1 00:00:02,670 --> 00:00:04,586 William shatner: A transnational flight 2 00:00:04,672 --> 00:00:06,547 vanishes into thin air. 3 00:00:06,632 --> 00:00:09,883 A legendary explorer is lost in the amazon jungle 4 00:00:09,969 --> 00:00:12,720 and is never seen again. 5 00:00:12,805 --> 00:00:15,305 And a notorious area in the north atlantic, 6 00:00:15,391 --> 00:00:17,850 where entire airplanes... 7 00:00:17,935 --> 00:00:19,852 Disappear. 8 00:00:22,314 --> 00:00:24,690 When we find out that someone is lost, 9 00:00:24,734 --> 00:00:26,734 we like to think that their disappearance 10 00:00:26,819 --> 00:00:29,236 has a rational explanation and that, at some point, 11 00:00:29,321 --> 00:00:31,488 they'll return. 12 00:00:31,574 --> 00:00:33,532 Hopefully safe and sound. 13 00:00:33,576 --> 00:00:35,534 But what happens when people don't return 14 00:00:35,578 --> 00:00:39,788 and the circumstances of their disappearance 15 00:00:39,874 --> 00:00:42,041 defy explanation? 16 00:00:44,545 --> 00:00:46,420 Well... 17 00:00:46,505 --> 00:00:49,131 That is what we'll try and find out. 18 00:00:49,216 --> 00:00:51,216 ♪ ♪ 19 00:01:11,363 --> 00:01:15,282 shatner: Malaysia airlines flight mh370 20 00:01:15,367 --> 00:01:18,619 prepares to depart from kuala lumpur international airport 21 00:01:18,704 --> 00:01:20,746 en route to beijing. 22 00:01:21,791 --> 00:01:24,458 On board are 227 passengers 23 00:01:24,543 --> 00:01:27,586 and a flight crew of 12. 24 00:01:44,897 --> 00:01:47,606 John nance: Malaysia 370 was a commercial flight. 25 00:01:47,691 --> 00:01:49,817 Malaysia airlines was a routine procedure, 26 00:01:49,902 --> 00:01:51,819 a routine flight, as we say. 27 00:01:51,904 --> 00:01:54,738 The flight path was more or less a straight line 28 00:01:54,824 --> 00:01:56,615 aimed from kuala lumpur 29 00:01:56,700 --> 00:01:59,326 out over the water in, uh, the south china sea 30 00:01:59,411 --> 00:02:01,912 to the main landfall of china. 31 00:02:01,956 --> 00:02:04,414 As far as everybody was concerned, 32 00:02:04,458 --> 00:02:06,333 it took off normally, 33 00:02:06,418 --> 00:02:09,628 was flying its route north towards china. 34 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:20,180 Tuttle: Then, all of a sudden, it turned off its communications 35 00:02:20,266 --> 00:02:22,474 and basically went dark. 36 00:02:22,518 --> 00:02:24,143 Shatner: At about 1:20 a.M., 37 00:02:24,186 --> 00:02:27,312 as the plane was flying over the south china sea, 38 00:02:27,398 --> 00:02:30,858 ground control lost all contact with the plane. 39 00:02:30,943 --> 00:02:33,986 One second, the 240-ton boeing aircraft 40 00:02:34,071 --> 00:02:35,904 was emitting a clear transponder signal 41 00:02:35,990 --> 00:02:37,614 to air traffic control, 42 00:02:37,658 --> 00:02:40,325 and then, mere moments later, 43 00:02:40,411 --> 00:02:42,286 there was nothing. 44 00:02:42,329 --> 00:02:44,663 The fact that the signal disappeared-- 45 00:02:44,748 --> 00:02:46,623 that was the unusual element. 46 00:02:46,709 --> 00:02:50,460 The fact that that transponder, which was chirping back 47 00:02:50,546 --> 00:02:52,796 every time it was hit by the radar beam 48 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:55,340 from air traffic control, went silent. 49 00:02:56,552 --> 00:02:58,302 Michio kaku: Flight controllers frantically tried 50 00:02:58,387 --> 00:03:00,053 to communicate with the airplane. 51 00:03:00,139 --> 00:03:02,681 Nothing. What happened? 52 00:03:02,766 --> 00:03:05,684 How can you lose a jetliner? 53 00:03:05,769 --> 00:03:07,769 How can it vanish in thin air? 54 00:03:09,064 --> 00:03:12,024 Shatner: Although the aircraft was lost on civilian radar screens, 55 00:03:12,109 --> 00:03:13,859 unbeknownst to ground control, 56 00:03:13,944 --> 00:03:17,362 military radar was able to track the plane for another hour. 57 00:03:17,448 --> 00:03:21,450 And what it detected was baffling. 58 00:03:21,535 --> 00:03:23,785 At that point, when the radios were turned off, 59 00:03:23,871 --> 00:03:27,539 the flight path did a 90-degree turn to the left, 60 00:03:27,583 --> 00:03:30,042 basically on a southwestern heading, 61 00:03:30,127 --> 00:03:32,377 and disappeared into the vastness 62 00:03:32,463 --> 00:03:34,046 of the indian ocean. 63 00:03:34,089 --> 00:03:36,256 We don't know the motivation for doing this. 64 00:03:36,342 --> 00:03:38,217 We just-- we don't know. 65 00:03:39,762 --> 00:03:43,055 Shatner: Around 2:20 a.M., radar contact with the plane 66 00:03:43,098 --> 00:03:45,891 was lost for good. 67 00:03:45,935 --> 00:03:49,519 By 7:20 a.M., one hour after it was scheduled to land, 68 00:03:49,605 --> 00:03:51,897 authorities in beijing realized 69 00:03:51,941 --> 00:03:56,735 that flight mh370 was not going to reach its destination. 70 00:03:56,820 --> 00:04:00,781 A search and rescue operation was immediately launched, 71 00:04:00,866 --> 00:04:05,077 and it quickly became the most expensive and difficult 72 00:04:05,162 --> 00:04:08,080 in aviation history. 73 00:04:08,123 --> 00:04:10,415 The initial search was basically, uh, 74 00:04:10,501 --> 00:04:13,794 aircraft searching for the immediate wreck, 75 00:04:13,879 --> 00:04:16,255 looking for any survivors 76 00:04:16,340 --> 00:04:19,883 or telltale wreckage on the sea surface. 77 00:04:19,927 --> 00:04:23,303 Unfortunately, after a while, things sink. 78 00:04:23,389 --> 00:04:25,305 Survivors aren't there, and you go from 79 00:04:25,391 --> 00:04:28,392 a search and rescue mission to a search and recovery mission. 80 00:04:30,020 --> 00:04:32,271 Shatner: When the wreckage did not turn up, 81 00:04:32,314 --> 00:04:34,648 officials were eventually forced to admit 82 00:04:34,733 --> 00:04:38,443 that all 239 people on board the flight... 83 00:04:38,529 --> 00:04:40,654 Had perished. 84 00:04:40,739 --> 00:04:44,074 We were clueless as to what could have caused this tragedy 85 00:04:44,118 --> 00:04:46,535 right under our noses 86 00:04:46,620 --> 00:04:49,288 in an era when we have the internet, satellite, 87 00:04:49,331 --> 00:04:50,956 radar communication, 88 00:04:51,041 --> 00:04:53,250 it just disappears off the radar screen. 89 00:04:53,294 --> 00:04:55,294 Shatner: The wreckage of the plane, 90 00:04:55,337 --> 00:04:58,630 despite the efforts of the world's top aviation experts, 91 00:04:58,716 --> 00:05:01,800 had seemingly vanished without a trace. 92 00:05:04,388 --> 00:05:06,805 But then, after months of searching, 93 00:05:06,890 --> 00:05:10,559 investigators finally uncovered an important clue. 94 00:05:10,644 --> 00:05:13,270 Boeing had included a maintenance reporting thing 95 00:05:13,355 --> 00:05:14,813 that goes by satellite. 96 00:05:14,898 --> 00:05:17,065 It was called an acar system, 97 00:05:17,151 --> 00:05:19,234 and boeing had installed the system 98 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:21,320 to report maintenance information 99 00:05:21,405 --> 00:05:24,406 about the engines in the airplane every hour. 100 00:05:24,491 --> 00:05:27,659 In this particular case, it was still pinging away. 101 00:05:27,745 --> 00:05:29,745 It was saying essentially to the satellite, 102 00:05:29,830 --> 00:05:31,830 "hey, I'm here. You want any information?" 103 00:05:31,874 --> 00:05:36,501 shatner: The information revealed by the acar system was shocking. 104 00:05:36,587 --> 00:05:38,962 It showed that the plane did not crash 105 00:05:39,006 --> 00:05:41,673 anywhere near where it was last detected. 106 00:05:42,801 --> 00:05:45,010 It actually changed course 107 00:05:45,095 --> 00:05:47,012 and kept on flying. 108 00:05:47,056 --> 00:05:49,306 Greg liefer: It was flown for another six hours 109 00:05:49,391 --> 00:05:51,016 after it made the initial 110 00:05:51,060 --> 00:05:53,101 diversion from its intended flight plan, 111 00:05:53,187 --> 00:05:55,520 and it was flown, uh, to a very remote area. 112 00:05:57,358 --> 00:05:59,274 Shatner: Based on this data, 113 00:05:59,360 --> 00:06:02,110 aviation experts believe that the plane most likely crashed 114 00:06:02,196 --> 00:06:04,863 somewhere in the southern portion of the indian ocean 115 00:06:04,948 --> 00:06:06,782 after running out of fuel. 116 00:06:06,867 --> 00:06:10,410 It seems that the aircraft flew in the wrong direction 117 00:06:10,496 --> 00:06:12,412 for thousands of miles 118 00:06:12,498 --> 00:06:15,123 to a distant part of the ocean 119 00:06:15,209 --> 00:06:18,335 where there was no possible place to land. 120 00:06:18,379 --> 00:06:20,670 But how could that have happened? 121 00:06:20,756 --> 00:06:24,216 Initially, the theory that was proposed by a lot of the media 122 00:06:24,301 --> 00:06:28,845 was that the pilot in command committed suicide. 123 00:06:28,889 --> 00:06:31,556 But, in fact, the accident report 124 00:06:31,642 --> 00:06:33,725 clearly stated that... 125 00:06:33,811 --> 00:06:36,937 The pilot had no history of emotional or physical problems 126 00:06:37,022 --> 00:06:39,231 that would preclude suicide, 127 00:06:39,316 --> 00:06:42,067 and family, friends and coworkers said 128 00:06:42,152 --> 00:06:44,694 he had no abnormal behavior before the flight. 129 00:06:44,780 --> 00:06:46,363 Kaku: Other people say, 130 00:06:46,407 --> 00:06:49,241 no, it was some kind of mechanical failure. 131 00:06:49,284 --> 00:06:51,076 If it were to catch on fire, 132 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:53,453 the plane could rapidly depressurize, 133 00:06:53,539 --> 00:06:56,415 meaning that people would suffocate very rapidly. 134 00:06:56,500 --> 00:06:58,875 And I think that what happened then was 135 00:06:58,961 --> 00:07:01,378 you had a ghost airplane. 136 00:07:01,422 --> 00:07:04,172 Everyone was either dead or dying. 137 00:07:04,258 --> 00:07:07,676 It was randomly going back and forth until it finally 138 00:07:07,761 --> 00:07:11,430 ran out of fuel and crashed into the indian ocean. 139 00:07:17,980 --> 00:07:20,939 You had theories of, uh, oxygen, uh, malfunction 140 00:07:21,024 --> 00:07:22,774 that incapacitated the pilots, 141 00:07:22,860 --> 00:07:26,194 but I don't think that makes sense because the aircraft 142 00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:28,905 certainly appeared to me like it was being flown manually 143 00:07:28,949 --> 00:07:30,991 for up to, uh, at least 30 minutes, 144 00:07:31,076 --> 00:07:34,744 if not up to an hour, after it made that hard left turn. 145 00:07:34,830 --> 00:07:37,122 The thing that makes the most sense to me 146 00:07:37,166 --> 00:07:39,166 was some type of hijacking. 147 00:07:39,251 --> 00:07:41,334 The abrupt maneuvers that it was making, 148 00:07:41,420 --> 00:07:44,504 the changes in altitude and air speed and heading, 149 00:07:44,590 --> 00:07:46,298 all that indicates to me 150 00:07:46,383 --> 00:07:48,800 that it was a deliberate, uh, manipulation 151 00:07:48,886 --> 00:07:51,928 by other people that took control of the aircraft. 152 00:07:51,972 --> 00:07:53,472 But then that poses the question, 153 00:07:53,557 --> 00:07:55,474 well, why did they hijack the aircraft? 154 00:07:55,559 --> 00:07:57,058 What was the motive? 155 00:07:57,144 --> 00:07:59,769 And why fly to the southern indian ocean? 156 00:07:59,855 --> 00:08:03,899 Shatner: While the theory that the plane was hijacked may sound logical, 157 00:08:03,984 --> 00:08:06,193 authorities thoroughly checked the background 158 00:08:06,278 --> 00:08:08,653 of all the passengers and crew, 159 00:08:08,739 --> 00:08:11,865 and none of them fit the profile of a hijacker. 160 00:08:13,035 --> 00:08:15,452 The truth is that, while several of the explanations 161 00:08:15,537 --> 00:08:17,829 that have been put forth seem to have merit, 162 00:08:17,873 --> 00:08:19,998 we simply don't have enough information 163 00:08:20,083 --> 00:08:22,083 to verify any of them. 164 00:08:22,169 --> 00:08:23,710 We have no way of knowing 165 00:08:23,795 --> 00:08:26,046 because the cockpit voice recorder is at the bottom 166 00:08:26,131 --> 00:08:27,923 of the indian ocean someplace. 167 00:08:28,008 --> 00:08:30,175 But the other and the most important thing 168 00:08:30,219 --> 00:08:33,345 to keep in mind is we found a piece of that airplane. 169 00:08:33,388 --> 00:08:35,847 A piece of the wing was found and verified. 170 00:08:35,891 --> 00:08:38,391 It was washed up on, I believe, 171 00:08:38,477 --> 00:08:40,852 the shores of madagascar or close to it, 172 00:08:40,896 --> 00:08:43,730 and it was definitively from this particular airplane, 173 00:08:43,815 --> 00:08:45,857 so we knew then categorically 174 00:08:45,943 --> 00:08:48,276 that that airplane had gone into the indian ocean. 175 00:08:48,362 --> 00:08:51,071 And in this case, this particular piece of the plane 176 00:08:51,156 --> 00:08:53,740 had taken about a year and a half to float 177 00:08:53,825 --> 00:08:56,201 all the way across the indian ocean. 178 00:08:56,245 --> 00:09:00,163 Liefer: It was one of 27 pieces that were eventually recovered. 179 00:09:00,249 --> 00:09:03,250 And it was one of three pieces out of the 27 180 00:09:03,335 --> 00:09:06,378 that was positively identified as coming from the aircraft. 181 00:09:06,463 --> 00:09:09,589 The aircraft wasn't found, occupants weren't found, 182 00:09:09,675 --> 00:09:11,925 but yet 17 months later, 183 00:09:12,010 --> 00:09:13,927 they find these pieces of debris 184 00:09:14,012 --> 00:09:16,471 thousands of miles away, 185 00:09:16,557 --> 00:09:18,765 and that's what makes this mystery, I think, 186 00:09:18,850 --> 00:09:21,518 probably the biggest mystery of all the aviation mysteries. 187 00:09:22,729 --> 00:09:25,355 Shatner: Unfortunately, a few scattered pieces of wreckage 188 00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:28,942 are all that remain of flight mh370, 189 00:09:29,027 --> 00:09:31,403 its passengers and crew. 190 00:09:33,156 --> 00:09:35,240 Is the story a frustrating reminder that, 191 00:09:35,325 --> 00:09:38,952 in modern times, the truth can still be elusive 192 00:09:39,037 --> 00:09:43,248 in spite of all the knowledge and technology at our disposal? 193 00:09:43,292 --> 00:09:45,917 For those of us who learned about this disappearance 194 00:09:45,961 --> 00:09:49,421 in the news, that seems to be the case. 195 00:09:49,464 --> 00:09:52,591 But how much more maddening would it be to try 196 00:09:52,634 --> 00:09:56,303 and understand the disappearance of someone you know? 197 00:09:56,388 --> 00:09:59,097 Perhaps the answer can be found by examining 198 00:09:59,182 --> 00:10:01,725 the case of two united states congressmen 199 00:10:01,810 --> 00:10:03,935 who went missing nearly 50 years ago 200 00:10:04,021 --> 00:10:08,273 and whose families are still searching for answers. 201 00:10:16,950 --> 00:10:19,784 Shatner: A cessna airplane taxis into position 202 00:10:19,870 --> 00:10:21,828 and prepares for departure. 203 00:10:21,913 --> 00:10:24,331 On board the small plane are four people: 204 00:10:24,416 --> 00:10:27,584 The pilot and three passengers. 205 00:10:27,669 --> 00:10:31,921 Two of the passengers are united states congressmen. 206 00:10:31,965 --> 00:10:35,842 House majority leader hale boggs of louisiana, 207 00:10:35,927 --> 00:10:39,304 and alaskan congressman nick begich. 208 00:10:39,389 --> 00:10:42,015 My dad had a habit of bringing, uh, 209 00:10:42,100 --> 00:10:43,642 his colleagues, uh, to alaska. 210 00:10:43,727 --> 00:10:45,602 And-and the reason he did is 211 00:10:45,646 --> 00:10:49,230 he wanted people to see the vastness of it 212 00:10:49,316 --> 00:10:51,816 and the richness of the state. 213 00:10:51,902 --> 00:10:54,194 You can talk about a place, 214 00:10:54,279 --> 00:10:56,237 but until you're in it, 215 00:10:56,323 --> 00:10:59,157 you really have no concept of-of any of it. 216 00:10:59,242 --> 00:11:04,162 And alaska-- it's like 20% of the landmass of the country. 217 00:11:04,206 --> 00:11:07,165 And my dad, uh, used small planes often 218 00:11:07,250 --> 00:11:09,042 because you could take the side trips, 219 00:11:09,127 --> 00:11:10,919 and he wanted to show people things. 220 00:11:12,130 --> 00:11:15,256 Shatner: At 9:00 a.M., the plane took off into the foggy morning sky 221 00:11:15,342 --> 00:11:16,841 and headed for juneau. 222 00:11:16,927 --> 00:11:18,927 They were scheduled to land there 223 00:11:19,012 --> 00:11:21,930 sometime between 12:00 and 1:00 p.M. 224 00:11:22,974 --> 00:11:25,100 The pilot did not file a flight plan 225 00:11:25,185 --> 00:11:27,268 until ten minutes after he took off, 226 00:11:27,354 --> 00:11:29,187 which was, uh, completely uncharacteristic. 227 00:11:29,272 --> 00:11:32,982 He filed the flight plan by radio transmissions, 228 00:11:33,068 --> 00:11:35,527 and the route of flight he intended to take 229 00:11:35,612 --> 00:11:38,571 was across prince william sound to yakutat 230 00:11:38,657 --> 00:11:41,366 and then from yakutat to juneau. 231 00:11:42,369 --> 00:11:44,577 We know the airplane, in this particular case, 232 00:11:44,663 --> 00:11:47,163 had six hours of fuel, and it was only about 233 00:11:47,249 --> 00:11:48,957 a three-and-a-half-hour flight. 234 00:11:49,042 --> 00:11:51,084 And you could get almost there and turn around 235 00:11:51,169 --> 00:11:53,837 and come back with the fuel that you had in it, 236 00:11:53,922 --> 00:11:56,631 but they never made it to juneau. 237 00:11:56,717 --> 00:11:59,217 Shatner: At about 1:15 p.M., air force officials 238 00:11:59,261 --> 00:12:03,263 were informed that the flight was overdue to land at juneau. 239 00:12:03,348 --> 00:12:06,391 When efforts to communicate with the plane failed, 240 00:12:06,476 --> 00:12:09,102 both the local authorities and several branches 241 00:12:09,187 --> 00:12:11,229 of the united states military 242 00:12:11,314 --> 00:12:14,983 launched a massive, coordinated search for the missing cessna 243 00:12:15,068 --> 00:12:17,402 and the two congressmen aboard. 244 00:12:18,947 --> 00:12:21,906 Throughout the search, there was 30 to 40 aircraft involved 245 00:12:21,950 --> 00:12:24,576 every single day, and those included assets 246 00:12:24,619 --> 00:12:28,580 from the u.S. Air force, the u.S. Army, civil air patrol. 247 00:12:28,665 --> 00:12:31,750 And there was a sea search that was conducted by ships 248 00:12:31,835 --> 00:12:35,086 from the u.S. Coast guard as well. 249 00:12:36,590 --> 00:12:39,507 Shatner: After 39 days of searching, 250 00:12:39,593 --> 00:12:43,261 authorities announced that the plane could not found. 251 00:12:43,346 --> 00:12:46,181 All flight members were declared dead. 252 00:12:46,266 --> 00:12:50,018 What started as an adventurous aerial tour 253 00:12:50,103 --> 00:12:53,104 of the alaskan wilderness in a small plane 254 00:12:53,148 --> 00:12:55,231 while on the way to juneau 255 00:12:55,317 --> 00:12:58,359 somehow went horribly wrong. 256 00:12:59,738 --> 00:13:02,697 Begich: My dad was a totally energetic person. 257 00:13:02,783 --> 00:13:05,241 He was 40 years old when he was lost. 258 00:13:05,327 --> 00:13:08,995 You never think someone's going to die at-at that age 259 00:13:09,080 --> 00:13:12,665 and in the circumstances, uh, that this happened. 260 00:13:12,751 --> 00:13:15,251 Shatner: On the day of the flight, the weather was reported 261 00:13:15,337 --> 00:13:19,923 "marginal," meaning that flying conditions were less than ideal. 262 00:13:20,008 --> 00:13:22,801 But not everyone is convinced that the weather is to blame, 263 00:13:22,886 --> 00:13:25,595 in part because no wreckage of the crashed plane 264 00:13:25,680 --> 00:13:27,347 was ever found. 265 00:13:27,432 --> 00:13:29,265 And by all accounts, 266 00:13:29,351 --> 00:13:32,644 it should have been found. 267 00:13:32,729 --> 00:13:36,147 Liefer: During the search, every possible area was covered. 268 00:13:36,233 --> 00:13:39,484 They said there was a 97% probability 269 00:13:39,569 --> 00:13:42,487 it would have been found. Nothing was ever found. 270 00:13:43,949 --> 00:13:46,866 Begich: They did this massive search on every level 271 00:13:46,952 --> 00:13:50,203 to come up with absolutely nothing. 272 00:13:50,288 --> 00:13:52,413 And that was it at the time. 273 00:13:52,499 --> 00:13:55,416 That was all we knew at the time. The search ended. 274 00:13:57,087 --> 00:13:59,712 Shatner: The families of the two congressmen had no choice 275 00:13:59,798 --> 00:14:03,383 but to accept that both men had died 276 00:14:03,468 --> 00:14:06,928 and that the full story behind their disappearance 277 00:14:07,013 --> 00:14:08,680 might never be known. 278 00:14:08,765 --> 00:14:11,850 But then, two decades later, 279 00:14:11,935 --> 00:14:14,060 the family of congressman begich 280 00:14:14,145 --> 00:14:17,897 received some startling new information. 281 00:14:17,983 --> 00:14:19,524 Begich: Years later, 282 00:14:19,568 --> 00:14:21,776 a couple of boxes of archives showed up 283 00:14:21,862 --> 00:14:23,945 on one of my brother's doorsteps. 284 00:14:24,990 --> 00:14:27,991 And the files were from the fbi, 285 00:14:28,076 --> 00:14:31,327 and they said that people had come into the fbi's office, 286 00:14:31,413 --> 00:14:33,079 they said they had located the plane, 287 00:14:33,164 --> 00:14:34,539 and then said there were two people 288 00:14:34,624 --> 00:14:36,082 still alive at the crash site. 289 00:14:36,167 --> 00:14:37,834 And so what the fbi had to do 290 00:14:37,919 --> 00:14:39,836 is verify that the source was valid, 291 00:14:39,921 --> 00:14:43,047 that they really were who they said they were, and they did. 292 00:14:44,217 --> 00:14:48,303 So you have an agency confirming the authenticity 293 00:14:48,388 --> 00:14:51,389 of the people that located the plane, 294 00:14:51,474 --> 00:14:54,142 and two people were supposed to be alive then. 295 00:14:54,227 --> 00:14:56,728 And that was a shock because we'd never heard this, 296 00:14:56,813 --> 00:14:59,814 and we had been in touch with the fbi at the time. 297 00:14:59,900 --> 00:15:04,611 It was traumatic because you had this unended open question 298 00:15:04,696 --> 00:15:06,988 that never received a conclusion. 299 00:15:07,073 --> 00:15:09,657 When they were pursuing every other thing and let us know 300 00:15:09,743 --> 00:15:12,118 about every other thing, why not this? 301 00:15:12,203 --> 00:15:14,913 Shatner: In the years since the fbi documents revealed 302 00:15:14,998 --> 00:15:18,875 that their father may have survived the initial crash, 303 00:15:18,919 --> 00:15:21,419 the begich family has reexamined the case 304 00:15:21,504 --> 00:15:24,547 by requesting additional documents and photographs 305 00:15:24,633 --> 00:15:26,716 related to the search for the plane. 306 00:15:26,801 --> 00:15:30,303 But, on some occasions, the government seems 307 00:15:30,388 --> 00:15:33,306 to have not fully cooperated with their requests. 308 00:15:33,391 --> 00:15:36,309 For instance, when they requested copies 309 00:15:36,394 --> 00:15:38,603 of aerial photographs taken by the military 310 00:15:38,647 --> 00:15:42,690 sr-71 reconnaissance airplanes that flew over the search area, 311 00:15:42,776 --> 00:15:45,735 they got an unexpected answer. 312 00:15:45,820 --> 00:15:49,781 When we asked for the records, they told us there were none-- 313 00:15:49,866 --> 00:15:53,660 that they had gotten rid of all those sr-71 overflights, 314 00:15:53,745 --> 00:15:55,912 all of this material was no longer available. 315 00:15:55,997 --> 00:15:57,538 Which is a lie. 316 00:15:57,624 --> 00:16:00,124 It's a lie because the government never gets rid of 317 00:16:00,210 --> 00:16:01,751 those sr-71 overflights. 318 00:16:01,836 --> 00:16:03,878 They're too valuable, they cost too much money, 319 00:16:03,964 --> 00:16:05,630 and they don't get rid of them. 320 00:16:05,715 --> 00:16:08,299 So, for some reason, they didn't want us to have the data. 321 00:16:09,511 --> 00:16:11,344 Shatner: Did the government deliberately withhold 322 00:16:11,429 --> 00:16:14,597 aerial photographs from the search for the plane? 323 00:16:14,683 --> 00:16:16,599 And, if so, were officials 324 00:16:16,685 --> 00:16:19,310 trying to cover up the possibility that the pictures 325 00:16:19,396 --> 00:16:23,064 might reveal not only where the plane crashed 326 00:16:23,149 --> 00:16:26,651 but also that two survivors could have been rescued? 327 00:16:28,113 --> 00:16:30,488 I think all of the people that engaged in the search 328 00:16:30,573 --> 00:16:32,991 sincerely looked at everything 329 00:16:33,076 --> 00:16:35,493 and continued to follow up leads, 330 00:16:35,578 --> 00:16:39,622 but I question the honesty of our government at that time. 331 00:16:39,708 --> 00:16:41,541 There was things missing in this, 332 00:16:41,626 --> 00:16:44,544 and we don't have the truth to this day, I'm sure. 333 00:16:44,629 --> 00:16:46,754 So it remains unresolved 334 00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:49,424 until, someday, uh, we can see 335 00:16:49,509 --> 00:16:51,759 the full body of-of the record. 336 00:16:53,054 --> 00:16:56,014 Shatner: Nearly 50 years after the disappearance 337 00:16:56,099 --> 00:16:59,308 of congressmen hale boggs and nick begich, 338 00:16:59,394 --> 00:17:02,311 the questions and possibilities 339 00:17:02,355 --> 00:17:04,147 seem endless. 340 00:17:04,232 --> 00:17:07,525 While there are many theories as to what took place, 341 00:17:07,610 --> 00:17:10,069 the truth about what happened to these two men 342 00:17:10,155 --> 00:17:11,738 remains unknown. 343 00:17:12,741 --> 00:17:15,700 Just like the fate of another figure who, 344 00:17:15,744 --> 00:17:18,369 after taking an adventurous risk, 345 00:17:18,413 --> 00:17:19,996 never returned. 346 00:17:20,081 --> 00:17:23,207 An explorer who was so bold, so daring, 347 00:17:23,293 --> 00:17:26,044 that he may have gotten lost 348 00:17:26,087 --> 00:17:28,379 because he didn't want to be found. 349 00:17:39,267 --> 00:17:42,060 Shatner: Three englishmen, accompanied by two brazilian locals, 350 00:17:42,145 --> 00:17:44,937 make their way through the dense foliage. 351 00:17:45,982 --> 00:17:48,691 The men are searching for an ancient lost city 352 00:17:48,777 --> 00:17:50,693 that has been rumored to be hidden deep 353 00:17:50,779 --> 00:17:52,195 within the rain forest. 354 00:17:52,280 --> 00:17:54,363 The leader of their quest 355 00:17:54,449 --> 00:17:57,700 is an ambitious explorer who feels that he is on the cusp 356 00:17:57,786 --> 00:18:00,286 of a remarkable discovery. 357 00:18:00,371 --> 00:18:02,205 Colonel percy fawcett. 358 00:18:02,290 --> 00:18:05,291 Colonel percy fawcett is a very interesting 359 00:18:05,376 --> 00:18:06,876 historical character. 360 00:18:06,961 --> 00:18:09,378 He was a geographer, an explorer, 361 00:18:09,422 --> 00:18:12,423 a member of the world geographic society, 362 00:18:12,467 --> 00:18:15,093 and also a military man for most of his career. 363 00:18:15,178 --> 00:18:17,553 So a very capable individual, 364 00:18:17,639 --> 00:18:20,765 and he was responsible for exploring and mapping 365 00:18:20,809 --> 00:18:24,769 a lot of the unknown regions of south america. 366 00:18:24,813 --> 00:18:26,938 So, uh, colonel fawcett makes an interesting 367 00:18:27,023 --> 00:18:28,773 and rather dashing figure. 368 00:18:30,151 --> 00:18:33,236 Shatner: After decades spent trekking through south america, 369 00:18:33,321 --> 00:18:37,323 fawcett became convinced that a massive civilization 370 00:18:37,408 --> 00:18:42,120 had once existed somewhere in the amazon jungle. 371 00:18:42,205 --> 00:18:45,498 Deyermenjian: Fawcett came upon this particular manuscript 372 00:18:45,583 --> 00:18:49,794 that was supposed to have been written by um bandeirante, 373 00:18:49,838 --> 00:18:52,463 a portuguese fortune seeker 374 00:18:52,507 --> 00:18:54,799 back in the 1700s. 375 00:18:56,261 --> 00:18:58,886 And it looks to be describing 376 00:18:58,972 --> 00:19:00,930 a particular city there 377 00:19:00,974 --> 00:19:03,099 in the brazilian amazon. 378 00:19:03,184 --> 00:19:06,269 Lynne mcneill: That manuscript describes 379 00:19:06,312 --> 00:19:09,689 not just a lost city of ruins 380 00:19:09,774 --> 00:19:13,484 but a lost city of epic proportions. 381 00:19:14,612 --> 00:19:17,405 A lost city of riches, a city of gold, 382 00:19:17,490 --> 00:19:21,117 and architectural marvels, technologically developed, 383 00:19:21,202 --> 00:19:24,912 things that you would absolutely not expect to find 384 00:19:24,998 --> 00:19:27,498 in the middle of the south american jungle. 385 00:19:28,626 --> 00:19:31,043 Shatner: In time, fawcett's fascination 386 00:19:31,129 --> 00:19:35,006 with a lost city in the amazon turned to obsession. 387 00:19:36,426 --> 00:19:40,303 He even came up with a name for the place he was searching for. 388 00:19:40,346 --> 00:19:43,848 He called it "the lost city of z." 389 00:19:44,893 --> 00:19:48,186 armed with clues from the portuguese manuscript, 390 00:19:48,229 --> 00:19:51,022 he plunged into the wilderness once more, 391 00:19:51,107 --> 00:19:54,150 determined to solve the mystery. 392 00:19:55,111 --> 00:19:58,196 His companions were his son jack 393 00:19:58,239 --> 00:20:01,157 and his son's friend raleigh rimmel. 394 00:20:01,242 --> 00:20:03,743 The geographical challenges along the routes 395 00:20:03,828 --> 00:20:07,205 that fawcett and his party would face 396 00:20:07,248 --> 00:20:11,250 included things like rivers that were extremely swift 397 00:20:11,336 --> 00:20:14,378 that one could easily have their feet knocked from under them, 398 00:20:14,464 --> 00:20:16,589 and there would have been piranha as well 399 00:20:16,674 --> 00:20:18,758 in these areas of brazil. 400 00:20:18,843 --> 00:20:21,886 And the swamps, the marshes, 401 00:20:21,930 --> 00:20:26,057 were particularly virulent as far as disease, insects 402 00:20:26,142 --> 00:20:28,392 and geographical difficulties. 403 00:20:29,896 --> 00:20:33,397 Shatner: As fawcett moved deeper into the heart of the amazon, 404 00:20:33,441 --> 00:20:35,024 he wrote about his progress 405 00:20:35,068 --> 00:20:37,401 and gave his notes to native guides 406 00:20:37,487 --> 00:20:39,737 who carried them back to civilization. 407 00:20:39,781 --> 00:20:42,740 The newspapers eagerly published the details 408 00:20:42,784 --> 00:20:45,785 of his latest exploits, portraying the explorer 409 00:20:45,870 --> 00:20:50,248 as an international hero on the verge of making history. 410 00:20:50,333 --> 00:20:53,793 Deyermenjian: Colonel fawcett was a world-known celebrity. 411 00:20:53,878 --> 00:20:56,504 His exploits were followed in the press 412 00:20:56,589 --> 00:20:59,215 and, uh, were quite popular and quite well known. 413 00:21:01,928 --> 00:21:04,595 We know what we know of colonel percy fawcett 414 00:21:04,681 --> 00:21:07,390 largely from his own writings, 415 00:21:07,475 --> 00:21:11,102 stories about encounters that he had 416 00:21:11,187 --> 00:21:14,355 with native peoples in brazil, 417 00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:18,109 stories of having arrows drawn on him threateningly. 418 00:21:18,194 --> 00:21:22,488 He tells the story of a 62-foot anaconda 419 00:21:22,573 --> 00:21:25,616 that he shot in the spine and killed 420 00:21:25,660 --> 00:21:29,620 as he was canoeing through the waters down the amazon. 421 00:21:31,624 --> 00:21:35,293 Layne: He writes a letter to his wife and says, 422 00:21:35,378 --> 00:21:37,128 "there's no fear of failure." 423 00:21:37,213 --> 00:21:40,131 he apparently thinks he's right on top of it, 424 00:21:40,174 --> 00:21:42,258 that he's going to find it, 425 00:21:42,343 --> 00:21:44,677 this lost city, 426 00:21:44,762 --> 00:21:46,304 and then he vanishes. 427 00:21:47,807 --> 00:21:50,141 Shatner: Six weeks after the expedition started, 428 00:21:50,226 --> 00:21:52,601 fawcett's letters stopped coming, 429 00:21:52,645 --> 00:21:55,104 and people around the world began to fear 430 00:21:55,189 --> 00:21:58,232 that something terrible had happened to the explorer 431 00:21:58,318 --> 00:22:00,484 and his team. 432 00:22:00,528 --> 00:22:04,030 After weeks, months and eventually years of waiting 433 00:22:04,115 --> 00:22:06,365 with no word from him, 434 00:22:06,451 --> 00:22:09,327 it became clear that colonel percy fawcett, 435 00:22:09,370 --> 00:22:12,663 his son jack, and friend raleigh rimmel 436 00:22:12,749 --> 00:22:15,458 would never return from the jungle. 437 00:22:18,254 --> 00:22:20,880 Tok thompson: There was a great interest in what could have happened. 438 00:22:20,965 --> 00:22:22,882 Some people thought he might have been murdered 439 00:22:22,967 --> 00:22:25,176 by the local indigenous groups. 440 00:22:25,261 --> 00:22:27,511 Other people thought that maybe some, uh, bandits 441 00:22:27,597 --> 00:22:30,264 that were operating in this area, uh, might have killed him. 442 00:22:30,350 --> 00:22:33,017 Some people even said that, look, maybe he found it. 443 00:22:33,061 --> 00:22:35,394 Maybe he found his lost city of z 444 00:22:35,480 --> 00:22:38,189 and just decided to stay there the rest of his life. 445 00:22:39,275 --> 00:22:41,776 Shatner: The lost city of z 446 00:22:41,861 --> 00:22:43,652 found at last? 447 00:22:43,696 --> 00:22:46,655 Is it possible that fawcett's dream 448 00:22:46,741 --> 00:22:48,991 actually became a reality? 449 00:22:49,077 --> 00:22:52,161 Brian fawcett, uh, his youngest son, 450 00:22:52,246 --> 00:22:55,331 reported that there's a distinct possibility 451 00:22:55,416 --> 00:22:59,085 that percy fawcett did not intend to return. 452 00:22:59,170 --> 00:23:01,295 That, for him, if he did find it, 453 00:23:01,381 --> 00:23:05,007 it being the capstone to what he was looking for, 454 00:23:05,093 --> 00:23:07,009 he might not have intended 455 00:23:07,095 --> 00:23:09,720 to ever leave the jungle. 456 00:23:09,806 --> 00:23:12,348 Layne: If you have dedicated your life now 457 00:23:12,433 --> 00:23:16,852 to finding this lost city of treasure and gold, 458 00:23:16,938 --> 00:23:19,438 and you actually find it, 459 00:23:19,524 --> 00:23:22,900 maybe you don't want to reveal it to the rest of the world. 460 00:23:22,944 --> 00:23:26,237 Maybe it's perfection, it's paradise, 461 00:23:26,322 --> 00:23:29,198 maybe you can make the choice to stay. 462 00:23:32,578 --> 00:23:35,371 Was the treacherous jungle, 463 00:23:35,456 --> 00:23:37,540 insufferable heat 464 00:23:37,625 --> 00:23:39,834 and a face-off with a giant anaconda 465 00:23:39,919 --> 00:23:43,921 all too much for colonel percy fawcett and his team? 466 00:23:43,965 --> 00:23:47,425 Or, as some people suggest, 467 00:23:47,510 --> 00:23:50,302 did fawcett make such an incredible 468 00:23:50,388 --> 00:23:52,930 archaeological discovery 469 00:23:53,015 --> 00:23:56,183 that he chose to never leave it? 470 00:23:56,269 --> 00:23:59,478 Perhaps further clues about the nature of obsessions 471 00:23:59,564 --> 00:24:02,106 and their consequences 472 00:24:02,150 --> 00:24:04,608 can be found by examining the life of an author 473 00:24:04,652 --> 00:24:07,987 who helped to pioneer the science fiction genre 474 00:24:08,072 --> 00:24:10,614 and whose greatest story may have been... 475 00:24:12,034 --> 00:24:13,951 ...His own disappearance. 476 00:24:23,463 --> 00:24:25,588 Shatner: While serving in the union army, 477 00:24:25,631 --> 00:24:28,799 22-year-old lieutenant ambrose bierce 478 00:24:28,885 --> 00:24:31,469 is shot in the head by a sniper. 479 00:24:33,389 --> 00:24:36,140 The bullet goes into his left temple 480 00:24:36,184 --> 00:24:39,101 and lodges behind his left ear. 481 00:24:39,145 --> 00:24:41,812 And it's too deep, at that time, 482 00:24:41,898 --> 00:24:44,857 for them to do some kind of operation to remove. 483 00:24:44,942 --> 00:24:48,110 So he lives the rest of his life 484 00:24:48,196 --> 00:24:50,654 with a bullet in his head. 485 00:24:50,740 --> 00:24:53,532 Layne: Some of the people who knew bierce say that 486 00:24:53,618 --> 00:24:58,162 this brain injury caused him to become strange. 487 00:24:58,247 --> 00:25:02,500 It caused him to start seeing the world in a more morbid way. 488 00:25:02,585 --> 00:25:06,295 And after his experience in the civil war, 489 00:25:06,380 --> 00:25:09,840 he wrote very memorable short stories 490 00:25:09,926 --> 00:25:12,676 that were filled with the supernatural. 491 00:25:13,721 --> 00:25:15,429 Shatner: Ambrose bierce is best known 492 00:25:15,515 --> 00:25:17,681 for writing short stories that involve 493 00:25:17,725 --> 00:25:21,352 paranormal incidents and strange disappearances. 494 00:25:21,395 --> 00:25:23,312 One intriguing story 495 00:25:23,397 --> 00:25:27,900 that he wrote for the san francisco examiner in 1888 496 00:25:27,985 --> 00:25:31,529 was titled "the difficulty of crossing a field." 497 00:25:33,783 --> 00:25:35,824 hawkes: "the difficulty of crossing a field" 498 00:25:35,910 --> 00:25:37,868 was about an alabama farmer who one day 499 00:25:37,954 --> 00:25:40,037 was taking a walk across the field... 500 00:25:41,707 --> 00:25:43,374 ...When he just disappeared. 501 00:25:43,459 --> 00:25:45,209 He was gone. 502 00:25:45,294 --> 00:25:47,878 And years later, his wife would say that she could hear 503 00:25:47,922 --> 00:25:49,547 his voice from time to time, 504 00:25:49,632 --> 00:25:51,924 but he wasn't there. 505 00:25:52,009 --> 00:25:55,177 In the story, ambrose bierce was trying to show us 506 00:25:55,263 --> 00:25:58,013 that this man traveled interdimensionally 507 00:25:58,099 --> 00:26:00,057 to another place. 508 00:26:00,101 --> 00:26:03,143 Shatner: Bierce's stories hinted at alternate worlds 509 00:26:03,229 --> 00:26:05,396 and parallel dimensions 510 00:26:05,481 --> 00:26:08,065 and helped to pioneer the science fiction genre. 511 00:26:08,150 --> 00:26:11,902 But in December of 1913, bierce, who by then 512 00:26:11,988 --> 00:26:15,114 was one of america's most prominent literary figures, 513 00:26:15,199 --> 00:26:17,241 left the country. 514 00:26:19,787 --> 00:26:21,996 He headed south of the border 515 00:26:22,081 --> 00:26:24,957 because he wanted to witness the mexican revolution 516 00:26:25,042 --> 00:26:26,709 taking place at the time. 517 00:26:26,794 --> 00:26:29,545 Layne: He's 71 years old 518 00:26:29,630 --> 00:26:31,714 when he crosses the border 519 00:26:31,757 --> 00:26:34,592 to supposedly join pancho villa, 520 00:26:34,677 --> 00:26:38,178 the great revolutionary of mexico. 521 00:26:38,264 --> 00:26:40,806 He writes one letter in particular 522 00:26:40,891 --> 00:26:43,809 to his niece laura, and he says, 523 00:26:43,894 --> 00:26:47,438 "goodbye. If you hear of my being stood up 524 00:26:47,523 --> 00:26:51,275 against a mexican stone wall and shot to rags..." 525 00:26:51,319 --> 00:26:53,360 -man: Fire! -(gunshots) 526 00:26:53,446 --> 00:26:56,071 "...Please know that I think it's a pretty good way 527 00:26:56,115 --> 00:26:59,325 "to depart this life. 528 00:26:59,410 --> 00:27:02,286 Affectionately yours, ambrose." 529 00:27:03,372 --> 00:27:05,956 shatner: While in the city of juárez, 530 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:09,668 bierce joined pancho villa's army as an observer. 531 00:27:09,754 --> 00:27:11,920 He then followed the army south 532 00:27:11,964 --> 00:27:14,131 as far as the city of chihuahua. 533 00:27:14,216 --> 00:27:16,967 On December 26, 1913, 534 00:27:17,053 --> 00:27:19,011 bierce sent a letter to a friend, 535 00:27:19,096 --> 00:27:21,180 which he ended cryptically by saying: 536 00:27:21,265 --> 00:27:24,308 "as for me, I leave tomorrow 537 00:27:24,352 --> 00:27:26,810 for an unknown destination." 538 00:27:29,899 --> 00:27:33,442 the eccentric author was never heard from again. 539 00:27:33,486 --> 00:27:36,236 After writing about people who disappear, 540 00:27:36,322 --> 00:27:38,906 bierce himself disappeared 541 00:27:38,991 --> 00:27:42,493 like a character in one of his own stories. 542 00:27:44,163 --> 00:27:47,998 There are eyewitness reports of ambrose bierce dying 543 00:27:48,084 --> 00:27:52,002 all over mexico at different times 544 00:27:52,046 --> 00:27:54,546 separated by years. 545 00:27:54,632 --> 00:27:57,716 Mcneill: We have a plethora of different stories 546 00:27:57,802 --> 00:28:00,135 of people reporting that he was executed, 547 00:28:00,221 --> 00:28:02,346 of people reporting that he died of illness, 548 00:28:02,431 --> 00:28:05,015 of people reporting where and when they last saw him 549 00:28:05,059 --> 00:28:06,392 and who he was with. 550 00:28:06,477 --> 00:28:10,187 All we know is that he was gone. 551 00:28:11,399 --> 00:28:13,315 Shatner: Reports of bierce's death 552 00:28:13,401 --> 00:28:18,070 would continue to surface for years after his disappearance. 553 00:28:18,155 --> 00:28:21,031 But for many, these stories are not as convincing 554 00:28:21,075 --> 00:28:24,368 as the idea that bierce traveled south 555 00:28:24,412 --> 00:28:26,662 not to join in a civil war 556 00:28:26,747 --> 00:28:30,499 but rather to visit a remote location 557 00:28:30,584 --> 00:28:34,253 that had captured his dark imagination. 558 00:28:34,338 --> 00:28:36,380 An area known as 559 00:28:36,465 --> 00:28:39,299 the zone of silence. 560 00:28:39,385 --> 00:28:43,721 One of the more popular theories about his disappearance 561 00:28:43,764 --> 00:28:47,808 is that he follows pancho villa into this mysterious area 562 00:28:47,893 --> 00:28:50,185 called the zone of silence, which was locally known 563 00:28:50,271 --> 00:28:52,604 as a place where people vanish, 564 00:28:52,690 --> 00:28:55,232 where there are odd occurrences. 565 00:28:56,402 --> 00:28:59,236 Gander: When bierce takes that trip to mexico, 566 00:28:59,321 --> 00:29:01,989 if he wasn't killed along the way, 567 00:29:02,074 --> 00:29:04,575 he would have passed through the zona del silencio. 568 00:29:05,661 --> 00:29:08,912 The zona del silencio-- it's known as a place 569 00:29:08,956 --> 00:29:10,914 that's full of meteorites. 570 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:14,543 There's a lot of magnetite in the rock around, 571 00:29:14,628 --> 00:29:17,463 which people say makes it certain 572 00:29:17,548 --> 00:29:20,674 that radio waves don't travel out of there. 573 00:29:20,760 --> 00:29:23,427 The modern ranchers and cattlemen that live in the area 574 00:29:23,471 --> 00:29:26,638 have lots of stories to tell about strange lights in the sky, 575 00:29:26,724 --> 00:29:31,435 even strange encounters with individuals in the desert, 576 00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:33,812 and it is indeed mysterious. 577 00:29:33,898 --> 00:29:35,981 Shatner: Curiously, if you trace the route 578 00:29:36,066 --> 00:29:38,609 that bierce traveled with the mexican army, 579 00:29:38,694 --> 00:29:41,111 it appears that he was headed directly 580 00:29:41,155 --> 00:29:44,156 for the center of the zone of silence. 581 00:29:44,241 --> 00:29:48,118 But what was he hoping to find? 582 00:29:48,204 --> 00:29:50,954 Hawkes: We don't really know what happened to ambrose bierce. 583 00:29:50,998 --> 00:29:54,958 The theory is that bierce, within the zone of silence, 584 00:29:55,002 --> 00:29:57,669 may have discovered or mastered 585 00:29:57,755 --> 00:29:59,838 supernatural methods of traveling 586 00:29:59,924 --> 00:30:01,423 from one place to another 587 00:30:01,509 --> 00:30:05,135 and may have transported, as in his stories, 588 00:30:05,221 --> 00:30:07,304 to an interdimensional space, 589 00:30:07,389 --> 00:30:10,432 never to be heard from again. 590 00:30:12,478 --> 00:30:15,145 Is ambrose bierce 591 00:30:15,231 --> 00:30:18,190 buried in some unmarked grave south of the border? 592 00:30:18,275 --> 00:30:20,317 Or, perhaps more intriguingly, 593 00:30:20,402 --> 00:30:24,321 did ambrose bierce even die at all? 594 00:30:25,616 --> 00:30:27,282 There are some who even suggest 595 00:30:27,326 --> 00:30:29,618 that he was accidently transported 596 00:30:29,703 --> 00:30:31,787 into another dimension. 597 00:30:31,872 --> 00:30:33,789 Sounds preposterous, huh? 598 00:30:34,917 --> 00:30:38,627 Well, for those who are familiar with the bermuda triangle, 599 00:30:38,712 --> 00:30:42,339 it's a question that is not as crazy 600 00:30:42,383 --> 00:30:44,132 as it may seem. 601 00:30:54,770 --> 00:30:57,646 Shatner: A squadron of navy torpedo bombers, 602 00:30:57,690 --> 00:31:00,107 collectively known as flight 19, 603 00:31:00,192 --> 00:31:03,485 takes off for what is supposed to be a routine training mission 604 00:31:03,529 --> 00:31:05,195 over the atlantic ocean. 605 00:31:08,075 --> 00:31:11,785 Liefer: It was five u.S. Navy tbm patrol bombers 606 00:31:11,871 --> 00:31:14,162 that were flying on basically 607 00:31:14,248 --> 00:31:17,165 a, uh, practice navigation mission. 608 00:31:18,252 --> 00:31:20,878 It was the last flight 609 00:31:20,963 --> 00:31:24,381 that was required by the cadets before graduation. 610 00:31:25,551 --> 00:31:28,719 The flight leader said that both of his compasses 611 00:31:28,762 --> 00:31:30,929 on board his aircraft weren't operable. 612 00:31:31,015 --> 00:31:33,557 (alarm buzzing) 613 00:31:33,601 --> 00:31:37,060 well, the chances of both compasses going bad 614 00:31:37,104 --> 00:31:39,563 at the same time is just extremely remote. 615 00:31:39,607 --> 00:31:41,690 And there was also confusion 616 00:31:41,775 --> 00:31:45,235 between the flight leader and the student pilots 617 00:31:45,279 --> 00:31:47,404 about which way they should be going. 618 00:31:47,448 --> 00:31:51,158 Shatner: All five planes experienced equipment malfunctions, 619 00:31:51,243 --> 00:31:55,370 and then all five disappeared from radar. 620 00:31:55,456 --> 00:31:57,706 Their last communication consisted of 621 00:31:57,791 --> 00:32:01,084 nothing but eerie static. 622 00:32:03,589 --> 00:32:05,380 Kaku: This is unprecedented. 623 00:32:05,466 --> 00:32:07,466 Navy crewmen in airplanes 624 00:32:07,551 --> 00:32:10,385 simply disappear off the face of the earth. 625 00:32:10,471 --> 00:32:13,805 Now, of course, hundreds of theories have been proposed. 626 00:32:13,891 --> 00:32:15,891 The most logical theory is the weather. 627 00:32:15,935 --> 00:32:18,435 Perhaps there was a sudden hurricane 628 00:32:18,479 --> 00:32:20,270 that came out of nowhere, 629 00:32:20,356 --> 00:32:22,439 and people got confused. 630 00:32:22,524 --> 00:32:25,692 And, as a consequence, they dove right into the water. 631 00:32:26,820 --> 00:32:29,279 But the record and the data is sparse, 632 00:32:29,365 --> 00:32:32,741 and that's because our technology, our sensors, 633 00:32:32,785 --> 00:32:34,993 were very primitive back then. 634 00:32:35,079 --> 00:32:38,121 So there is a chance that 100 years from now, 635 00:32:38,207 --> 00:32:40,791 we'll still be debating what happened. 636 00:32:40,876 --> 00:32:43,251 Shatner: The disappearance of flight 19 637 00:32:43,337 --> 00:32:45,921 is just one of the many mysterious vanishings 638 00:32:46,006 --> 00:32:50,092 that have taken place in that part of the atlantic ocean. 639 00:32:50,177 --> 00:32:53,470 An area that is now known as 640 00:32:53,555 --> 00:32:55,639 the bermuda triangle. 641 00:32:57,685 --> 00:33:00,602 Airplanes, boats and people have just disappeared 642 00:33:00,688 --> 00:33:03,146 for as long as we've been keeping records of travel 643 00:33:03,232 --> 00:33:04,439 through that area. 644 00:33:05,526 --> 00:33:08,151 And it's been very much a mystery of: 645 00:33:08,237 --> 00:33:10,112 "is there something special about it?" 646 00:33:10,197 --> 00:33:12,990 do the characteristics of the bermuda triangle 647 00:33:13,033 --> 00:33:17,452 make it a unique or, uh, individual body of water? 648 00:33:17,496 --> 00:33:19,162 In-in some ways, yes. 649 00:33:19,206 --> 00:33:21,123 You go from bermuda, 650 00:33:21,166 --> 00:33:25,002 1,000 miles southwest to florida, 651 00:33:25,045 --> 00:33:28,505 you go about 1,000 miles over to puerto rico, 652 00:33:28,549 --> 00:33:31,466 and then you go back 1,000 miles north to bermuda. 653 00:33:31,552 --> 00:33:34,845 That is almost a perfect isosceles triangle. 654 00:33:37,391 --> 00:33:39,057 Dennin: The bermuda triangle area, 655 00:33:39,143 --> 00:33:41,268 because you're right near the jet stream... 656 00:33:43,313 --> 00:33:46,356 ...You do have extremes of weather and ocean conditions. 657 00:33:49,695 --> 00:33:51,403 All of these will interact 658 00:33:51,488 --> 00:33:53,363 with the electromagnetic field of the earth. 659 00:33:54,783 --> 00:33:57,242 And so it's definitely a possibility 660 00:33:57,327 --> 00:34:01,371 that you have some sort of magnetic anomaly. 661 00:34:01,457 --> 00:34:05,083 When you think about possible reasons that people 662 00:34:05,169 --> 00:34:07,669 have weird experiences in the bermuda triangle, 663 00:34:07,713 --> 00:34:09,838 that could be a potential cause. 664 00:34:10,924 --> 00:34:14,593 Shatner: When flight 19 disappeared in 1945, 665 00:34:14,678 --> 00:34:16,178 there were many theories, 666 00:34:16,263 --> 00:34:18,388 but none of them could completely explain 667 00:34:18,474 --> 00:34:21,683 the strange incidents that continued to occur 668 00:34:21,727 --> 00:34:23,685 in this mysterious area. 669 00:34:25,481 --> 00:34:28,023 Then, in 1970, 670 00:34:28,108 --> 00:34:31,485 a young aviator happened to fly through the bermuda triangle 671 00:34:31,570 --> 00:34:34,446 and had no choice 672 00:34:34,531 --> 00:34:37,240 but to face the forces that exist there. 673 00:34:37,326 --> 00:34:41,578 But this time, the pilot lived to tell the tale. 674 00:34:46,085 --> 00:34:49,669 Pilot bruce gernon is flying his small plane 675 00:34:49,755 --> 00:34:51,922 100 miles off the coast of miami. 676 00:34:52,966 --> 00:34:55,884 I've made several hundred flights 677 00:34:55,969 --> 00:34:58,929 flying in the area of the bermuda triangle. 678 00:34:59,973 --> 00:35:02,599 But this time, I found myself surrounded 679 00:35:02,684 --> 00:35:04,434 by this strange storm. 680 00:35:06,563 --> 00:35:09,689 There was only one exit that I could find, 681 00:35:09,775 --> 00:35:12,150 and I call it a tunnel vortex 682 00:35:12,236 --> 00:35:15,403 because these small puffs of clouds formed 683 00:35:15,489 --> 00:35:17,489 around the walls of the tunnel, 684 00:35:17,574 --> 00:35:20,283 and it was rotating slowly counterclockwise, 685 00:35:20,369 --> 00:35:25,205 and it was probably 700 feet wide when I entered it. 686 00:35:28,335 --> 00:35:31,711 I didn't want to do it, because I've been taught not to fly 687 00:35:31,797 --> 00:35:35,423 through horizontal tunnels between storms. 688 00:35:35,509 --> 00:35:38,468 But it was so critical that I decided 689 00:35:38,554 --> 00:35:41,471 that I would go ahead and do it. 690 00:35:42,599 --> 00:35:44,683 Shatner: Bruce experienced some terrifying moments, 691 00:35:44,768 --> 00:35:47,310 but, fortunately, he was able to make it 692 00:35:47,396 --> 00:35:49,479 out of the tunnel alive. 693 00:35:51,608 --> 00:35:54,276 But when he looked at his flight readings, 694 00:35:54,361 --> 00:35:56,987 he realized that his escape 695 00:35:57,030 --> 00:36:00,073 was even more incredible than he thought. 696 00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:03,160 Gernon: When I entered the tunnel vortex, 697 00:36:03,245 --> 00:36:06,913 my navigational instruments said that I was 100 miles 698 00:36:06,999 --> 00:36:08,915 east of miami. 699 00:36:10,043 --> 00:36:13,837 I was in the tunnel for three minutes and 20 seconds. 700 00:36:13,922 --> 00:36:15,922 And when I reached the other end, 701 00:36:16,008 --> 00:36:19,134 I ended up right over miami beach. 702 00:36:19,219 --> 00:36:23,471 So it only took three minutes and 20 seconds 703 00:36:23,557 --> 00:36:25,473 to fly 100 miles. 704 00:36:25,517 --> 00:36:28,685 So I realized, right at that point, 705 00:36:28,729 --> 00:36:31,271 that something unexplainable had just happened. 706 00:36:31,356 --> 00:36:33,523 Shatner: 100 miles? 707 00:36:33,609 --> 00:36:35,901 In only three minutes and 20 seconds? 708 00:36:35,986 --> 00:36:38,195 Bruce's plane would have to have been traveling 709 00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:40,488 1,800 miles per hour 710 00:36:40,532 --> 00:36:43,408 to cross that distance in such a short amount of time, 711 00:36:43,493 --> 00:36:45,118 a speed that his small plane 712 00:36:45,204 --> 00:36:48,288 was not even remotely capable of. 713 00:36:48,373 --> 00:36:51,958 Does bruce's flight suggest that the disappearances 714 00:36:52,044 --> 00:36:54,294 that take place within the bermuda triangle 715 00:36:54,379 --> 00:36:59,382 are the result of time and space being somehow altered? 716 00:36:59,468 --> 00:37:03,762 I believe that flight 19 experienced the same type 717 00:37:03,847 --> 00:37:07,015 of phenomenon of the tunnel vortex 718 00:37:07,100 --> 00:37:08,850 that I experienced. 719 00:37:08,894 --> 00:37:11,061 They didn't know their position, 720 00:37:11,104 --> 00:37:12,938 and so you get totally confused 721 00:37:13,023 --> 00:37:17,484 and end up in a graveyard spiral and crash into the sea. 722 00:37:17,569 --> 00:37:21,404 I was just fortunate because I didn't get confused. 723 00:37:22,950 --> 00:37:25,700 If someone doesn't believe what I experienced, 724 00:37:25,744 --> 00:37:27,327 I like to say to them 725 00:37:27,412 --> 00:37:29,829 the only way to discover 726 00:37:29,915 --> 00:37:32,249 the limits of the possible 727 00:37:32,334 --> 00:37:35,835 is to go beyond them into the impossible. 728 00:37:35,921 --> 00:37:37,420 And that's what I did. 729 00:37:38,924 --> 00:37:40,715 Shatner: Are the strange occurrences 730 00:37:40,801 --> 00:37:42,842 that take place within the bermuda triangle 731 00:37:42,928 --> 00:37:46,096 proof that we don't understand our planet 732 00:37:46,139 --> 00:37:48,056 as well as we think? 733 00:37:48,141 --> 00:37:50,183 It's an intriguing possibility. 734 00:37:50,269 --> 00:37:53,937 But if there are locations on earth 735 00:37:54,022 --> 00:37:56,982 that cause bizarre vanishings, 736 00:37:57,067 --> 00:37:59,901 should we try to investigate those places? 737 00:37:59,945 --> 00:38:03,780 Or are we better off avoiding them 738 00:38:03,865 --> 00:38:13,790 at all costs? 739 00:38:13,875 --> 00:38:16,084 Shatner: Photographer charles mccullar 740 00:38:16,169 --> 00:38:19,796 hikes around the rim of this picturesque body of water. 741 00:38:20,966 --> 00:38:24,551 But what starts out as a simple walk through nature... 742 00:38:24,636 --> 00:38:27,220 Quickly turns tragic. 743 00:38:28,682 --> 00:38:31,266 Erato: Charles planned a two-day excursion to crater lake 744 00:38:31,351 --> 00:38:33,351 to snap winter photography. 745 00:38:33,437 --> 00:38:35,937 But he trudged out through the park entrance 746 00:38:36,023 --> 00:38:37,564 and was never seen again. 747 00:38:38,859 --> 00:38:42,819 Shatner: Authorities tried for months to find charles with no luck. 748 00:38:42,904 --> 00:38:44,779 It wasn't until nearly two years later 749 00:38:44,823 --> 00:38:46,948 that they got a break in the case 750 00:38:47,034 --> 00:38:50,827 when his body was found in a remote part of the park. 751 00:38:53,206 --> 00:38:55,623 The most baffling aspect of the charles mccullar case, 752 00:38:55,709 --> 00:38:58,084 besides the way that the remains were found, 753 00:38:58,170 --> 00:39:00,170 was where the remains were found. 754 00:39:00,213 --> 00:39:03,256 It's about 14 miles from the park entrance, 755 00:39:03,342 --> 00:39:05,550 so he would have had to trudge over 756 00:39:05,635 --> 00:39:07,427 105 inches of new snow, 757 00:39:07,512 --> 00:39:10,513 with some areas having 20-foot snowdrifts, 758 00:39:10,557 --> 00:39:13,683 14 miles to a remote part of the park. 759 00:39:13,769 --> 00:39:16,770 So how did charles get that far into the park? 760 00:39:18,231 --> 00:39:22,400 Layne: The weird part that lingers with his story is: 761 00:39:22,486 --> 00:39:27,113 How did his human remains end up so far away 762 00:39:27,199 --> 00:39:31,159 from where he was, and why were they found 763 00:39:31,244 --> 00:39:34,662 so long after the fact of his disappearance? 764 00:39:34,748 --> 00:39:36,998 Search teams had been looking for him 765 00:39:37,042 --> 00:39:38,875 from the week he disappeared. 766 00:39:40,420 --> 00:39:44,047 Shatner: The idea that someone could hike 14 miles 767 00:39:44,132 --> 00:39:46,007 in eight feet of snow 768 00:39:46,093 --> 00:39:48,218 is a little hard to imagine. 769 00:39:49,429 --> 00:39:52,180 But, on the other hand, crater lake has been the site 770 00:39:52,224 --> 00:39:57,227 of similarly inexplicable occurrences for centuries. 771 00:39:58,271 --> 00:39:59,813 Erato: Crater lake is a hotbed 772 00:39:59,898 --> 00:40:01,898 for stories about paranormal activity 773 00:40:01,983 --> 00:40:04,901 and just supernatural occurrences. 774 00:40:04,986 --> 00:40:07,404 There are stories of people vanishing, 775 00:40:07,489 --> 00:40:10,532 and it ties back to local native tribes 776 00:40:10,617 --> 00:40:13,535 that have lived in the area thinking that it was 777 00:40:13,620 --> 00:40:16,538 basically the location for the devil on the planet earth. 778 00:40:17,791 --> 00:40:20,625 Shatner: Is it possible for a place like crater lake 779 00:40:20,710 --> 00:40:24,212 to be imbued with some kind of dark power? 780 00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:29,175 The native people of that area 781 00:40:29,261 --> 00:40:31,636 had a largely sacred understanding 782 00:40:31,721 --> 00:40:33,555 of that particular body of water. 783 00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:37,434 And when we have a place, a geographic location, 784 00:40:37,519 --> 00:40:40,395 that's recognized as powerful, 785 00:40:40,480 --> 00:40:45,775 when individuals approach that area, unknowing-- 786 00:40:45,819 --> 00:40:48,278 or disrespectful, perhaps, even-- 787 00:40:48,363 --> 00:40:50,447 of the power that's there, 788 00:40:50,532 --> 00:40:53,283 the story never ends well. 789 00:40:54,453 --> 00:40:56,619 Erato: When someone vanishes in the wilderness, 790 00:40:56,705 --> 00:40:59,164 we have a lot of modern-day technology that's used 791 00:40:59,249 --> 00:41:01,040 in the recovery to go find people, 792 00:41:01,126 --> 00:41:02,750 and it works most of the time, 793 00:41:02,836 --> 00:41:04,961 but what drives public fascination about 794 00:41:05,046 --> 00:41:08,006 a lot of these mysteries are the vanishings 795 00:41:08,091 --> 00:41:10,467 where none of that technology seems to work. 796 00:41:10,552 --> 00:41:13,428 We have all this stuff at our disposal, 797 00:41:13,472 --> 00:41:15,180 and it turns up nothing. 798 00:41:15,265 --> 00:41:17,432 And nobody can explain why. 799 00:41:20,770 --> 00:41:24,481 So what do you think about these bizarre vanishings? 800 00:41:24,566 --> 00:41:27,484 Could they all be the result of tragic accidents? 801 00:41:27,527 --> 00:41:29,110 Foul play? 802 00:41:29,196 --> 00:41:34,199 Or might extra-dimensional forces be at work? 803 00:41:34,284 --> 00:41:36,618 Well, in any case, it's safe to say that 804 00:41:36,703 --> 00:41:39,704 these mysterious disappearances 805 00:41:39,789 --> 00:41:42,916 force us to challenge our preconceived notions 806 00:41:43,001 --> 00:41:46,461 about what we believe is fact, 807 00:41:46,546 --> 00:41:48,838 what we believe is fiction 808 00:41:48,924 --> 00:41:53,176 and what we're willing to accept as being simply... 809 00:41:53,261 --> 00:41:55,094 Unexplained. 810 00:41:55,180 --> 00:42:00,852 Captioning provided by a+e networks