Flight 201 Cessna N44NC

Had the following incident not been contained in an official report of the National Transportation Safety Board, I would summarily dismiss its scenario as that belonging to the world of science fiction.

   The case of Flight 201 is a classic example of the unexplained and eerie
     incidents that have inspired some of the most fantastic theories of the
       Bermuda Triangle. Not only did the aircraft suddenly lose control from
             an unknown force, but it also seemed to be held in some sort
               of “limbo” until it dropped out of the sky 35 miles away
                 from where it vanished from the radar scope. Within this
                   long interim, the pilot sent no S0S.

                   On the morning of March 31, 1984, this Cessna N44NC
                   was operating as an Air Taxi belonging to Associated Air
               Service. The purpose of the flight was to position the plane at
               Bimini for return passenger service to the U.S. The passengers
             on this flight were “classified” as employees of the company,
               Anne LeTarte, Tammy Christie, and Glynis Bernhard. The two
         co-pilots, Al Wharton and Gerald Lancaster, classified as to receive in
       flight “refresher” training in this model of aircraft.

     At 8:23 a.m. they took-off from runway 27L at Fort Lauderdale. Only a short distance off the coast, the pilot Chuck Sorren contacted the tower by radio and activated his Flight Plan, informing the tower that they were en route to Bimini.

     Bimini was only about 45 miles away now. Flight 201 never arrived. Radar transponder tracking had to be consulted. Only ten minutes after Sorren’s call, the “target” oddly reduced airspeed to an estimated 90 knots. This lasted for about 4 minutes. Yet Sorren had never transmitted a mayday. Controllers then watched the "target" suddenly plunge in a 5,400 feet per minute dive and disappear.

     The most bizarre facet of this case is that the plane was seen again that morning— yet seen right off Bimini, some 35 miles away from where it vanished from radar!

     The first report was the most exact and it came from a woman at Bimini. She said she saw a plane crash into the sea about 1 and a half miles off the northwest coast. She clocked the time as between 8:30 and 9 o'clock, which corresponds to a degree with the flight time of the Cessna.

  Right, transponder tracking. Yellow star marks “crash.”

     There was some more corroboration. Unaware of the earlier witness, another Bimini resident came forward. From a different viewing perspective, he saw a large splash in the water off the island. He too clocked it at about the same time, between 8:30 and 9 o'clock, although he didn't see the distinct outline of an aircraft as in the earlier witness report.

     The Coast Guard conducted an immediate search when they were notified at 10:55 a.m. But the waters around Bimini, which are shallow and clear, revealed no wreckage on the bottom or floating on the surface where a plane was seen to crash.