Within the wake of the 1986 space shuttle Challenger tragedy, a significant search and salvage effort was organized to seek out the sunken wreckage of the fallen NASA spacecraft. In the middle of six months, 187 items of the shuttle had been recognized and all however 20 had been raised off the ocean flooring.
In searching for Challenger (opens in new tab), the restoration groups additionally discovered the websites of 13 shipwrecks, 13 particles fields from different rocket launches and two downed plane. Among the many latter was the stays of what was initially considered a World Struggle II-era Douglas DC-3 however was later recognized to be a Grumman TBF Avenger.
That discovery led to the plane being raised, because it was believed to be one among 5 such torpedo bombers that disappeared within the so-called Bermuda Triangle on Dec. 5, 1945. Code named “Flight 19,” all 5 plane and their 14 crewmen had been misplaced with out clarification.
Extra analysis, although, decided that the Avenger was not from “Flight 19,” however in a approach, historical past has now repeated itself — solely in reverse.
As revealed earlier this month, a Historical past Channel documentary workforce found one of many largest pieces of the space shuttle Challenger (opens in new tab) to be discovered for the reason that catastrophe 36 years in the past. The divers didn’t got down to discover spacecraft particles, however relatively had been searching for the wreck of a Martin PBM Mariner flying boat that additionally went lacking on Dec. 5, 1945.
The Mariner and its 13 member crew disappeared whereas trying to find Flight 19.
“That typically occurs. We exit searching for one factor and we stumble throughout one thing else,” stated underwater explorer Mike Barnette, who led the workforce that made the Challenger discovery, within the first episode of “The Bermuda Triangle: Into Cursed Waters (opens in new tab),” premiering on Tuesday (Nov. 22) on The Historical past Channel.
The six-part sequence is concentrated on the lore and artifacts that may be present in and across the Bermuda Triangle, the loosely-defined area certain by Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico the place plane and ships have been stated to mysteriously disappear. The location the place Barnette and his colleagues discovered the massive piece of Challenger was not close to the Bermuda Triangle, however was below the flight path of the Mariner off the coast of Cape Canaveral.
“[Flight 19] is the primary incident that basically fixated the general public’s consideration on what we might now name the Bermuda Triangle. 5 planes that get misplaced, you get one other one which goes out and all of them disappear. Twenty-seven males are by no means seen once more,” stated historian David O’Keefe, who joins Barnette on the search.
Just like the search, the episode (“The Huge Discover”) veers away from the Bermuda Triangle as soon as they arrive throughout the piece from Challenger. Viewers see the preliminary discovery and a follow-up dive to assemble the imagery wanted to make the identification. The workforce consults with former astronaut Bruce Melnick after which heads off to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to fulfill with Mike Cianelli, program supervisor of the Apollo, Challenger and Columbia Lessons Learned Program (opens in new tab).
“We’re dredging up history of a really tragic event (opens in new tab). So are they going to be upset at us? I do not know the place we stand with them,” Barnette stated on the present.
“We’re within the enterprise of discovery and exploration. I feel [this find] goes to attach lots of people again to the aim of why we fly rockets,” Cianelli stated. “So maybe that is the wonderful legacy of Challenger —it’s not only a previous occasion that now’s resting on the underside of the ocean, nevertheless it’s to vary the longer term for the higher.”
“The Huge Discover,” the primary episode of “The Bermuda Triangle: Into Cursed Waters” premieres on The Historical past Channel on Tuesday, Nov. 22 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
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