And a good Saturday morning to you, Nancy, though I guess it's afternoon now. Do I have any ideas? Well, a month earlier would have put it around Halloween, which makes me think of something like a zombie uprising. On the other hand enduring phenomenon makes me think of something weather-related, and is probably more likely.

Will await clues.

TM

Hmmmmmm, clues please.

Annette

Well, let's see - things that have been blamed include, but are not limited to: pyramids and lost civilizations.

Nancy.

Yes, clues please, although the idea of a zombie uprising is compelling.

Cynthia

I have not heard zombies blamed, but since it is still unexplained - who knows??!! Some have referred to the weather patterns in this area as a cause, and still others say there is not phenomenon, only sloppy reporting. Still other believe in a magical, mystical source.

Nancy.

It sounds kind of Bermuda triangle-ish. I guess we have to rule out the Bermuda triangle itself, since, to the best of my knowledge, no pyramids or civilizations have ever been lost there.

TM

You wouldn't blame the loss on the lost, would you, TM?

Nancy.

Hmmm. Cryptic.

TM

Sorry to be gone so long, not that the delay helps me any! I have been organizing and cleaning kitchen drawers and cabinets. The ones I have finished look really good (pared down the spices-who needs four jars of cilantro anyway-actually, I never use it, so out they went!).

So, I thought I would be so late that there would be enough clues to give it to me. Alas, once again I am stumped. Bermuda triangle sounds good to me. I tend to think it must have to do with oceans somehow. No reason for that though. ;)
Cynthia

Will I need to don my woo-woo hat for this answer? :-)

TM

Ahh, quite possibly, though I think you have divined the source. Did I ever tell you I love the TV show Supernatural??

Nancy.

Bermuda Triangle reminds me of a search where even part of the search party disappeared.

27 men were lost in the Burmuda Triangle

I'll go along with the Bermuda Triangle, can't come up with anything else.

Annette

I think this is referring to the flight of airplanes that went missing. When search planes went into the area one of them disappeared as well. Don't remember any other details.

I vaguely remember that a large ship disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle with hundreds aboard. Also know many other planes and ships/boats have been lost in the area. One theory was magnetic waves disrupt navigation.

Well, all right then. I guess I'm going with the Bermuda triangle too. Looking forward to hearing the connection to the pyramids and ancient civilizations.

TM

Well, yes, I was looking for the Bermuda Triangle, and you all got there - no one lost, I hope? Welcome jackier123 - nice to 'see' you here!!

On December 5th, at 2:10 p.m., five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 take off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-hour training mission. Flight 19 was scheduled to take them due east for 120 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 120-mile leg that would return them to the naval base. They never returned.
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Two hours after the flight began, the leader of the squadron, who had been flying in the area for more than six months, reported that his compass and back-up compass had failed and that his position was unknown. The other planes experienced similar instrument malfunctions. Radio facilities on land were contacted to find the location of the lost squadron, but none were successful. After two more hours of confused messages from the fliers, a distorted radio transmission from the squadron leader was heard at 6:20 p.m., apparently calling for his men to prepare to ditch their aircraft simultaneously because of lack of fuel.
A PBY Catalina left after 18:00 to search for Flight 19 and guide them back if they could be located. After dark, two PBM Mariner seaplanes originally scheduled for their own training flights were diverted to perform square pattern searches in the area west of 29°N 79°W. PBM-5 BuNo 59225 took off at 19:27 from Banana River Naval Air Station (now Patrick Air Force Base), called in a routine radio message at 19:30 and was never heard from again.
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At 21.15, the tanker SS Gaines Mills reported it had observed flames from an apparent explosion leaping 100 ft (30 m) high and burning for 10 minutes, at position 28.59°N 80.25°W. Captain Shonna Stanley reported unsuccessfully searching for survivors through a pool of oil. The escort carrier USS Solomons also reported losing radar contact with an aircraft at the same position and time.
When Christopher Columbus sailed through the area on his first voyage to the New World, he reported that a great flame of fire (probably a meteor) crashed into the sea one night and that a strange light appeared in the distance a few weeks later. He also wrote about erratic compass readings, perhaps because at that time a sliver of the Bermuda Triangle was one of the few places on Earth where true north and magnetic north lined up.
After gaining widespread fame as the first person to sail solo around the globe, Joshua Slocum disappeared on a 1909 voyage from Martha’s Vineyard to South America. Though it’s unclear exactly what happened, many sources later attributed his death to the Bermuda Triangle.
By the time author Vincent Gaddis coined the phrase “Bermuda Triangle” in a 1964 magazine article, additional mysterious accidents had occurred in the area, including three passenger planes that went down despite having just sent “all’s well” messages. Charles Berlitz, whose grandfather founded the Berlitz language schools, stoked the legend even further in 1974 with a sensational bestseller about the legend. Since then, scores of fellow paranormal writers have blamed the triangle’s supposed lethalness on everything from aliens, Atlantis and sea monsters to time warps and reverse gravity fields, whereas more scientifically minded theorists have pointed to magnetic anomalies, waterspouts or huge eruptions of methane gas from the ocean floor.
In all probability, however, there is no single theory that solves the mystery. As one skeptic put it, trying to find a common cause for every Bermuda Triangle disappearance is no more logical than trying to find a common cause for every automobile accident in Arizona.

And those navy PBM's? Still missing!! In 1986, the wreckage of an Avenger was found off the Florida coast during the search for the wreckage of the Space Shuttle Challenger. Aviation archaeologist Jon Myhre raised this wreck from the ocean floor in 1990. He mistakenly believed it was one of the missing planes.

In 1991, a treasure-hunting expedition led by Graham Hawkes announced that the wreckage of five Avengers had been discovered off the coast of Florida, but that tail numbers revealed they were not Flight 19. In 2004 a BBC documentary showed Hawkes returning with a new submersible 12 years later and identifying one of the planes by its bureau number (a clearly readable 23990) as a flight lost at sea on 9 October 1943, over two years before Flight 19 (its crew all survived), but he was unable to definitively identify the other planes; the documentary concluded that "Despite the odds, they are just a random collection of accidents that came to rest in the same place 12 miles from home." Records showed training accidents between 1942 and 1945 accounted for the loss of 95 aviation personnel from NAS Fort Lauderdale In 1992, another expedition located scattered debris on the ocean floor, but nothing could be identified. In the last decade, searchers have been expanding their area to include farther east, into the Atlantic Ocean, but the remains of Flight 19 have still never been confirmed found.
And one weird, supernatural footnote: Those PBM's should have had 14 men on board, not 13 (hmmmm). The airman in question, Marine Corporal Allan Kosnar, had been given special permission not to fly that day because he had had a strong premonition of danger.

So, for everyone:

Thanks for playing, and see you all next week!!

Nancy.

Definitely a fascinating and spine-tingling mystery. I love the mysteries of the world. Fun question and great read!

Cynthia

Thanks for the stars, Nancy. Interesting stuff.

TM

Thanks for this info, Nancy. Amazing that so many aircraft in the same immediate area may not have any connection other than being lost training flights.

A crashed alien ship sounds romantic, if unlikely.

I still think it's spooky.

Annette