilots, what are the dangers associated with thunderstorms?

00:44:11Well, thunderstorms have got lightning in them, which in itself presents an electrical risk to the aircraft.

00:44:16But more of a threat is the turbulence which can be encountered, reduced visibility and torrential downpours.

00:44:23Ever flown into one yourself?

00:44:25I have, not voluntarily. It affects it quite dramatically.

00:44:28You're flying along a straightened level and then you find yourself being lifted up in an elevator, essentially,

00:44:33up at 1,000, 2,000 feet per minute, and you do very little to stop it.

00:44:39This film, shot by a passenger, shows moderate turbulence, where the plane drops between 5 and 10 feet.

00:44:46But the turbulence experienced in a severe thunderstorm,

00:44:51These days, modern commercial planes have very sophisticated weather radar on board

00:44:56and know to steer clear of the worst conditions.

00:45:01As a plane approaches a thunderstorm, what would be the best form of advice?

00:45:06To avoid it and steer clear of it by 10 to 20 nautical miles.

00:45:10As a plane approaches a thunderstorm, what would be the best form of advice?

00:45:15To avoid it and steer clear of it by 10 to 20 nautical miles.

00:45:20You can't really climb above it because they go up to 40 to 60,000 feet,

00:45:24which is more than the climb performance of most aircraft.

00:45:27Another option is to fly underneath, but that's inadvisable

00:45:30because there's loads of hazards underneath the storm itself.

00:45:34One of the greatest threats to planes in places like the Bermuda Triangle are microbursts.

00:45:41Also known as rainbombs, they're an intense and sudden downdraft produced by a thunderstorm.

00:45:49To find out how they're formed, I'm meeting Joanna Haig,

00:45:53Professor of Atmospheric Physics at Imperial College London.

00:45:57Tell me, what's the science behind a microburst?

00:46:00Well, a microburst is cold air falling out of a thunderstorm cloud,

00:46:04and it's falling out very, very fast, and it hits the ground at speed

00:46:07and spreads out, making winds in all directions.

00:46:12A microburst may have been responsible for another famous Bermuda Triangle disappearance,

00:46:17the loss of the Star Tiger in 1948.

00:46:21It was flying at a planned low altitude of 2,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean.

00:46:26If it flew into a microburst, it could have been forced down into the water, leaving no trace.

00:46:33For the sake of aviation, is it possible to predict when a microburst is about to occur?

00:46:38It's very difficult to predict a particular microburst,

00:46:41but what you can do is say that when there's big thunderstorm clouds around,

00:46:45they're much, much more likely.

00:46:48Joanna is going to show me how a microburst actually develops.

00:46:52Joanna is going to show me how a microburst actually develops.

00:46:56The coloured ice cube represents thunderstorm clouds,

00:46:59and the bowl of warm water is our atmosphere.

00:47:03So what I'm doing is I'm putting one of these ice cubes into this warmer water,

00:47:07and you can see that as the water is melting, it's sinking down.

00:47:10This is the cold water here, but that's representing the cold air

00:47:13coming out the bottom of the cloud in a microburst.

00:47:15And as that cold water or cold air hits the ground,

00:47:18it spreads out in all directions in these very strong winds,

00:47:21and this is the devastating conditions that are so damaging for aviation.

00:47:25I can really see that, actually, and especially if I'm down here,

00:47:28that spread, once it hits the bottom of the dish there,

00:47:32it's rather like an upside-down mushroom cloud.

00:47:35It is a bit, and in fact it's a real hit-and-run event.

00:47:38It only lasts about two to four minutes, but it's really powerful when it's going on.

00:47:42You don't want to be underneath that thing.

00:47:44No, I can imagine.

00:47:45So I guess the best course of action would be to avoid all thunderstorms where possible.

00:47:49Absolutely, yes.

00:47:56We've seen how the weather over the Bermuda Triangle is a force to be reckoned with,

00:48:00especially when flying.

00:48:03Thunderstorms are a danger to planes even today, and still claim victims.

00:48:08A recent example is the Air France flight 447,

00:48:12which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009

00:48:15as it was going through a severe thunderstorm.

00:48:19Though just outside the Bermuda Triangle,

00:48:21investigators were faced with the same deep waters and mountainous ocean floor.

00:48:28Tony, what's the first thing that happens when a plane goes missing?

00:48:31If you're talking aircraft that's gone in the sea,

00:48:35the first thing, of course, is search and rescue.

00:48:37What you need is the best possible initial position,

00:48:41and that might come from a number of sources.

00:48:43It might be radar, crew reports, eyewitness evidence,

00:48:47floating wreckage or oil slicks, that sort of thing.

00:48:52If the chance of finding survivors is gone,

00:48:55the next stage is looking for traces of the wreckage on the ocean floor.

00:49:00The deep waters of the Bermuda Triangle

00:49:02and mountainous seabed make this process incredibly difficult.

00:49:07Thankfully, there is a piece of equipment on board modern airliners

00:49:11that helps with the search.

00:49:14This is what's called an underwater locator beacon,

00:49:18which is attached to the flight recorder,

00:49:21and it emits a sound signal in little bleep, once a second,

00:49:25and with the right hydrophone, you can hear this

00:49:29What other methods are available?

00:49:31Well, you're then essentially mostly into sonar detection,

00:49:36normally side-scan sonar,

00:49:38where you have a fish, like a torpedo,

00:49:41sending out a signal to either side and downwards,

00:49:44operating like radar, really.

00:49:46Is side-scan sonar technology effective?

00:49:49You get into deep water and a very uneven, rocky mountainous seabed,

00:49:54very, very difficult.

00:49:55The Air France accident, AF447, out in the mid-Atlantic,

00:50:00took two years to find the recorders,

00:50:03but they essentially were rather fortunate

00:50:06because it was a very rocky area in the North Atlantic Ridge,

00:50:10but the wreckage happened to be on a flat area.

00:50:15The key that finally unlocked the mystery of Flight 447

00:50:19was the finding of the black box.

00:50:21With the locator attached, this is an essential piece of kit

00:50:24that records a plane's flight data.

00:50:28David Barry is a senior lecturer in aviation safety at Cranfield University.

00:50:33So this is a black box, but it's obvious that it's not black?

00:50:38No. A black box recorder is a term that's commonly used by the media,

00:50:41but they're actually painted bright orange

00:50:43so that accident investigators can find them on an accident site.

00:50:46In the industry, we call them flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders.

00:50:49How vital is a flight data recorder in piecing together what happened in a crash?

00:50:54An example is the investigation into Air France 447.

00:50:57Investigators had a bit of an idea of what happened

00:51:00because the aircraft sent out some messages before it crashed,

00:51:03but it wasn't until they found the recorders two years later

00:51:05that they got a proper idea of exactly what happened on board that aircraft.

00:51:08And what did the flight data recorder tell you about the crash?

00:51:11Well, the flight data recorder told us that the plane had crashed

00:51:14and what did the flight data recorder tell them?

00:51:16The findings were that the aircraft had actually stalled

00:51:19and up until finding the recorders, there was still the possibility of some form of mechanical failure

00:51:23or whether weather had actually brought down the aircraft in some way.

00:51:27Finding the black box solved the mystery of flight 447,

00:51:32but it also highlighted how dependent investigators are

00:51:36on retrieving these tiny devices from the vast depths of the ocean.

00:51:42What do you think is in the future for flight data recorders?

00:51:45Following Air France 447 and MH370, which still hasn't been found,

00:51:49there are changes coming very soon.

00:51:51Eventually, we'll end up with some form of streaming data, I'm sure.

00:51:55Maybe just a handful of parameters, but eventually maybe a lot more.

00:51:59But I still think there's a place for the crash-protected flight data recorder

00:52:02as well as that telemetry data.

00:52:04So, in the near future, aircraft will be able to send greater streams of live data.

00:52:10Which will be enough to understand what has happened to a plane if it goes missing.

00:52:15This could make mysterious disappearances in the Triangle a thing of the past.

00:52:23Coming up, I'm going to see for myself what a crash site in the Bermuda Triangle actually looks like.

00:52:30It's much more moving, I think.

00:52:32The enormity of what's happened.

00:52:35And we'll see how scientists are starting to get a grip on hurricane intensity

00:52:40in and around the Triangle by creating their own.

00:52:48The Bermuda Triangle is one of the Earth's most intriguing places.

00:52:53Three points in the Atlantic Ocean define the reach of its powers.

00:52:59The US port city of Miami, the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico

00:53:04and the tiny, remote territory of Bermuda.

00:53:11We've seen what the causes are for planes disappearing in the Bermuda Triangle

00:53:15and how difficult it is to find any trace of them once they're gone.

00:53:21But I want to see for myself what a crash site really looks like.

00:53:26Philippe Rougeur looks after the many wrecks that litter Bermuda's shores.

00:53:33Philippe.

00:53:34Hi, Rick.

00:53:35Hi, nice to meet you.

00:53:36Nice to meet you.

00:53:37You too?

00:53:38Yeah.

00:53:39So what are you taking me to see today?

00:53:40Well, today we're going to go and see the crash site of a B-50 bomber that crashed in 1963

00:53:44out on our western ledge reef there.

00:53:46It's now blended and overtaken by coral,

00:53:48but the aluminum and the stainless steel really still stands out.

00:53:51So it's quite a powerful wreck to visit.

00:53:53And quite a rare sight, a plane wreck.

00:53:55This is quite unique to Bermuda. In fact, it's the only one we have.

00:53:59I've never seen a wreck site before, so I'm not quite sure what to expect.

00:54:05I am curious to see what the plane looks like after more than 50 years in the water.

00:54:12The B-50 bombers started their life as an updated model of the famous B-29 Superfortress

00:54:19used extensively in World War II.

00:54:22They were later modified into aerial tankers,

00:54:25capable of refueling up to three smaller fighter planes mid-air at the same time.

00:54:32So what exactly happened then?

00:54:33Apparently, as they took off from Bermuda, one of the auxiliary engines,

00:54:36this plane had jet engines and propeller engines,

00:54:38one of the auxiliary engines blew up and caught fire.

00:54:41And at that point it was clear they weren't going to make it.

00:54:43The captain controlled the descent enough to give his crew enough time to bail out.

00:54:46And then she crashed about five miles off Bermuda, right on top of that reef.

00:54:51The captain and one of the mechanics died that day.

00:54:54But six members of the crew survived.

00:54:57They were rescued from the water and taken to safety.

00:55:01So it's a bit choppy today as you can see, but as soon as we get in the water...

00:55:04I can feel it.

00:55:05Yeah, he can feel it.

00:55:06As soon as we get in the water it's going to be beautiful and clear

00:55:09and we're just going to sort of float on the surface and take a good look under.

00:55:12And the wreck is literally under us right now,

00:55:14spread out over this entire area where the boat is and just a bit beyond.

00:55:17So will I immediately recognise it as a plane?

00:55:20You'll immediately recognise that there's a substantial amount of wreckage that's from a plane.

00:55:26But seeing the shape of a plane, you're not going to see that at all.

00:55:29And that's because when the plane hits the water, it disintegrates.

00:55:33It's like hitting concrete.

00:55:34It's certainly, at a certain speed and from a certain height,

00:55:37there's no question that when it hits, it's hitting cement.

00:55:41And it just breaks and spreads into many pieces.

00:55:43OK, I think I'm ready.

00:55:45All right, let's go take a look.

00:55:51I've seen news reports of plane crashes,

00:55:54but I have no idea what the actual site will look like.

00:55:58I can't really imagine what happens to a plane at the exact moment of impact,

00:56:02which is why I feel rather nervous about seeing this one up close.

00:56:12Philippe was right.

00:56:13Recognising these scattered bits of metal as an airplane is not easy.

00:56:20Every now and again, a part of it is recognisable.

00:56:25The propeller.

00:56:29One of the engines.

00:56:39I'm astounded to discover quite how smashed everything is.

00:56:51I don't really know what I was expecting.

00:56:54It's much more kind of moving, I think.

00:56:58Yeah.

00:57:01The enormity of what's happened really hits you.

00:57:05But it's amazing that it's here and you get to see it,

00:57:08because I guess that most plane crashes you'll never see.

00:57:12You'll never see them.

00:57:13It's the fact that the plane is smashed to smithereens.

00:57:17It's scattered everywhere.

00:57:18It's the force of the impact.

00:57:19And also you see we're here in 25 feet of water.

00:57:22Imagine you're in 2,000 feet of water.

00:57:24It just goes down.

00:57:25You'll never see it.

00:57:26Ten more minutes of flight and this plane joins the annals of the Marina Triangle.

00:57:33Seeing just how badly a plane disintegrates upon impact

00:57:37makes me realise why it's near impossible to locate a plane that's crashed out in the open ocean.

00:57:44This may have something to do with the Triangle's reputation

00:57:47of swallowing ships and planes never to be seen again.

00:57:58Many ships and aircraft have disappeared in the Triangle.

00:58:02Could this be anything to do with the area's exposure

00:58:05to one of the Earth's most powerful natural forces?

00:58:14Hurricanes.

00:58:16With winds that blow relentlessly with shocking strength

00:58:22and accompanying storm surges that engulf the land.

00:58:30The Bermuda Triangle is right in the path of Hurricane Alley.

00:58:36A region of the Atlantic where these giant storms escalate

00:58:40and make their approach to land.

00:58:44Bermuda itself regularly comes under direct fire.

00:58:49Keeping watch is the Bermuda Weather Service.

00:58:53James Dodgson is its director.

00:58:56How are you doing?

00:58:57Very well.

00:58:58Nice to meet you.

00:58:59Today it's beautiful weather.

00:59:01Is it always like this in Bermuda?

00:59:02It is beautiful today and this is because of the Bermuda Azores High building across the region

00:59:06which is very typical of springtime

00:59:08and it tends to continue right into the early part of summer

00:59:11and then towards the last part of the summer

00:59:13that's when we need to watch out for our hurricanes, our tropical storms.

00:59:16Over the last four years or so we had literally four direct hurricane impacts.

00:59:21These hurricanes are phenomenal weather producers

00:59:24particularly with wind and swells and seas.

00:59:28There is currently a hurricane warning in force.

00:59:32I repeat, there is a hurricane warning in force.

00:59:36The most intense hurricane to hit Bermuda recently was Hurricane Nicole in 2016

00:59:42with winds continuously blowing at 87 miles per hour

00:59:49and over 17 centimeters of rain in a single day.

00:59:53It was also one of the wettest storms on record.

00:59:57250 miles up, the cameras on the International Space Station

01:00:01captured the immense spiraling storm.

01:00:05At its center, the hurricane eye, headed directly for Bermuda.

01:00:10That's where the most intense winds are around the center of the hurricane.

01:00:13The eye of the hurricane came right over the island.

01:00:17As the edge of the eye hits, this natural force is at its most powerful.

01:00:27Absolutely brutal.

01:00:31But as the eye itself comes overhead, it brings a strange calm to the residents of Bermuda.

01:00:38Everything is still standing in one piece.

01:00:41And then we went from let's say 100 mile an hour winds to next to no wind

01:00:45for about half an hour as the eye transferred over the island.

01:00:48So we're in the middle of the eye of the hurricane right now.

01:00:51We can hear it, the backside coming.

01:00:54I don't know if you can hear it on this, but it's coming.

01:00:57No damage to the house.

01:00:59Now I can see, obviously, lots of debris, lots of leaves.

01:01:06Pool's a mess.

01:01:08As is everything else.

01:01:10A lot of the leaves are gone.

01:01:12We'll be getting under cover here in a few minutes because the other side will be coming.

01:01:16And then we got onto the backside of the eye wall, if you like,

01:01:19and then the winds ramped right up.

01:01:21Forecasters had issued a hurricane warning two days before Nicole hit,

01:01:26meaning islanders were well prepared.

01:01:29What wasn't known was how strong it would be.

01:01:32So how easy is it to predict hurricanes then?

01:01:35Well, we do have some wonderful weather modelling out there,

01:01:38what we call numerical weather models.

01:01:40Generally they give a pretty good guide, let's say five or so days out,

01:01:43more or less exactly how strong the hurricane is.

01:01:46So these models are pretty good at predicting when a hurricane is going to be where?

01:01:50Yes, they are.

01:01:52The difficulty comes with intensity.

01:01:54The modelling for the intensity of the hurricanes,

01:01:57there's still some work to be done on that.

01:01:59So you'll know pretty much when a hurricane is going to hit,

01:02:02but you might not know how strong that hurricane is going to be?

01:02:05That's basically it, yes.

01:02:07People living in the hurricane danger zone, around the Bermuda Triangle,

01:02:11never know how bad a storm heading their way will be.

01:02:17The intensity of a hurricane is hard to predict.

01:02:21But once they hit, their force is measured on a scale from one to five.

01:02:28The intensity of a hurricane is hard to predict.

01:02:31But once they hit, their force is measured on a scale from one to five.

01:02:37In 2017, a devastating and deadly hurricane hit Puerto Rico

01:02:42at one corner of the Bermuda Triangle.

01:02:47Within just 18 hours, it had grown with unexpected speed and strength

01:02:52from an entry-level Category 1 to the most extreme Category 5,

01:02:57dipping slightly before it met Puerto Rico.

01:03:01So can this rapid intensification of hurricanes in the area

01:03:05be better predicted?

01:03:14The answer may lie in the western corner of the Bermuda Triangle.

01:03:23Miami in Florida.

01:03:26This is the world-renowned Rosensteil School

01:03:29of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

01:03:36I'm meeting hurricane scientist Professor Brian House.

01:03:40Hey, Brian.

01:03:41Hey, how are you doing?

01:03:42Hello, Brian.

01:03:43Hello, welcome to the University of Miami.

01:03:45Thank you very much.

01:03:46This is a magnificent-looking structure,

01:03:48and it's going to be one of the largest in the world.

01:03:51Welcome to the University of Miami.

01:03:52Thank you very much.

01:03:53This is a magnificent-looking structure.

01:03:55What does it do?

01:03:56Why is it here?

01:03:57You're standing underneath the surge structure

01:03:59atmospheric interaction tank.

01:04:01Here we study really intense hurricane conditions.

01:04:06This 38,000-gallon tank with its 1,400-horsepower wind machine

01:04:12is the world's only research facility

01:04:14that can replicate the most extreme Category 5 hurricanes.

01:04:20Such as those seen in the Bermuda Triangle.

01:04:24It blasts wind over water and onto scale model buildings,

01:04:28allowing the team to study the behaviour of a hurricane

01:04:31as it intensifies out at sea before it hits land.

01:04:46And I'm getting to see it close up.

01:04:50First, an ocean swell, equivalent to three or four metres, is called up.

01:04:58Then comes the wind.

01:05:03What level are we looking at now?

01:05:05It's about Category 1 right now.

01:05:07This is a 1?

01:05:08You start to see all that spray coming up.

01:05:11Yeah, wow.

01:05:13With winds exceeding 74 miles per hour,

01:05:16Category 1 hurricanes are only the start.

01:05:19But they're still a force to be reckoned with.

01:05:22I have been in Category 1 and 2 storms.

01:05:25I remember watching the trees take out a power line

01:05:30right behind my house and the whole thing go exploding.

01:05:33And that was pretty exciting.

01:05:36Of course, I'm a hurricane geek.

01:05:40Hurricanes intensify when they meet warm air

01:05:43rising off the tropical seas,

01:05:45building the wind speeds of the storm.

01:05:51So here we're trying to create those conditions in a lab

01:05:55so we can understand how does the heat get up into this system

01:05:59that's developing in order to allow it to rapidly intensify.

01:06:02One of the things that we think may be key to that is sea spray.

01:06:07They believe the warm droplets of spray

01:06:10help carry the ocean's warmth up into the storm.

01:06:13As the storm then builds,

01:06:15so too does the amount of spray and the whole system intensifies.

01:06:21So now we're getting up to more of a Category 3 condition

01:06:25and just really getting a lot of intense spray being generated.

01:06:33Looking for telltale signs in how the spray behaves when a storm builds

01:06:38might help predict intensifying hurricanes in the Bermuda Triangle

01:06:42and beyond.

01:06:46So now we're up to this Category 4 condition.

01:06:49This is incredible!

01:06:59And then we reach Category 5.

01:07:05The model house, a guide for scale,

01:07:08would in real life probably be destroyed.

01:07:13It's amazing that you've been able to contain it in a glass box.

01:07:17I mean, there's so much energy in there, so much destructive energy.

01:07:21Oh, absolutely.

01:07:22I mean, you just think of all that salt water being blown

01:07:25at 150 miles an hour right into the house.

01:07:30Hurricanes are one of the most powerful natural forces on Earth.

01:07:43We've seen this last hurricane season in particular

01:07:46how rapidly many of the storms intensified.

01:07:49Over the course of a day, several storms went

01:07:54from being Category 1 to being Category 5.

01:08:00It's early days for this research,

01:08:02but if they can find the fingerprint of a storm intensifying in the lab,

01:08:07scientists might be on the way to spotting those signs in real life.

01:08:12Before this phenomenal force of nature hits land.

01:08:17Meaning people living around the Bermuda Triangle

01:08:20could be evacuated safely.

01:08:26This has been incredible.

01:08:28On a small scale, I've been able to see

01:08:30how powerful a Category 5 hurricane must be.

01:08:34I can only imagine how frightening it would be

01:08:37to get caught up in something as devastating and powerful

01:08:40as the real thing.

01:08:46Coming up, I discover how the Earth beneath Bermuda

01:08:50is predicting these storms.

01:08:54And I'll investigate if the island itself can send ships astray.

01:08:59We can do an experiment if you like. I have a compass with me.

01:09:02It has a very noticeable effect.

01:09:04That would throw you right off, wouldn't it?

01:09:10Bermuda's isolated position in the Triangle

01:09:13means it's endured centuries of hurricanes.

01:09:17The islanders have learnt to prepare for them.

01:09:20Some, like taxi driver Nodanja Bailey,

01:09:23even take them in their stride.

01:09:25I'm very well, thank you. Nice to meet you.

01:09:27So, tell me, you've been here your whole life.

01:09:30Have you experienced many hurricanes?

01:09:33Yes, about five, six.

01:09:35OK, what's it like getting caught up in one?

01:09:39I actually love hurricanes, you know,

01:09:42because Bermuda's built strong, you know.

01:09:45It's all stone, all low-rise houses,

01:09:48so that's one of the reasons why this is the best place to be.

01:09:55The traditional stone houses of Bermuda

01:09:57provide a safe refuge in a hurricane,

01:10:00but you still need to take precautions.

01:10:0310.30, storm's getting pretty wild.

01:10:07I don't even know if you can see.

01:10:09It forces you to bunker down.

01:10:11You know, most people have generators for their houses.

01:10:14You need a radio, an FM or AM radio,

01:10:17to listen to when it's going to pass.

01:10:20You can spend time with each other.

01:10:22You play games, cards, different things like that.

01:10:25And safely sheltered indoors, a sense of humour helps too.

01:10:29I love it. It's a beautiful thing. You know why?

01:10:31Because if you're in a relationship with just you and your girlfriend,

01:10:34nine months later, we call that a storm baby.

01:10:37Because there's nothing else to do.

01:10:39You know, there's no TV, you've got to do something,

01:10:42and then for me, I like to go to have a storm party.

01:10:45A storm party?

01:10:47Yeah, there will be some bars that are open

01:10:49and you just go and have a little libation,

01:10:52a little communion, just a little bit.

01:10:59Hurricanes are a fact of life here.

01:11:05But the storm party might be over in the coming years.

01:11:15Evidence uncovered deep below the island

01:11:18points towards hurricanes in the Bermuda Triangle

01:11:21being dramatically on the increase.

01:11:28These caves amazingly keep a record of each and every hurricane

01:11:32that has ever landed on Bermuda.

01:11:36Remarkably, this information is locked away in stalagmites,

01:11:41formed by rainfall partly brought about by hurricanes.

01:11:47So could a team from Durham University

01:11:50unlock the secrets of the stones

01:11:52and reveal the hurricane history of the Bermuda Triangle?

01:11:57Hurricanes have very unusual chemistry

01:12:00compared to normal rainwater.

01:12:02This is really kind of surprising.

01:12:04I think most people would expect rainfall to just be rainfall.

01:12:08But hurricane rainfall is really characteristic.

01:12:11Rainwater filtering down contains dissolved chemicals

01:12:15which get deposited as stalagmites.

01:12:19But because hurricane rain is so heavy,

01:12:21certain chemicals in the water are more dilute

01:12:25and leave less of a trace in the stalagmite.

01:12:30To unlock the unique natural rainfall record

01:12:33of this part of the Bermuda Triangle,

01:12:36the team took a stalagmite back to the lab.

01:12:45What we have here is the stalagmite.

01:12:48You see a series of holes and tracks.

01:12:50This looks like it's one continuous vertical track,

01:12:54but in actuality, it's a series of samples.

01:13:00They took around 3,500 minute samples in sequence

01:13:04from the stalagmite's central core.

01:13:07OK, now we'll get the micromill started.

01:13:09Each third of a millimetre,

01:13:11corresponding to about a year's growth

01:13:13in the history of the stalagmite.

01:13:15It's sort of like rings in a tree.

01:13:17They're not visible, but they're there.

01:13:20So we can count those rings, so to speak, those chemical rings,

01:13:25and establish a sequence of events back through time

01:13:29for the stalagmite to work out

01:13:31how the climate has changed in the past.

01:13:35After chemically analysing the stalagmite samples,

01:13:38James' team were able to read a hidden hurricane record.

01:13:42Dating back to the year 1450.

01:13:47These downward spikes indicate where a hurricane hit land,

01:13:50and we have a very clear manifestation of Hurricane Fabian

01:13:55back in 2003, which was very clearly expressed as a huge spike.

01:14:01At Category 3, Hurricane Fabian was one of the most intense storms

01:14:06to hit Bermuda in living memory.

01:14:08And going back, other huge events are captured in the stalagmite,

01:14:13including one before Bermuda was even discovered.

01:14:17The largest hurricane has been lost to history.

01:14:20There is literally no record of that hurricane,

01:14:23but yet it shows up within the chemistry of the stalagmite.

01:14:27But the stalagmite research has revealed something far more troubling

01:14:31about hurricanes in the past.

01:14:33The stalagmite research has revealed something far more troubling

01:14:37about hurricanes in the Bermuda Triangle.

01:14:41It seems that the position of the average hurricane

01:14:44has slowly shifted to the north.

01:14:48Bermuda has been seeing steadily more hurricane landfalls.

01:14:53This means more hurricanes are making landfall

01:14:56in the east coast of the United States,

01:14:59and this is obviously quite problematic.

01:15:03The caves beneath Bermuda have a warning for us.

01:15:08The highly populated coastal cities of the USA

01:15:11are expected to see more devastation than ever,

01:15:15perhaps on the scale of Hurricane Katrina.

01:15:21Climate change and warming sea temperatures

01:15:24are likely behind this shift in hurricane patterns.

01:15:28It seems there's no avoiding hurricanes taking an increasing toll

01:15:33in and around the Bermuda Triangle.

01:15:39In the Bermuda Triangle, mysterious forces are often said to be at work.

01:15:46Erratic compass behaviour in the region has long been rumoured,

01:15:50sending ships and aircraft to their doom.

01:15:54Bermuda Triangle!

01:15:57Tom Watson is a retired Bermudian fisherman

01:16:00who's witnessed strange activity in his boat's navigation equipment.

01:16:07Tom, you're very familiar with the waters around Bermuda.

01:16:10Has your compass ever misbehaved?

01:16:13These little electronic compasses in autopilots, yes.

01:16:17We were just cruising along, quite relaxed,

01:16:20and all of a sudden, the boat suddenly changed its course.

01:16:23And it does, like, a 90-degree turn.

01:16:26Tom's autopilot should have been keeping the boat on a straight course,

01:16:30so for it to veer off would indicate its compass reading had suddenly changed.

01:16:36We carry a couple of these things, so we tried another one

01:16:39and went back through the area, same again.

01:16:42We didn't try the third one. I said,

01:16:44yeah, there's something wrong here, let's get out of here.

01:16:47What do you think was the cause of the compass going strange?

01:16:52I don't know, but it got our attention big time.

01:16:56Right.

01:16:57And the fact that it did it twice,

01:16:59and I've never experienced it in, to that degree, anywhere else.

01:17:04And do you think that this type of compass misbehaviour

01:17:07adds to the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle?

01:17:10I think it could, because I'm still here standing telling the story,

01:17:13which is, you know, so it hasn't been that bad.

01:17:15But, you know, these things disappearing and stuff,

01:17:18I mean, something's going wrong.

01:17:20Something is going wrong.

01:17:22Just what it is, I can't speculate.

01:17:27A possible explanation for compass anomalies off Bermuda

01:17:31could lie deep beneath the island itself.

01:17:35Nick Hutchings, a deep-sea mineral prospector,

01:17:38knows of a geological clue

01:17:40suggesting hidden natural forces might be at work in the Bermuda Triangle.

01:17:45Nick, hi. How are you doing?

01:17:47Good, thank you. Nice to meet you.

01:17:49So what is unusual about the geology of Bermuda, then, Nick?

01:17:53Well, Bermuda's basically a seamount.

01:17:56It's an underwater volcano.

01:17:58And 30 million years ago,

01:18:00it would have been sticking up another 3,000 feet above sea level.

01:18:04All of that now has eroded away,

01:18:06and what we're left with is just the top of an old volcano

01:18:11with a little coral island.

01:18:13And what do you know about what's underneath, then?

01:18:16Well, we have a few core samples.

01:18:19One of the interesting things we found

01:18:21was that there's quite a bit of magnetite in it.

01:18:24It is the most magnetic naturally occurring material on Earth.

01:18:30Estimates put the underlying rock over 30 metres below Bermuda

01:18:35as containing around 15% magnetite, similar to this sample.

01:18:40But could it affect ships' compasses?

01:18:42We can do an experiment, if you like. I have a compass with me.

01:18:45OK, I'm going to put this down as our seabed.

01:18:50It has a very noticeable effect on the compass.

01:18:53Yeah, and that would throw you right off, wouldn't it?

01:18:56Oh, yeah, that would be a problem.

01:18:58And you can just imagine the ancient mariners

01:19:01sailing past Bermuda, and that would be very disconcerting.

01:19:04Yeah.

01:19:05And you can see how the idea of a Bermuda Triangle

01:19:08would develop from that kind of experience.

01:19:14The eroded material from the top of the ancient volcano

01:19:17was gradually washed out to sea,

01:19:19but remnants of it can still be seen on Bermuda's beaches

01:19:23as flecks of dark-coloured sand.

01:19:27So this is probably our best example.

01:19:30We have black sand here,

01:19:32which is very different from the surrounding white sand.

01:19:35The white sand is coral, and the black sand is volcanic.

01:19:39These tiny grains of sand don't look much,

01:19:42but out at sea, there's rather a lot more.

01:19:46Offshore, we have a layer of these heavy mineral sands

01:19:50that is 500 feet thick.

01:19:53500 feet? Of that?

01:19:55500 feet thick.

01:19:56Big old chunk of magnetite.

01:19:58It is.

01:19:59Geologists reckon that there's maybe 400 to 500 feet

01:20:03and there's maybe 450 to 500 billion tonnes of magnetite

01:20:08surrounding Bermuda.

01:20:10So a huge amount of magnetic material around Bermuda, then?

01:20:13There is, yes.

01:20:14And that could well have an effect on compasses.

01:20:17You could make the argument that it could have an effect.

01:20:20There certainly are magnetic anomalies around Bermuda,

01:20:23and we see that in the Admiralty chart and the US Navy charts,

01:20:26and that could be part of the reason for it.

01:20:30So compass anomalies that could lead ships astray

01:20:34might be explained by magnetic forces coming from the seabed.

01:20:43Coming up, we'll dive deep into the triangle

01:20:46and reveal its mysterious uncharted depths.

01:20:50And I find out how the rocks of Bermuda can lead sailors to their deaths.

01:20:55We're completely encircled, almost like a moat around a castle,

01:20:58by these elements that just literally break your ship to pieces.

01:21:05The island of Bermuda is surrounded by treacherous submerged reefs.

01:21:12Paradise for divers.

01:21:16But since the island's discovery in 1505,

01:21:20they've made it a world hotspot for shipwrecks.

01:21:24From small sailing boats to large merchant ships, even warships,

01:21:28Bermuda has claimed hundreds of vessels over the centuries.

01:21:32In the first 300 years after its discovery,

01:21:34it was known as a veritable graveyard for ships.

01:21:39And to this day, ships can fall victim to the island's reefs.

01:21:44May 2015.

01:21:46The giant cruise liner Norwegian Dawn suffered sudden steering loss

01:21:51while leaving Bermuda, running right into a rocky reef.

01:21:57The boat starts listing back and forth,

01:22:01and then all of a sudden we just stop,

01:22:04and we're hitting a reef.

01:22:07So, we're not sinking, I don't think, at this point.

01:22:11Yeah.

01:22:12Yeah.

01:22:16As you all have noticed, we are on the reef.

01:22:19The forward part of the ship is on the reef.

01:22:22We lost steering, and we couldn't keep the course.

01:22:26So, we're on the reef.

01:22:28We're on the reef.

01:22:30We're on the reef.

01:22:32We're on the reef.

01:22:34And we couldn't keep the course.

01:22:39The accident was attributed to faulty electrical generators

01:22:43shutting down the ship's propulsion,

01:22:45allowing it to veer off course.

01:22:48Philippe.

01:22:50Oh, hey.

01:22:51So, what are these coral reefs like close up?

01:22:55Great to see you again.

01:22:56Great to see you again, too.

01:22:57Shall we?

01:22:58Yeah, let's go.

01:23:00Philippe Rougeur, Bermuda's custodian of historic wrecks,

01:23:04is going to show me.

01:23:12With 300 wreck sites said to litter the island,

01:23:16Philippe estimates around 70% of these vessels

01:23:19met their end on the reefs.

01:23:24We're completely encircled, almost like a moat around a castle,

01:23:27these elements that just literally break your ship to pieces.

01:23:35The reefs surrounding Bermuda

01:23:37are dotted with unusual and extremely hazardous formations

01:23:41called breakers.

01:23:43Flat, rocky obstacles rising sharply from the sea bottom.

01:23:48You're encountering these very particular reef systems

01:23:51called these breakers that come right to the surface.

01:23:54So, you can be in 40 feet of water,

01:23:56and all of a sudden you're encountering something

01:23:58that is literally right at the surface.

01:24:00And they're exceptionally hard.

01:24:05These jagged, rocky breakers are actually organic in origin,

01:24:10formed of the crusty debris of tiny marine organisms

01:24:14and the shells of a kind of sea snail that accumulate over the ages.

01:24:20Over time, it cements together with the sand and things that fill the voids,

01:24:24and it creates what the scientists have called a marbleite structure.

01:24:27It almost has the strength and density of marble.

01:24:31And it's actually growing.

01:24:33So, that's one of the big questions.

01:24:34It's still growing.

01:24:35It's still growing, exactly.

01:24:36That process, that sort of formation process,

01:24:38is constantly happening and has kept up

01:24:40with sea level rise over the past 10,000 years.

01:24:44Incredibly hard to see,

01:24:47Incredibly hard to spot as well,

01:24:49because they come out of nowhere.

01:24:51That's the irony of it.

01:24:52Today we're out here on a rough day,

01:24:53and so that one is quite clear.

01:24:55But there's another three we call the hidden breakers over there.

01:24:58Those will be sitting just below the surface.

01:25:00You hit one of those things,

01:25:02that's the beginning of your nightmare.

01:25:04Even steel ships, if they encounter one of these things,

01:25:06they're going to get torn apart.

01:25:12To the mariners of the 17th and 18th centuries,

01:25:15these perilous structures helped earn Bermuda

01:25:18a reputation as the Isle of Devils.

01:25:24You can just imagine that Isle of Devils notion

01:25:26kind of grows out of this fear of approaching this island

01:25:30that is literally encircled by a bastion

01:25:32of kind of things that break the surface

01:25:34and are just waiting to break your ships.

01:25:36And this all feeds into the reputation of the Bermuda Triangle.

01:25:39Absolutely.

01:25:40And so even with GPS, like modern navigation systems,

01:25:44still treacherous?

01:25:46You can have, you know, a satellite GPS system,

01:25:48but still to this day people accidentally bump into a breaker.

01:25:51If your GPS is 15, 20 feet out of range,

01:25:53you can be on top of one as easily as you can be next to one.

01:26:01The shallow sea off Bermuda soon gives way to water that's so deep

01:26:06a sinking vessel could vanish completely.

01:26:11Below the surface,

01:26:13the vast ancient volcano Bermuda sits on top of is revealed.

01:26:19Its sheer sides plunge 2,000 metres to the ocean floor

01:26:24in near vertical slopes,

01:26:27alongside several other volcanoes from the same era.

01:26:33Until recently, no human had descended far into these dark depths.

01:26:39But an expedition in 2016 set out to see what lies beneath.

01:26:46Chris Fluke was one of an intrepid few to make the trip down.

01:26:51We had two submarines that went down,

01:26:53and basically one did surveys and the other one picked up organisms

01:26:56so that we could actually figure out what's down there for the first time ever.

01:27:01The mission, run by Marine Research Institute Nekton,

01:27:05made 70 dives down the flanks of the undersea volcanoes.

01:27:16Sinking to a place where ships and aircraft could have vanished without trace,

01:27:21the scientists found themselves in a mysterious new realm.

01:27:36In this unexplored part of the Bermuda Triangle,

01:27:40they found dozens of new algae species.

01:27:46New crustaceans were observed, including tiny shrimp-like creatures.

01:27:54And never-before-seen wire corals, up to two metres high.

01:28:00The number of new discoveries highlights the genuine scientific mystery

01:28:05of the Bermuda Triangle's depths.

01:28:09They found over 100 new species that have never been catalogued by science.

01:28:13And that's just from one set of dives here.

01:28:16We really have no idea of what's going on down there.

01:28:22It's plain to see how a sinking ship could disappear down here,

01:28:26among the towering undersea landscape.

01:28:32For years I've been working on the ocean here,

01:28:35so to be able to see the slope of Bermuda for the first time,

01:28:39I mean, just the wonder of that just blows you away.

01:28:42There's such a vastness to it.

01:28:46These subsea mountains are a cornerstone of the Bermuda Triangle.

01:28:51But the submersible couldn't go all the way down.

01:28:56So how much further would you have had to go down to get to the seabed?

01:28:59We were about a sixth of the way to the bottom.

01:29:02OK, so a way.

01:29:04A long ways down. Pressure is the limiting thing.

01:29:07Every 33 feet you go down, you're adding an atmosphere of pressure.

01:29:11So we stand here on the surface, we're at one atmosphere.

01:29:14When you go to 33 feet, you're at two atmospheres.

01:29:1666 feet, you're at three atmospheres.

01:29:18And that pressure quickly builds up.

01:29:21So when you're down 1,000 feet,

01:29:23the ball actually shrinks an eighth of an inch.

01:29:26So as you're going down... Because of the pressure. Yes.

01:29:29You hear the plate that your feet are on. Tink, tink, tink.

01:29:32It's a little unnerving.

01:29:35The pressure, if you were out of the sub, it would crush you.

01:29:41A sinking ship reaching these depths

01:29:44will be overwhelmed by the pressure.

01:29:48When a vessel goes down,

01:29:51it can happen alarmingly fast.

01:29:54Within minutes, it can be on the seabed.

01:29:58Nearly 1,000 miles south of Bermuda,

01:30:01the ocean floor becomes more than twice as deep.

01:30:06Another geological cornerstone of the Bermuda Triangle,

01:30:09the ocean floor.

01:30:12The ocean floor is one of the most important

01:30:15geological structures in the world.

01:30:18It's the largest in the world.

01:30:21It's the largest in the world.

01:30:24Another geological cornerstone of the Bermuda Triangle

01:30:27is the Puerto Rico Trench.

01:30:32To tell me more, I'm meeting ocean scientist Dr Simon Boxall.

01:30:38The deepest part of the Puerto Rican Trench

01:30:41is nearly 9km, 9,000m deep.

01:30:44We're looking at hiding, quite comfortably,

01:30:47eight or ten Grand Canyons into the Puerto Rican Trench itself.

01:30:50You could even hide Everest into that Puerto Rican Trench.

01:30:54The Puerto Rico Trench is the deepest part of the Atlantic.

01:30:59Making it perhaps little wonder

01:31:02ships and aircraft go missing forever in the Bermuda Triangle.

01:31:08So is it a bit of a fool's errand

01:31:11to try and search for stuff that is lost at sea?

01:31:14If you know exactly where it's gone down, then it's worth trying.

01:31:17But you need to know really within a few miles or a few kilometres

01:31:20of where it's gone down.

01:31:23The Bermuda Triangle is a soft silt,

01:31:26and so anything that lands on the seabed

01:31:29quite rapidly can sink into that silt and be completely hidden from view.

01:31:32So you may never find anything however long you search for it.

01:31:36Sonar scanning is the only feasible way

01:31:39to survey the deep ocean floor.

01:31:42But to completely cover the Bermuda Triangle

01:31:45would be a project of immense scale that would cost billions.

01:31:49Trying to explore that area

01:31:52would take about 25 years of continuous work

01:31:55trying to map the seafloor in enough detail

01:31:58to pick up features like boats and planes on the seabed.

01:32:03The depths of the Triangle remain to a great extent unknown,

01:32:08feeding the myths and legends surrounding the region.

01:32:13We've found the most extraordinary thing about the Bermuda Triangle

01:32:16is what we don't know about it.

01:32:19And that's not alien abductions or strange rips in time,

01:32:22but the ocean itself.

01:32:25The last great mystery where there are still scientific secrets

01:32:28waiting to be uncovered.

01:32:31From the Bermuda Triangle, goodbye.

01:32:42Revealing the brutal race to claim the secret

01:32:45hidden in Tutankhamun's eerie tomb.

01:32:48Into the Valley of the Kings with Dan Snow

01:32:51is streaming now on My5.

01:32:54Next tonight, 10 mistakes of the 737 MAX.

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