Flight 502 is one of the strangest phenomena ever recorded in Spain; While the plane was flying over the skies of Euskadi, a strange cloud enveloped it, making it travel in time …
Caravelle 10-R, the model airplane of Flight 502
Carlos García Bermúdez, pilot of the Caravelle 10-R of Aviaco flight 502, was flying to Sondika, in Bilbao, from Manises, Valencia . The day was like any other, so it was a quiet workday.
The flight followed a normal course, without complications. However, when there was a short drive to reach the airport, a strange fog formed a kilometer away.
ToggleThe Mysterious Cloud of Flight 502
Despite the cloud formation, the pilot announced that he would begin his descent, receiving approval from the control tower.
However, when they were just over 3,000 meters high, he was informed that they could not land because the conditions were not given.
With nothing else to do, they came to the conclusion that they should modify their flight plan and head to Santander airport, some 100 kilometers away and with more stable weather conditions to land.
Once again it ascended to 10,000 meters and Flight 502 headed towards its new destination. Just 15 minutes apart and they would land safely.
But once again, another strange cluster of clouds formed in front of them. Visibility began to drop rapidly and the crew gradually noticed how the fog began to “engulf” the plane.
This was lenticular, compact, and shiny. In fact, the glare was so blinding that the pilots were forced to wear goggles in order to visualize something.
At that point, all the instruments on the dashboard began to fail; compasses whirled senselessly, switches flipped on and off themselves. According to their log compass, the plane was heading west, which was correct, but according to the mile meter, they weren’t moving.
They tried to communicate with the control tower, but all radio equipment was blocked. They had no communication with Santander or Sondika.
What was it that enveloped the plane?
To add to the panic, the mile counter had started to move … but backward. And it was doing it at too fast a speed. It was as if the plane had started to fly in reverse.
For the first time in more than 11,500 hours of experience as a commercial flight pilot, Bermúdez didn’t know what to do. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Time vortex
When they came out of the cloud, the weather returned to normal. The plane’s instruments died down, except for the mile counter that kept reading the same distance traveled before entering the strange cloud.
As if those 6 or 7 minutes of anguish had never happened or had not traveled a single meter of distance.
Passing the bad drink, flight 502 landed minutes later at Santander Airport, where the crew recounted their experience.
However, it was there that they discovered that their flight from Bilbao to Santander had lasted 32 minutes, 17 minutes longer than it should have taken.
How to explain this discrepancy? The logical explanation that the pilot had for the situation was the cloud. That mysterious fog had brought them into a kind of temporary vortex that, in one way or another, made their flight much slower.
Many engineers and pilots have studied the case, suggesting that the plane was most likely trapped in some kind of static charge. However, none of these explanations were conclusive as they were too flawed.
This case has gone down in history as one of the strangest aeronautical phenomena in history, remaining totally unsolved. Was it really a time portal that caught Flight 502?