Methane Hydrates Bermuda Triangle

Methane Hydrates Bermuda Triangle

Methane Hydrates Bermuda Triangle

Set within in the Peak District of Derbyshire, the Peak National Park is the oldest national park in the British Isles, the stark beauty and diversity making it a hugely popular visitor attraction, with numbers in excess of 22 million annually.

In the north of the park lies Dark Peak, a remote moorland area home to tales of ghosts and witchcraft and the site of over 100 deaths in planes crashes in the decades before during and after World War II.

Many of these crashes remain unexplained. Could Dark Peak be the UK’s Bermuda Triangle or is there a more prosaic answer?

The PB4Y - 1 Liberator

On 18 December 1943, the PB4Y – 1 Liberator had been searching for submarines in the Bay of Biscay but was recalled due to poor weather conditions. On its journey home it became hopelessly lost and began an aerial game of snakes and ladders, rising and dipping in search of home and safety. Panic set in amongst the crew.

Supposedly over Lincolnshire on the east coast of England, the pilot gave orders to abandon the aircraft, stetting the autopilot at a heading of 290 degrees. Unfortunately this put it directly on course for the city of Manchester.

The Liberator was carrying 16 depth charges, each containing 113 kilos of Torpex high explosive. It was a flying bomb. The empty plane thundered westward, scraping rooftops as hundreds poured from their homes to see the roaring black shape.

It crossed the town of Mosley and hurtled into an area known as Broken Ground, 1500 metres above sea level.