- Joined
- Jul 19, 2004
- Messages
- 29,622
- Location
- Out of Bounds
There is such a thing as magnetic deviation caused by local magnetic interference (e.g., magnetized rock strata). See:It's entirely possible that the Earth's magnetic field is particularly dense there, for some reason. Perhaps as Naughty_Felid says, it may be an iron meteorite of huge size.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_deviation
The area south of Flight 19's first (eastward) leg is a relatively intense source of such interference / deviation.
However, the effects on a magnetic compass are relatively minor - enough to cause a navigation error of a few degrees, but nothing that would (e.g.) cause the compass to oscillate or spin wildly. Such bizarre behavior is a creative gloss in Flight 19 / Bermuda Triangle dramatizations, not a representation of anything known to have occurred during the flight.
In any case, neither Taylor nor any of the student crewmen reported such bizarre compass behavior. They simply claimed one or both of their compass instruments were malfunctioning. The first voice other than Taylor's heard over the radio didn't even mention a compass problem, but simply claimed he / they seemed to have gotten lost. Some of the fliers seemed to have maintained accurate situation awareness on their actual location and general heading(s) regardless of what their instruments were or weren't doing.