So the flight I'm booked on has a connection in Dusseldorf, which I wasn't too stressed about, even though it adds extra time. Until British Airways failed miserably at customer service.
The first flight is with Airberlin. I asked them about extra baggage (comes with moving countries) and they said there wouldn't be an issue, just book it and pay. But the issue was that they had no idea if this would go through in the connection. No idea.
Great. And British Airways? Won't answers questions through email and as an alternative only leave an automated phone service. Get some sense of whose paying your salaries, guys! It comes from the customers on the flights. Customer service therefore? Not a bad idea.
So I'm sat waiting for the laundry man and the delivery guy (it's raining: for once I have an excuse) and to pass the time I'm watching one of my favorite channels. Sad but true, as much as I like the Bravo, Chiller, TBS type channels (and I definitely do), I much prefer the Discovery Channel and the History Channel. Today, it is the latter and a show called 'Decoding The Past' is on, with the particular episode being based on The Bermuda Triangle.
Now I hate to admit it but I have a vague obsession with the Bermuda Triangle. I'd love to know what the deal is. In 1945, six planes went entirely missing (Flight 19). Literally, they just disappeared. At first they blamed Taylor, the captain, but then revoked this erroneous blame later. Flight 19 has never been solved. Nobody knows where it went. 27 men were lost. The wreckage remains unfound.
Something is awry in this area. Maybe it's just the weather but what happens to the wrecks in this case? Maybe its something to do with the water acidity, in which case why do planes crash/disappear in the first place. There's of course the supernatural explanations: Atlantis, aliens, time passages. As much as I'm not so egotistical to believe humans are the only intelligent life in the cosmos I'm not sure I can pin this one on aliens.Then again, what could it be?
The show suggests Flight 19 was victim to another problem: Captain Taylor didn't want to fly that day, as he felt unwell. Flight 19 was practicing low level bombing. They were using dead reckoning flight navigation in the training exercise, which did not rely on ground navigation. The wind could therefore push them off of their estimates.
During the exercise, Taylor believed they had taken a wrong turn. His compasses had then gone out. They were over land but it was broken. Taylor was extraordinarily disorientated. He believed they were over Florida Keys. In fact, contemporary reports suggest they were flying over the Bahamas. At this point he also began to refer to himself as MT-28 instead of his actual title FT-28. This suggests mental incapacity on the day, supported by the sickness he had earlier claimed.The show then suggests that the students would have followed his directions.
This is the only thing I have a major problem with. Why would 5 other fairly experienced students follow someone in a nose dive. Obviously this is not right. The show suggests they all decided to land together and that this is how it would work in formation flying in the military.I know the military is very strict and from the military people I've met, I can see the evidence that they often blindly follow orders but really, into the ocean? That seems suspicious to me. I will be interested to see if the Bermuda Triangle mysteries are ever solved to everyone's satisfaction but for now, I don't think I'll be jumping to get on any boats or planes in that area.
