Zone Of Silence

Pilot Fransisco Sarabia was flying over a patch of desert land in Mexico when his instruments started acting weird. His radio equipment was failing, too. He had to make an emergency landing in the middle of nowhere. Little did he know that this ‘nowhere’ would later be known as ‘The Zone of Silence.’ The mystery of this place equals that of the infamous Bermuda Triangle.

If you ever find yourself in a desert, 40km away from Cellabalos, Mexico and 650km to the South of El Paso, Texas, you’d be in the Mapami Silence Zone.

In 1964, the company PEMEX sent engineers to that desert area. They had to figure out if it was possible to construct an oil pipeline running to Jimenez, Chihuahua, in the Nothern Mexico. But this task was impossible, as radio anomalies affected every single radio of the team. Harry de la Pena, a member of the team, gave the Zone Of Silence its name. He found out that the dead radio zones couldn’t be mapped, as they seemed to wander all over the place. No one could explain the phenomenon.

You’d think that’s enough crazy stuff. But there’s more. Like, there’s a weird trio that the locals keep meeting. Two men and one woman. All three of them are blonde, which is strange for that region. They also wear bizarre clothes that are unsuitable for a walk in the desert. They aren’t foreigners: they speak Spanish as fluently as locals. The story says that the trio visits one ranch frequently and asks to fill their water bottles. One day a ranch worker dared to ask them where they came from. All he got in reply were the words: ‘From above.’

In October 1975, two fossil hunters entered the Zone Of Silence. They didn’t notice a violent rainstorm coming toward them until it was too late. They tried to get away by jumping into their car and driving off, but soon they could feel the ground growing marshy under the wheels. They were preparing for the worst when two men appeared out of nowhere and helped them out. But when they got out to thank the men, they had vanished.

The Zone Of Silence is known to have a patch of 50km deserted land. Meteorite landings are eerily frequent here. Two meteorites even fell to the same spot (in 1938 and 1954).

On July 11, 1970, the US launched an ATHENA rocket from the Air Force base at Green River, Utah. It was meant to collect more data on how vehicles behave when they enter the upper atmosphere. The rocket was supposed to land somewhere near the White Sands, New Mexico. Instead, it went off-course and, as if pulled by some external force, crashed right in the heart of the Zone Of Silence. Coincidence? Freaky irregularity?

The US authorities were granted access to the site. In the process of retrieving the rocket debris, some anomaly tampered with their equipment. This made it almost impossible to locate the rocket. Besides problems with radio signals, these people had problems with TV and satellite signals as well.

So why is all this happening? Scientists say that it’s because of the various minerals in the area. Some scientists are certain that there are high levels of magnetite and uranium there. Others think it’s because of all the asteroids that crashed in the zone. They may contain magnetic cores. The zone is also surrounded by a mountain range which can easily cause interferences.

As for the duo and trio, they have easily been explained away as myths. Possibly used to attract tourists. But are they? You decide!

(With help from books and the internet)