Exploring the enigmatic ‘Nevada Triangle’ where planes vanish without a trace

Most of us have heard of the Bermuda Triangle in the North Atlantic Ocean where ships, planes, and people are said to have mysteriously disappeared.

But less familiar is a similar phenomenon in Nevada. 

The Nevada Triangle is a 25,000-square-mile area in a triangular boundary between Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada, and Fresno in California.  

According to experts, approximately 2,000 aircraft have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle over the past 50 years. Many of these planes have vanished without a trace, never to be found due to the rugged, mountainous, and often inaccessible terrain of the area.

While often the highly-trained aviators have been found, others have not. 

The reasons for these disappearances remain shrouded in mystery, but Marty Bevill, who is the president and owner of Fresno Flight Training in Madera, speculates that the challenging landscape of the Sierra Nevada Mountains may be a significant factor.

Bevill explained to FOX26, “When you operate aircraft in high-altitude airports, you encounter challenges such as reduced engine power and wing lift due to the thinner air, as well as limitations in acceleration capabilities. These factors can contribute to the heightened risks faced by pilots flying in such conditions.”

Two notable disappearances, decades apart from each other, are particularly puzzling to aviation experts. 

The Nevada Triangle spans from Las Vegas , Fresno, California and Reno. The 25,000 square-mile region has claimed a slew of planes and human lives

In 1943 a B-24 bomber plane flew into the sky near the triangle but never made it back. It was later found in 1960 following another deadly crash (Pictured: A park service worker pulls a part of the water) 

In 1943, a B-24 bomber flew into the sky above the triangle but never made it back. 

The ‘Lucky Lee’ left for the flight on December 5th, piloted by 2nd Lieutenant Willis Turvey and co-piloted by 2nd Lieutenant Robert M. Hester.

The aircraft also carried four other crew members, 2nd Lieutenant William Thomas Cronin, 2nd Lieutenant Ellis H. Fish, Sergeant Robert Bursey and Sergeant Howard A. Wandtke. 

Cronin was the navigator, Fish was the bombardier, Bursey, the engineer, and Wadntke was the radio operator. 

The crew set out on a routine night training session which would take them on a short 111 mile flight between Hammer Field in Fresno, to Bakersfield, Tucson, Arizona and back. 

But on the first leg of the flight the World War Two bomber vanished, sparking a rescue mission involving nine other B-24 bomber aircrafts. 

But the morning after the the rescue mission began, one of the planes involved in the search also vanished.  The B-24 was piloted by Squadron Commander Captain William Darden and had a crew of seven onboard. 

When the plane encountered troubles, the co-pilot and radio operator chose to jump towards what appeared to be a snow and ice covering the clearing below. 

The other six remained on board. 

The plane took flight on December 5th of that year, piloted by 2nd Lieutenant Willis Turvey and co-piloted by 2nd Lieutenant Robert M. Hester. (Pictured: The crew of the B-24, the Lucky Lee)

The plane and the crew weren’t found until 1955 when the aircraft were found at the bottom of Huntington Lake reservoir when it was drained to repair a dam. 

An investigation later revealed that the plane likely lost control in high winds.  

The two crew who managed to parachute from the plane said the pilot had been wrong about the frozen lake. 

Darden died along with 2nd Lt. Samuel J. Schlosser, Sgt. Erwin Mayo, S/Sgt. Franklin C. Nyswonger, Sgt. Richard L. Spangle and Sgt. Donald C. Vande Plasch. 

The two who survived, George Barulic and 2nd Lt. Marion C. Settle described in chilling detail what happened to the California Landmark Foundation in 2008. 

‘When I jumped out, I hit the back underneath the plane,’ Barulic, then 86 said. 

‘I pulled the rip cord, and I couldn’t have been more than a few hundred feet from the ground.’ 

The exterior of a nose panel that was recovered from the second B-24 Bomber plane crash in 1943

U.S. Navy crew members try to salvage parts of the plane that was found at the bottom of f Huntington Lake reservoir

Pictured: Huntington Lake reservoir today

He landed at the edge of the water and soon found Settle. Both were left with no injuries despite the plane plummeting into the lake. 

‘I looked out, and I could see an oxygen tank floating,’ Barulic recalled.  

The plane was eventually found 190 feet below the water with the remaining five crew members still in their stations. 

Although attempts were made to retrieve the plane from the water, not all of it could be saved. 

A few engines and other tiny parts were pulled out. 

 ‘I think it should be left alone,’ Barulic said of the plane. 

The remains that were recovered have since been buried at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Despite the second plane being discovered, the Lucky Lee’s location has remained a mystery. 

The pilot’s father Robert Hester started his own private search to try and find it. The grieving father eventually died of a heart attack in 1959 without finding the aircraft. 

Steve Fossett lost his life in a tragic plane crash after setting off September 3, 2007, in his single-engine two-seater aircraft 

In a bittersweet twist of fate, the original B-24 was found just a year later in 1960 about 100 miles from Darden’s plane crash location. 

In another shocking plane crash that’s suspected of occurring in the Nevada Triangle, famed aviator Steve Fossett lost his life. 

Fossett, the first person to fly alone in a nonstop trip around the world in a hot air balloon, suddenly disappeared after taking off from Flying M Ranch airfield in Lyon County on September 3, 2007. 

A search-and-rescue mission was launched six hours later after nobody heard from him after departing in his single-engine two-seater plane. 

After about a month of trying to locate the Tennessee-born entrepreneur, he was declared dead. 

Despite not finding him, search crews did locate several other crashed planes in the area, multiple outlets reported. 

A year after concluding that Fossett died, a major clue arose as a hiker discovered his ID card scattered in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains in California – approximately 65 miles from his take-off site.  

Fossett, the first person to fly alone in a nonstop trip around the world in a hot air balloon, was initially declared dead, but in 2008, his wrecked plane and some of his bones were found about miles from his take-off site. (Pictured: Fossett in January 2006)

A year after concluding that Fossett died, a major clue arose as a hiker discovered his ID card (pictured) scattered in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains in California

Pictured: The Sierra Nevada Mountains in California

Part of his plane and some of his remains were found weeks later. By November 3, those bones were confirmed to have belonged to Fossett. 

Officials think that the rest of his remains might have been dragged away by wild animals in the area.  

He died on impact from the crash, according to former Madera County Sheriff John Anderson.  

With all of the tragedies surrounding the Nevada Triangle, it has not yet been definitively determined how or why planes lose control in the area.

While Bevill has predicted that around 2,000 planes went missing in the triangle, Paul Hamilton, a pilot based in Carson City, and Dan Bubb, a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) believe that number is likely inaccurate. 

‘Two thousand crashes seems awfully high to me; that’s a hard number to know,’ Bubb told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.