On the Nox of June 11 , 1962 , three inmates get away Alcatraz aboard a improvised inflatable raft . They were never seen again and are believe to have go in the icy waters of San Francisco Bay . But a Modern estimator model using diachronic tide data argue they had a narrow time windowpane to make it safely to domain .
The prison break — intricately planned and put to death by banking company robbers Clarence Anglin , John Anglin and Frank Morris — was calendar month in the qualification . The captive used sharpen spoons to dig holes in their mobile phone walls , allowing them to arrive at entry into an unused service corridor . give behind in their bottom dummy heads , fashioned out of toilet newspaper , scoop and hair , the three men climb up to the cap through a ventilation rotating shaft , surmount the prison fencing and expand a raft made from raincoats on the northeastern coast of the island .
late , a team of Dutch scientist , using historical lunar time period data replicating consideration in San Francisco Bay that evening , cypher the chances of the prisoner making landfall . The investigator go multiple feigning , launching 50 virtual rafts every half - hour between 8 post-mortem and 4 am from a image of possible location on the island . Their computer model also took into account that the three men would dodder the muckle , particularly as it set out skinny to land .
The end ? In the earlier part of the evening , the forthcoming lunar time period would have cross them out to the ocean , where they would have died of hypothermia . If , on the other hand , they had start after 1 am , the lunar time period would have pushed them back into the true laurel , perchance south towards Oakland , past Treasure Island . Here too , they would have spend so much time in the piddle that they belike would have died .
However , as the BBCreports , the captive had one opportunity where they could have live :
If the triplet had leave at midnight and had totter severely to the north , then the unattackable stream could have figure out in their favor .
“ If they hit it exactly at midnight , the beautiful matter is that we see that they would have been blow out towards the Golden Gate Bridge , ” said Dutch researcher Dr. Rolf Hut .
“ But the moment they were penny-pinching to the Golden Gate would have been the moment the lunar time period reverse .
“ And that would give them a moment of slack tide , in which they could have hand marine headlands in the northern site of the Golden Gate Bridge . ”
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