All language subtitles for The.UnXplained.S03E08.720p.WEB.h264-BAE

William shatner:
A transnational flight

vanishes into thin air.

A legendary explorer
is lost in the amazon jungle

and is never seen again.

And a notorious area
in the north atlantic,

where entire airplanes...

Disappear.

When we find out
that someone is lost,

we like to think
that their disappearance

has a rational explanation
and that, at some point,

they'll return.

Hopefully safe and sound.

But what happens
when people don't return

and the circumstances
of their disappearance

defy explanation?

Well...

That is what
we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

shatner:
Malaysia airlines flight mh370

prepares to depart from kuala
lumpur international airport

en route to beijing.

On board are 227 passengers

and a flight crew of 12.

John nance:
Malaysia 370
was a commercial flight.

Malaysia airlines
was a routine procedure,

a routine flight, as we say.

The flight path was
more or less a straight line

aimed from kuala lumpur

out over the water
in, uh, the south china sea

to the main landfall of china.

As far as everybody
was concerned,

it took off normally,

was flying its route north
towards china.

Tuttle:
Then, all of a sudden,
it turned off its communications

and basically went dark.

Shatner: At about 1:20 a.M.,

as the plane was flying
over the south china sea,

ground control lost
all contact with the plane.

One second,
the 240-ton boeing aircraft

was emitting
a clear transponder signal

to air traffic control,

and then, mere moments later,

there was nothing.

The fact that
the signal disappeared...

That was the unusual element.

The fact that that transponder,
which was chirping back

every time it was hit
by the radar beam

from air traffic control,
went silent.

Michio kaku:
Flight controllers
frantically tried

to communicate
with the airplane.

Nothing. What happened?

How can you lose a jetliner?

How can it vanish in thin air?

Shatner:
Although the aircraft was lost
on civilian radar screens,

unbeknownst to ground control,

military radar was able to track
the plane for another hour.

And what it detected
was baffling.

At that point,
when the radios were turned off,

the flight path did
a 90-degree turn to the left,

basically on
a southwestern heading,

and disappeared
into the vastness

of the indian ocean.

We don't know the motivation
for doing this.

We just... we don't know.

Shatner:
Around 2:20 a.M.,
radar contact with the plane

was lost for good.

By 7:20 a.M., one hour after
it was scheduled to land,

authorities in beijing realized

that flight mh370 was not going
to reach its destination.

A search and rescue operation
was immediately launched,

and it quickly became
the most expensive and difficult

in aviation history.

The initial search
was basically, uh,

aircraft searching
for the immediate wreck,

looking for any survivors

or telltale wreckage
on the sea surface.

Unfortunately, after a while,
things sink.

Survivors aren't there,
and you go from

a search and rescue mission to
a search and recovery mission.

Shatner:
When the wreckage
did not turn up,

officials were eventually
forced to admit

that all 239 people
on board the flight...

Had perished.

We were clueless as to what
could have caused this tragedy

right under our noses

in an era when we have
the internet, satellite,

radar communication,

it just disappears
off the radar screen.

Shatner:
The wreckage of the plane,

despite the efforts of the
world's top aviation experts,

had seemingly vanished
without a trace.

But then,
after months of searching,

investigators finally
uncovered an important clue.

Boeing had included
a maintenance reporting thing

that goes by satellite.

It was called an acar system,

and boeing
had installed the system

to report
maintenance information

about the engines
in the airplane every hour.

In this particular case,
it was still pinging away.

It was saying essentially
to the satellite,

"hey, I'm here.
You want any information?"

shatner:
The information revealed
by the acar system was shocking.

It showed that
the plane did not crash

anywhere near
where it was last detected.

It actually changed course

and kept on flying.

Greg liefer: It was flown
for another six hours

after it made the initial

diversion from
its intended flight plan,

and it was flown, uh,
to a very remote area.

Shatner: Based on this data,

aviation experts believe that
the plane most likely crashed

somewhere in the southern
portion of the indian ocean

after running out of fuel.

It seems that the aircraft flew
in the wrong direction

for thousands of miles

to a distant part of the ocean

where there was
no possible place to land.

But how could
that have happened?

Initially, the theory that was
proposed by a lot of the media

was that the pilot in command
committed suicide.

But, in fact,
the accident report

clearly stated that...

The pilot had no history of
emotional or physical problems

that would preclude suicide,

and family, friends
and coworkers said

he had no abnormal behavior
before the flight.

Kaku: Other people say,

no, it was some kind
of mechanical failure.

If it were to catch on fire,

the plane could
rapidly depressurize,

meaning that people
would suffocate very rapidly.

And I think that
what happened then was

you had a ghost airplane.

Everyone was
either dead or dying.

It was randomly going
back and forth until it finally

ran out of fuel and crashed
into the indian ocean.

You had theories of, uh,
oxygen, uh, malfunction

that incapacitated the pilots,

but I don't think that makes
sense because the aircraft

certainly appeared to me
like it was being flown manually

for up to, uh,
at least 30 minutes,

if not up to an hour, after
it made that hard left turn.

The thing that
makes the most sense to me

was some type of hijacking.

The abrupt maneuvers
that it was making,

the changes in altitude
and air speed and heading,

all that indicates to me

that it was a deliberate,
uh, manipulation

by other people that took
control of the aircraft.

But then that poses
the question,

well, why did they
hijack the aircraft?

What was the motive?

And why fly
to the southern indian ocean?

Shatner:
While the theory that the plane
was hijacked may sound logical,

authorities thoroughly
checked the background

of all the passengers and crew,

and none of them
fit the profile of a hijacker.

The truth is that, while several
of the explanations

that have been put forth
seem to have merit,

we simply don't have
enough information

to verify any of them.

We have no way of knowing

because the cockpit voice
recorder is at the bottom

of the indian ocean someplace.

But the other
and the most important thing

to keep in mind is we found
a piece of that airplane.

A piece of the wing
was found and verified.

It was washed up on, I believe,

the shores of madagascar
or close to it,

and it was definitively
from this particular airplane,

so we knew then categorically

that that airplane
had gone into the indian ocean.

And in this case, this
particular piece of the plane

had taken about
a year and a half to float

all the way
across the indian ocean.

Liefer:
It was one of 27 pieces
that were eventually recovered.

And it was one of
three pieces out of the 27

that was positively identified
as coming from the aircraft.

The aircraft wasn't found,
occupants weren't found,

but yet 17 months later,

they find these pieces of debris

thousands of miles away,

and that's what makes
this mystery, I think,

probably the biggest mystery
of all the aviation mysteries.

Shatner:
Unfortunately, a few
scattered pieces of wreckage

are all that remain
of flight mh370,

its passengers and crew.

Is the story
a frustrating reminder that,

in modern times,
the truth can still be elusive

in spite of all the knowledge
and technology at our disposal?

For those of us who learned
about this disappearance

in the news,
that seems to be the case.

But how much more maddening
would it be to try

and understand the disappearance
of someone you know?

Perhaps the answer
can be found by examining

the case of two
united states congressmen

who went missing
nearly 50 years ago

and whose families
are still searching for answers.

Shatner: A cessna airplane
taxis into position

and prepares for departure.

On board the small plane
are four people:

The pilot and three passengers.

Two of the passengers
are united states congressmen.

House majority leader
hale boggs of louisiana,

and alaskan
congressman nick begich.

My dad had a habit
of bringing, uh,

his colleagues, uh, to alaska.

And-and the reason he did is

he wanted people to see
the vastness of it

and the richness of the state.

You can talk about a place,

but until you're in it,

you really have no concept
of-of any of it.

And alaska... it's like 20%
of the landmass of the country.

And my dad, uh,
used small planes often

because you could take
the side trips,

and he wanted to show
people things.

Shatner:
At 9:00 a.M., the plane took off
into the foggy morning sky

and headed for juneau.

They were scheduled
to land there

sometime between 12:00
and 1:00 p.M.

The pilot did not file
a flight plan

until ten minutes
after he took off,

which was, uh,
completely uncharacteristic.

He filed the flight plan
by radio transmissions,

and the route of flight
he intended to take

was across
prince william sound to yakutat

and then from yakutat to juneau.

We know the airplane,
in this particular case,

had six hours of fuel,
and it was only about

a three-and-a-half-hour flight.

And you could get
almost there and turn around

and come back with the fuel
that you had in it,

but they never
made it to juneau.

Shatner:
At about 1:15 p.M.,
air force officials

were informed that the flight
was overdue to land at juneau.

When efforts to communicate
with the plane failed,

both the local authorities
and several branches

of the united states military

launched a massive, coordinated
search for the missing cessna

and the two congressmen aboard.

Throughout the search, there was
30 to 40 aircraft involved

every single day,
and those included assets

from the u.S. Air force,
the u.S. Army, civil air patrol.

And there was a sea search
that was conducted by ships

from the u.S. Coast guard
as well.

Shatner:
After 39 days of searching,

authorities announced that
the plane could not found.

All flight members
were declared dead.

What started as
an adventurous aerial tour

of the alaskan wilderness
in a small plane

while on the way to juneau

somehow went horribly wrong.

Begich:
My dad was a totally
energetic person.

He was 40 years old
when he was lost.

You never think someone's
going to die at-at that age

and in the circumstances, uh,
that this happened.

Shatner:
On the day of the flight,
the weather was reported

"marginal," meaning that flying
conditions were less than ideal.

But not everyone is convinced
that the weather is to blame,

in part because no wreckage
of the crashed plane

was ever found.

And by all accounts,

it should have been found.

Liefer:
During the search,
every possible area was covered.

They said there was
a 97% probability

it would have been found.
Nothing was ever found.

Begich:
They did this massive search
on every level

to come up with
absolutely nothing.

And that was it at the time.

That was all we knew
at the time. The search ended.

Shatner:
The families of the two
congressmen had no choice

but to accept
that both men had died

and that the full story
behind their disappearance

might never be known.

But then, two decades later,

the family of congressman begich

received some startling
new information.

Begich: Years later,

a couple of boxes
of archives showed up

on one of
my brother's doorsteps.

And the files were from the fbi,

and they said that people
had come into the fbi's office,

they said they had
located the plane,

and then said
there were two people

still alive at the crash site.

And so what the fbi had to do

is verify
that the source was valid,

that they really were who they
said they were, and they did.

So you have an agency
confirming the authenticity

of the people
that located the plane,

and two people were
supposed to be alive then.

And that was a shock
because we'd never heard this,

and we had been in touch
with the fbi at the time.

It was traumatic because you
had this unended open question

that never received
a conclusion.

When they were pursuing every
other thing and let us know

about every other thing,
why not this?

Shatner:
In the years since
the fbi documents revealed

that their father may have
survived the initial crash,

the begich family
has reexamined the case

by requesting additional
documents and photographs

related to the search
for the plane.

But, on some occasions,
the government seems

to have not fully cooperated
with their requests.

For instance,
when they requested copies

of aerial photographs
taken by the military

sr-71 reconnaissance airplanes
that flew over the search area,

they got an unexpected answer.

When we asked for the records,
they told us there were none...

That they had gotten rid of
all those sr-71 overflights,

all of this material
was no longer available.

Which is a lie.

It's a lie because
the government never gets rid of

those sr-71 overflights.

They're too valuable,
they cost too much money,

and they don't get rid of them.

So, for some reason, they didn't
want us to have the data.

Shatner:
Did the government
deliberately withhold

aerial photographs
from the search for the plane?

And, if so, were officials

trying to cover up the
possibility that the pictures

might reveal not only
where the plane crashed

but also that two survivors
could have been rescued?

I think all of the people
that engaged in the search

sincerely looked at everything

and continued
to follow up leads,

but I question the honesty
of our government at that time.

There was things
missing in this,

and we don't have the truth
to this day, I'm sure.

So it remains unresolved

until, someday, uh, we can see

the full body of-of the record.

Shatner:
Nearly 50 years
after the disappearance

of congressmen hale boggs
and nick begich,

the questions and possibilities

seem endless.

While there are many theories
as to what took place,

the truth about
what happened to these two men

remains unknown.

Just like the fate
of another figure who,

after taking
an adventurous risk,

never returned.

An explorer who was
so bold, so daring,

that he may have gotten lost

because he didn't
want to be found.

Shatner:
Three englishmen, accompanied
by two brazilian locals,

make their way
through the dense foliage.

The men are searching
for an ancient lost city

that has been rumored
to be hidden deep

within the rain forest.

The leader of their quest

is an ambitious explorer
who feels that he is on the cusp

of a remarkable discovery.

Colonel percy fawcett.

Colonel percy fawcett
is a very interesting

historical character.

He was a geographer,
an explorer,

a member of
the world geographic society,

and also a military man
for most of his career.

So a very capable individual,

and he was responsible
for exploring and mapping

a lot of the unknown regions
of south america.

So, uh, colonel fawcett
makes an interesting

and rather dashing figure.

Shatner:
After decades spent trekking
through south america,

fawcett became convinced
that a massive civilization

had once existed somewhere
in the amazon jungle.

Deyermenjian: Fawcett came upon
this particular manuscript

that was supposed to have been
written by um bandeirante,

a portuguese fortune seeker

back in the 1700s.

And it looks to be describing

a particular city there

in the brazilian amazon.

Lynne mcneill:
That manuscript describes

not just a lost city of ruins

but a lost city
of epic proportions.

A lost city of riches,
a city of gold,

and architectural marvels,
technologically developed,

things that you would
absolutely not expect to find

in the middle
of the south american jungle.

Shatner:
In time, fawcett's fascination

with a lost city in the amazon
turned to obsession.

He even came up with a name for
the place he was searching for.

He called it
"the lost city of z."

armed with clues
from the portuguese manuscript,

he plunged into
the wilderness once more,

determined to solve the mystery.

His companions were his son jack

and his son's friend
raleigh rimmel.

The geographical challenges
along the routes

that fawcett
and his party would face

included things like rivers
that were extremely swift

that one could easily have their
feet knocked from under them,

and there would have been
piranha as well

in these areas of brazil.

And the swamps, the marshes,

were particularly virulent
as far as disease, insects

and geographical difficulties.

Shatner:
As fawcett moved deeper
into the heart of the amazon,

he wrote about his progress

and gave his notes
to native guides

who carried them
back to civilization.

The newspapers eagerly
published the details

of his latest exploits,
portraying the explorer

as an international hero
on the verge of making history.

Deyermenjian:
Colonel fawcett was
a world-known celebrity.

His exploits were
followed in the press

and, uh, were quite popular
and quite well known.

We know what we know
of colonel percy fawcett

largely from his own writings,

stories about
encounters that he had

with native peoples in brazil,

stories of having arrows
drawn on him threateningly.

He tells the story
of a 62-foot anaconda

that he shot
in the spine and killed

as he was canoeing through
the waters down the amazon.

Layne: He writes a letter
to his wife and says,

"there's no fear of failure."

he apparently thinks
he's right on top of it,

that he's going to find it,

this lost city,

and then he vanishes.

Shatner:
Six weeks after
the expedition started,

fawcett's letters
stopped coming,

and people around the world
began to fear

that something terrible
had happened to the explorer

and his team.

After weeks, months
and eventually years of waiting

with no word from him,

it became clear that
colonel percy fawcett,

his son jack,
and friend raleigh rimmel

would never return
from the jungle.

Tok thompson:
There was a great interest
in what could have happened.

Some people thought
he might have been murdered

by the local indigenous groups.

Other people thought that
maybe some, uh, bandits

that were operating in this
area, uh, might have killed him.

Some people even said that,
look, maybe he found it.

Maybe he found
his lost city of z

and just decided to stay there
the rest of his life.

Shatner: The lost city of z

found at last?

Is it possible
that fawcett's dream

actually became a reality?

Brian fawcett,
uh, his youngest son,

reported that
there's a distinct possibility

that percy fawcett
did not intend to return.

That, for him,
if he did find it,

it being the capstone
to what he was looking for,

he might not have intended

to ever leave the jungle.

Layne:
If you have dedicated
your life now

to finding this lost city
of treasure and gold,

and you actually find it,

maybe you don't want to reveal
it to the rest of the world.

Maybe it's perfection,
it's paradise,

maybe you can
make the choice to stay.

Was the treacherous jungle,

insufferable heat

and a face-off
with a giant anaconda

all too much for colonel
percy fawcett and his team?

Or, as some people suggest,

did fawcett make
such an incredible

archaeological discovery

that he chose to never leave it?

Perhaps further clues about
the nature of obsessions

and their consequences

can be found by examining
the life of an author

who helped to pioneer
the science fiction genre

and whose greatest story
may have been...

...His own disappearance.

Shatner:
While serving in the union army,

22-year-old
lieutenant ambrose bierce

is shot in the head by a sniper.

The bullet goes
into his left temple

and lodges behind his left ear.

And it's too deep, at that time,

for them to do some kind
of operation to remove.

So he lives the rest of his life

with a bullet in his head.

Layne:
Some of the people
who knew bierce say that

this brain injury
caused him to become strange.

It caused him to start seeing
the world in a more morbid way.

And after his experience
in the civil war,

he wrote
very memorable short stories

that were filled
with the supernatural.

Shatner:
Ambrose bierce is best known

for writing short stories
that involve

paranormal incidents
and strange disappearances.

One intriguing story

that he wrote for the
san francisco examiner in 1888

was titled "the difficulty
of crossing a field."

hawkes:
"the difficulty
of crossing a field"

was about an alabama farmer
who one day

was taking a walk
across the field...

...When he just disappeared.

He was gone.

And years later, his wife
would say that she could hear

his voice from time to time,

but he wasn't there.

In the story, ambrose bierce
was trying to show us

that this man traveled
interdimensionally

to another place.

Shatner:
Bierce's stories hinted
at alternate worlds

and parallel dimensions

and helped to pioneer
the science fiction genre.

But in December of 1913,
bierce, who by then

was one of america's most
prominent literary figures,

left the country.

He headed south of the border

because he wanted to witness
the mexican revolution

taking place at the time.

Layne: He's 71 years old

when he crosses the border

to supposedly join pancho villa,

the great
revolutionary of mexico.

He writes
one letter in particular

to his niece laura, and he says,

"goodbye. If you hear
of my being stood up

against a mexican stone wall
and shot to rags..."

- man: Fire!
- (gunshots)

"...Please know that I think
it's a pretty good way

"to depart this life.

Affectionately yours, ambrose."

shatner:
While in the city of juárez,

bierce joined pancho villa's
army as an observer.

He then followed the army south

as far as the city of chihuahua.

On December 26, 1913,

bierce sent
a letter to a friend,

which he ended cryptically
by saying:

"as for me, I leave tomorrow

for an unknown destination."

the eccentric author
was never heard from again.

After writing about
people who disappear,

bierce himself disappeared

like a character
in one of his own stories.

There are eyewitness reports
of ambrose bierce dying

all over mexico
at different times

separated by years.

Mcneill:
We have a plethora
of different stories

of people reporting
that he was executed,

of people reporting that
he died of illness,

of people reporting where
and when they last saw him

and who he was with.

All we know is that he was gone.

Shatner:
Reports of bierce's death

would continue to surface for
years after his disappearance.

But for many, these stories
are not as convincing

as the idea
that bierce traveled south

not to join in a civil war

but rather
to visit a remote location

that had captured
his dark imagination.

An area known as

the zone of silence.

One of the more popular theories
about his disappearance

is that he follows pancho villa
into this mysterious area

called the zone of silence,
which was locally known

as a place where people vanish,

where there are odd occurrences.

Gander:
When bierce
takes that trip to mexico,

if he wasn't killed
along the way,

he would have passed through
the zona del silencio.

The zona del silencio...
It's known as a place

that's full of meteorites.

There's a lot of magnetite
in the rock around,

which people say
makes it certain

that radio waves
don't travel out of there.

The modern ranchers and
cattlemen that live in the area

have lots of stories to tell
about strange lights in the sky,

even strange encounters
with individuals in the desert,

and it is indeed mysterious.

Shatner:
Curiously, if you
trace the route

that bierce traveled
with the mexican army,

it appears that
he was headed directly

for the center
of the zone of silence.

But what was he hoping to find?

Hawkes:
We don't really know
what happened to ambrose bierce.

The theory is that bierce,
within the zone of silence,

may have discovered or mastered

supernatural methods
of traveling

from one place to another

and may have transported,
as in his stories,

to an interdimensional space,

never to be heard from again.

Is ambrose bierce

buried in some unmarked grave
south of the border?

Or, perhaps more intriguingly,

did ambrose bierce
even die at all?

There are some who even suggest

that he was
accidently transported

into another dimension.

Sounds preposterous, huh?

Well, for those who are familiar
with the bermuda triangle,

it's a question
that is not as crazy

as it may seem.

Shatner:
A squadron
of navy torpedo bombers,

collectively known as flight 19,

takes off for what is supposed
to be a routine training mission

over the atlantic ocean.

Liefer: It was five
u.S. Navy tbm patrol bombers

that were flying on basically

a, uh, practice
navigation mission.

It was the last flight

that was required by the cadets
before graduation.

The flight leader said that
both of his compasses

on board his aircraft
weren't operable.

(alarm buzzing)

well, the chances
of both compasses going bad

at the same time
is just extremely remote.

And there was also confusion

between the flight leader
and the student pilots

about which way
they should be going.

Shatner:
All five planes experienced
equipment malfunctions,

and then all five
disappeared from radar.

Their last communication
consisted of

nothing but eerie static.

Kaku: This is unprecedented.

Navy crewmen in airplanes

simply disappear
off the face of the earth.

Now, of course, hundreds
of theories have been proposed.

The most logical theory
is the weather.

Perhaps there was
a sudden hurricane

that came out of nowhere,

and people got confused.

And, as a consequence,
they dove right into the water.

But the record
and the data is sparse,

and that's because
our technology, our sensors,

were very primitive back then.

So there is a chance
that 100 years from now,

we'll still be debating
what happened.

Shatner:
The disappearance of flight 19

is just one of the many
mysterious vanishings

that have taken place in
that part of the atlantic ocean.

An area that is now known as

the bermuda triangle.

Airplanes, boats and people
have just disappeared

for as long as we've been
keeping records of travel

through that area.

And it's been
very much a mystery of:

"is there something
special about it?"

do the characteristics
of the bermuda triangle

make it a unique or, uh,
individual body of water?

In-in some ways, yes.

You go from bermuda,

1,000 miles southwest
to florida,

you go about 1,000 miles
over to puerto rico,

and then you go back 1,000 miles
north to bermuda.

That is almost
a perfect isosceles triangle.

Dennin:
The bermuda triangle area,

because you're right near
the jet stream...

...You do have extremes
of weather and ocean conditions.

All of these will interact

with the electromagnetic
field of the earth.

And so it's
definitely a possibility

that you have
some sort of magnetic anomaly.

When you think about
possible reasons that people

have weird experiences
in the bermuda triangle,

that could be a potential cause.

Shatner:
When flight 19
disappeared in 1945,

there were many theories,

but none of them
could completely explain

the strange incidents
that continued to occur

in this mysterious area.

Then, in 1970,

a young aviator happened to fly
through the bermuda triangle

and had no choice

but to face
the forces that exist there.

But this time, the pilot
lived to tell the tale.

Pilot bruce gernon
is flying his small plane

100 miles
off the coast of miami.

I've made
several hundred flights

flying in the area
of the bermuda triangle.

But this time,
I found myself surrounded

by this strange storm.

There was only one exit
that I could find,

and I call it a tunnel vortex

because these small
puffs of clouds formed

around the walls of the tunnel,

and it was rotating
slowly counterclockwise,

and it was probably
700 feet wide when I entered it.

I didn't want to do it, because
I've been taught not to fly

through horizontal tunnels
between storms.

But it was so critical
that I decided

that I would go ahead and do it.

Shatner:
Bruce experienced
some terrifying moments,

but, fortunately,
he was able to make it

out of the tunnel alive.

But when he looked
at his flight readings,

he realized that his escape

was even more incredible
than he thought.

Gernon:
When I entered
the tunnel vortex,

my navigational instruments said
that I was 100 miles

east of miami.

I was in the tunnel for
three minutes and 20 seconds.

And when I reached
the other end,

I ended up
right over miami beach.

So it only took
three minutes and 20 seconds

to fly 100 miles.

So I realized,
right at that point,

that something unexplainable
had just happened.

Shatner: 100 miles?

In only three minutes
and 20 seconds?

Bruce's plane would have
to have been traveling

1,800 miles per hour

to cross that distance
in such a short amount of time,

a speed that his small plane

was not even remotely
capable of.

Does bruce's flight suggest
that the disappearances

that take place within
the bermuda triangle

are the result of time
and space being somehow altered?

I believe that flight 19
experienced the same type

of phenomenon
of the tunnel vortex

that I experienced.

They didn't know their position,

and so you get totally confused

and end up in a graveyard spiral
and crash into the sea.

I was just fortunate
because I didn't get confused.

If someone doesn't believe
what I experienced,

I like to say to them

the only way to discover

the limits of the possible

is to go beyond them
into the impossible.

And that's what I did.

Shatner:
Are the strange occurrences

that take place
within the bermuda triangle

proof that we don't
understand our planet

as well as we think?

It's an intriguing possibility.

But if there are
locations on earth

that cause bizarre vanishings,

should we try
to investigate those places?

Or are we better off
avoiding them

at all costs?

Shatner:
Photographer charles mccullar

hikes around the rim of
this picturesque body of water.

But what starts out as
a simple walk through nature...

Quickly turns tragic.

Erato:
Charles planned a two-day
excursion to crater lake

to snap winter photography.

But he trudged out
through the park entrance

and was never seen again.

Shatner:
Authorities tried for months
to find charles with no luck.

It wasn't until
nearly two years later

that they got
a break in the case

when his body was found
in a remote part of the park.

The most baffling aspect
of the charles mccullar case,

besides the way that
the remains were found,

was where
the remains were found.

It's about 14 miles
from the park entrance,

so he would have
had to trudge over

105 inches of new snow,

with some areas
having 20-foot snowdrifts,

14 miles
to a remote part of the park.

So how did charles
get that far into the park?

Layne:
The weird part that
lingers with his story is:

How did his human remains
end up so far away

from where he was,
and why were they found

so long after the fact
of his disappearance?

Search teams
had been looking for him

from the week he disappeared.

Shatner:
The idea that someone
could hike 14 miles

in eight feet of snow

is a little hard to imagine.

But, on the other hand,
crater lake has been the site

of similarly inexplicable
occurrences for centuries.

Erato: Crater lake is a hotbed

for stories
about paranormal activity

and just
supernatural occurrences.

There are stories
of people vanishing,

and it ties back
to local native tribes

that have lived in the area
thinking that it was

basically the location for
the devil on the planet earth.

Shatner:
Is it possible
for a place like crater lake

to be imbued
with some kind of dark power?

The native people of that area

had a largely sacred
understanding

of that particular
body of water.

And when we have a place,
a geographic location,

that's recognized as powerful,

when individuals approach
that area, unknowing...

Or disrespectful,
perhaps, even...

Of the power that's there,

the story never ends well.

Erato:
When someone vanishes
in the wilderness,

we have a lot of modern-day
technology that's used

in the recovery
to go find people,

and it works most of the time,

but what drives
public fascination about

a lot of these mysteries
are the vanishings

where none of that technology
seems to work.

We have all this stuff
at our disposal,

and it turns up nothing.

And nobody can explain why.

So what do you think about
these bizarre vanishings?

Could they all be the result
of tragic accidents?

Foul play?

Or might extra-dimensional
forces be at work?

Well, in any case,
it's safe to say that

these mysterious disappearances

force us to challenge
our preconceived notions

about what we believe is fact,

what we believe is fiction

and what we're willing
to accept as being simply...

Unexplained.

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