Tag: mysterious disappearances

Nuclear Scientists to Examine Potential Earhart Evidence for New Clues

A pair of nuclear scientists in Pennsylvania is applying their expertise to a piece of metal that may have come from Amelia Earhart’s doomed aircraft in an attempt to glean new insights into the legendary pilot’s disappearance. Director of the Penn State Radiation Science and Engineering Center, Daniel Beck reportedly had his interest piqued when he saw a cable TV documentary on the case last year and, on the program, they showcased some intriguing potential debris from the aviatrix’s plane and mused that perhaps someday modern science could unlock clues hidden in the material. “I realized that technology exists,” he recalled, “I work with it every day.”

With that in mind, Beck connected with Earhart researchers who were intrigued by the possibility that neutron radiography could detect critical details in the metal that might otherwise not be visible. His colleague Kenan Unlu, who is working with him on the project, explained that scanning the piece with a neutron beam may reveal “paint or writing or a serial number” that have been largely worn away over time to the point that they can’t be seen with the naked eye. Additionally, the duo subjected the metal to a “neutron activation analysis,” which “helps precisely identify the make-up of material” down to the “parts-per-billion level.”

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Mysterious Ship Carrying 20 Lost in the Bermuda Triangle

When a ship carrying 20 people disappears in the Bermuda Triangle, it makes the mainstream news. When details about the ship and the passengers are concealed from the public, it’s generally assumed the boat was trafficking in drugs or carrying people attempting to escape from their home country and enter the U.S. illegally. When the ship is not found and the search is called off, it also makes the mainstream media. When the weather was clear, no explanations are given by the Coast Guard or other search agencies, and the mainstream media moves on to other news, that’s when disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle become mysterious. We’ve reached that point with a 29-foot (9-meter) Mako Cuddy Cabin vessel with 20 people onboard that left Bimini in the Bahamas on 12/28/20 but never arrived at its destination — Lake Worth, Florida. That area is the Florida corner of infamous Bermuda Triangle – long the home of missing boats and planes. What happened to this one and why is there so little information about it?

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Mysteries Of Flight: What Happened To Disappearing Boeing 727

Shortly before sunset on May 25, 2003, air traffic control crews at the Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport in Angola noticed something quite peculiar. A Boeing 727-223, tail number N844AA, was taxiing erratically onto one of the runways. No attempts at contact with the tower were being made, and the aircraft departed southwest over the Atlantic Ocean with all lights off. The plane in question was unpainted silver, with red, white and blue stripes, and had recently been filled with 14,000 gallons of fuel, enough to travel up to 1,500 miles.

At the time of its disappearance, 844AA was being leased to a man named Keith Irwin. Irwin procured the aircraft in February of 2002 from a Florida-based aerospace company, owned by Maury Joseph, for use in delivering diesel fuel to diamond mines in Angola. But Irwin only used the plane for a brief time and quickly defaulted on his payments. Joseph eventually hired a certified aircraft mechanic, flight engineer and private pilot named Ben Charles Padilla to return the 727, now in disrepair, to a flight-safe condition so it could be repossessed. He scheduled an Air Gemini crew to fly it out on May 26, 2003, but when they arrived, they discovered the aircraft was already gone. 

Padilla and John Mikel Mutantu, a mechanic from the Republic of the Congo, were last seen boarding the plane. Since the incident took place on the heels of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. intelligence community went on high alert, searching for the aircraft across multiple countries, without result. It would seem 844AA and its crew had disappeared.

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