How the search for a downed plane led to a fallen space shuttle and vice versa

November 22, 2022

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Within the wake of the 1986 space shuttle Challenger tragedy, a serious search and salvage effort was organized to seek out the sunken wreckage of the fallen NASA spacecraft. In the midst of six months, 187 items of the shuttle have been recognized and all however 20 have 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 regarded as 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 considered one of 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 have been misplaced with out clarification.

Extra analysis, although, decided that the Avenger was not from “Flight 19,” however in a means, 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 because the catastrophe 36 years in the past. The divers didn’t got down to discover spacecraft particles, however quite have 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 generally occurs. We exit searching for one factor and we stumble throughout one thing else,” mentioned 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.

Wreck diver Jimmy Gadomski and underwater explorer and marine biologist Mike Barnette head out on a dive boat to research an underwater website which seems to be a twenty-foot phase of the fallen space shuttle Challenger. (Picture credit score: The Historical past Channel)

The six-part sequence is targeted 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 mentioned 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 underneath 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,” mentioned historian David O’Keefe, who joins Barnette on the search.

Just like the search, the episode (“The Massive 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 collect 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 satisfy 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 mentioned on the present.

“We’re within the enterprise of discovery and exploration. I believe [this find] goes to attach lots of people again to the aim of why we fly rockets,” Cianelli mentioned. “So maybe that is the superb legacy of Challenger —it’s not only a previous occasion that now could be resting on the underside of the ocean, but it surely’s to alter the long run for the higher.”

“The Massive 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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