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On this day:
STAR TIGER
On January 30, 1948, the Tudor aircraft Star Tiger and its twenty-nine passengers suddenly went missing in midflight. It was the first of three unexplained disappearances within a year that gave the Bermuda Triangle its notorious reputation.
Shortly before their estimated arrival in Bermuda, Robert Tuck, the experienced radio operator on the Star Tiger, relayed information about the planes position to the highly qualified Captain B. W. McMillian. They were right on course and would arrive on schedule. Their arrival time came and went. The Star Tiger was never heard from again. An intensive search revealed no sign of the craft; no debris, oil slicks, wreckage, or passengers were ever found, in spite of searches in the craft's last known location.
In order to avoid the typically strong headwinds, Star Tiger had been traveling at around 2,000 feet when it vanished. No structural failure would have caused any problems at that altitude because there would have been no cabin-pressure loss. It was concluded that the Star Tiger could not have fallen into the sea due to being deprived of its radio, direction, or fuel. Prevailing winds would have brought the Star Tiger within thirty miles of Bermuda even if two of her four engines had failed, and it was highly improbable that the plane lost three engines. The weather was stable and the visibility clear, and there were no electrical storms. The investigative report closed by stating that no more baffling problem had ever been presented for investigation.
Text from: Almanac of the Infamous, the Incredible, and the Ignored by Juanita Rose Violins, published by Weiser Books, 2009
El Triángulo de las Bermudas, ¿Ciencia, ficción o leyenda?
El Triángulo de las Bermudas, ¿Ciencia, ficción o leyenda? #aperturaintelectual #vmrfaintelectual @victormanrf @Victor M. Reyes Ferriz @vicmanrf @victormrferriz Víctor Manuel Reyes Ferriz
04 DE ABRIL DE 2023 El Triángulo de las Bermudas, ¿Ciencia, ficción o leyenda? POR: VÍCTOR MANUEL REYES FERRIZ Desde hace muchos años hemos escuchado historias, relatos o leyendas, sobre el “misterioso” Triángulo de las Bermudas; de hecho, existen libros publicados que relatan de propia voz de personas que han sufrido las consecuencias de esta parte del planeta que van desde perder el rumbo…
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Star Tiger (registration G-AHNP) was an Avro Tudor IV passenger aircraft owned and operated by British South American Airways (BSAA) which disappeared without a trace over the Atlantic Ocean while on a flight between Santa Maria in the Azores and Bermuda in the early morning of 30 January 1948. The loss of the aircraft along with that of BSAA Avro Tudor Star Ariel in 1949 remains unsolved, with the resulting speculation helping to develop the Bermuda Triangle legend.
As soon as it was learned that the Star Tiger had been lost, BSAA's remaining Avro Tudors were grounded by Britain's Minister of Civil Aviation. They were permitted to carry cargo rather than passengers a few weeks later, but had to fly from Santa Maria to Bermuda via Newfoundland, a diversion that reduced the longest overwater leg by 250 mi (400 km).
Although Avro's managing director, Sir Roy Dobson, and Don Bennett of BSAA both publicly rejected any implication that the aircraft had been faulty, the minister decided that a judicial investigation ("Court of Investigation") into the cause of the incident was necessary, the first such since the loss of the airship R101 in 1930. Bennett objected so strongly to this that BSAA fired him.
Lord Macmillan was appointed to head the investigation, assisted by two assessors in the form of a professor of aviation from the University of London and the chief pilot of British European Airways. Professor Arnold Hall of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was appointed as an assessor. Other persons at the inquiry included Quentin Hogg QC, John Donaldson QC, and Joseph Orrell.
The investigation, which was held in public at Church House, Westminster, opened on 12 April 1948 and lasted 11 days. On 21 August it presented its report to Lord Pakenham, who had succeeded Lord Nathan of Churt as Minister of Civil Aviation. The report emphasised that the crew of the Star Tiger were highly experienced, and found "want of care and attention to detail" in the flight plan, but nothing serious enough to explain the accident.
The inquiry reported in conclusion:
"...In the complete absence of any reliable evidence as to either the nature or the cause of the accident of Star Tiger the Court has not been able to do more than suggest possibilities, none of which reaches the level even of probability. .... What happened in this case will never be known and the fate of Star Tiger must remain an unsolved mystery."
Among the passengers was Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham, a hero of World War II, formerly Air Officer Commander-in-Chief, 2nd Tactical Air Force during the Battle of Normandy. Coningham's death appeared on the front page of The New York Times on 31 January along with the news of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and the death of Orville Wright.
If the Star Tiger's radio had failed shortly after 03:15, her captain and navigator would have been faced with the task of locating a small group of islands, measuring 22 mi (35 km) from northeast to southwest covering a total area of 20 sq mi (52 km2), and equipped with powerful lights that were visible from about 30 mi (48 km) at the aircraft's assumed altitude. It was at that time about 340 mi (550 km) from the islands with enough fuel for 31⁄2 hours' flying time. Having received an accurate bearing, McMillan's task of making landfall was not in itself difficult, except that he was acutely aware of the fact that there was no alternative airport: the nearest point on the American mainland was Cape Hatteras, 580 mi (930 km) to the west, and well beyond the Star Tiger's range. However, there was no evidence to suggest that radio failure or navigational error were responsible for the disaster.
As for engine failure, the aircraft could easily have reached Bermuda on two engines. Its lack of altitude, however, would have made any handling problem more dangerous. The altitude chosen by the Star Tiger and the Lancastrian was much lower than usual, and no previous BSAA flight had flown so low for so long. Wind forecasts were unreliable throughout the journey, especially lower; consequently, a sudden strong gust could have abruptly plunged the aircraft into the sea, or inattention on the part of the crew coupled with a faulty altimeter could have allowed it to dive gently into the sea, giving the radio operator no chance to transmit a distress signal. One notable discrepancy was that although the planned cruising altitude was 2,000 feet, every position report transmitted by Star Tiger gave the height as 20,000 feet. Since 20,000 feet was a more typical cruising altitude for this route, it is possible the crew forgot they were flying at only 2,000 feet and simply flew the aircraft into the sea during the descent phase. The crew may have been fatigued after the long flight, and contemporary altimeters were prone to misreading of the thousand-foot level. The aircraft was however also fitted with a radio altimeter.
Twice before on similar flights the Star Tiger had been forced to divert to Gander, Newfoundland and just two months previously another Tudor IV had found itself landing with less than 100 imp gal (450 l; 120 US gal) of fuel left; less than the amount by which the Star Tiger was overloaded.
The fuel cocks for the reserve tanks were in the passenger compartment and, if they were not already on, to switch to reserve one of the crew would have to go aft. There might have been insufficient time given the height at which they were flying.
During the inquiry Bennett suggested both the Star Tiger and Star Ariel had been sabotaged. He also claimed that the Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, had ordered all inquiries into the incidents to be abandoned. A more recent theory is that the loss of fuel could have contributed to the plane's disappearance.
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