Bermuda Triangle is a strange triangular area on the Atlantic ocean where many ships sailing through it or planes flying over it have apparently disappeared without a trace. In few of such cases where wrecks could be found, the crew had vanished. And such incidents have been happening since centuries. More than 1,000 ships and planes have disappeared in the triangle area over the past five centuries.
And all these happened when apparently there were no human errors, equipment failures or even natural disasters. Strangely, the ships and aircraft just vanish when everything seems to be okay. Many believe that Devil is at play here and therefore call the area also as Devil's Triangle.
So getting excited already? Well, the facts however are quite far from what is generally known or believed to be true. Many stories and myths have been created by writers through sheer imagination which they used rampantly to draw publicity to their books. In many cases, the facts got blurred. Many theories, controversies and counter arguments have come up over the years challenging the mysteries that created fear psychosis among people since ages.
So what is the fact? Is it at all true? Partially true? Or all nonsense? Let's dig deeper to understand that while keeping in mind that far too many incidents have taken place in this area for it to be ignored casually.
How did it all start?
It all started by authors who were novel writers, and the mystery was initially perpetuated by them. But don't jump into a conclusion yet. While we all know that novel writers are good in wild imaginations, many of these writers were actually popular and well respected authors of their times. The abnormalities on the sea was first noted in 1950 by Edward Jones in the daily newspaper Miami Herald published in Florida. However the mystery started catching wide-scale attention in 1952 when George Sand wrote in Fate magazine about incidents like Flight-19, a training flight of five torpedo bomber planes, all of which went missing during a routine training session in 1945 and never returned.
Subsequently several authors wrote about various other mysterious incidents in the triangle area. While some of such reports were dubious or without much substance, several incidents had actually occurred and remained unexplained. The words around the mystery started spreading fast, and soon Bermuda Triangle was a reality, at least in the minds of millions all over the world. Visit History of Bermuda Triangle to know more about its genesis.
Where is Bermuda Triangle?
By the simplest of all definitions, Bermuda Triangle is located off the South-Eastern coast of the United States and in the Atlantic Ocean. The three corners of the triangle are: Miami (in Florida); San Juan (in Puerto Rico); and Bermuda (a north-Atlantic island). The American author Vincent Gaddis was the first to define this boundary in 1964 in an issue of the magazine named Argosy and called the area 'The Deadly Bermuda Triangle'.
Bermuda Triangle
However over the years, several other authors kept extending the area beyond its original boundary because they seemed to identify mysterious incidents in nearby areas as well. Visit Triangle Location & Map to get details about the area, how it is actually laid out on the Atlantic, understand if it actually has a map to identify the location (i.e. latitude / longitude), and whether you will ever know when you are entering the dreaded area as you take a cruise or flight.
Incidents of disappearances: Lost Planes & Ships in Bermuda Triangle
Here are some of the most amazing stories of planes and ships that disappeared or met with ill fate while crossing the triangle area. As you visit the links, you will also see my findings behind such great mysteries of all times. In most cases I have discussed and explained the possible causes, in some cases I have also given excerpts from official reports that were produced by US Navy, US Air Force or US Coast Guards after completing the search operations. And in several cases, I have given updates on further findings.
Flight 19: The Avenger planes of Flight-19 took off from the U.S Naval Base of Florida for a routine training session on an afternoon of December 1945, but strangely this time they never returned.
PBM Martin Mariner: When all hopes for the above Flight-19 planes were quickly fading, two Martin Mariner planes (flying boats) were sent by US Navy to search them out. One came back, but the other didn't and disappeared forever. Read the full story to know what happened.
Tudor Star Tiger: Star Tiger, a Tudor Mark-IV aircraft disappeared in Bermuda Triangle shortly before it was about to land at the Bermuda airport.
Fight DC-3: The flight DC-3 NC16002 disappeared when it was only 50 miles south of Florida and about to land in Miami.
Flight 441: A Super Constellation Naval Airliner disappeared in October 1954.
C-54 Skymaster: Apparently it seemed to be a sudden thunderstorm that had disintegrated the plane. But there was much more to the story.
Mary Celeste - The Ghost Ship: Known as one of the ghost ships of Bermuda Triangle, Mary Celeste had many misadventures even before her mystery voyage in 1872. But this time, although the ship could be salvaged, none on board could ever be traced.
Carroll A. Deering: This is another ghost ship of Bermuda triangle which created one of the biggest maritime mysteries of all times. While returning from Rio de Janeiro of Brazil to Portland in Maine in January 1921, it was found abandoned and derelict at Diamond Shoals, off Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. But all the 11 crewmen including the captain were missing. They vanished for ever and never to be found again.
Marine Sulphur Queen: This 524-foot carrier of molten sulphur started sail on Feb 2, 1963 from Beaumont, Texas with 39 crew. It was reported lost in Florida Straits on February 4, and lost for ever.
Ellen Austin: The Ellen Austin, an American schooner, met with another ship in Bermuda Triangle. The other ship was moving in full speed but strangely had nobody on board.
USS Cyclops: Disappearance of the carrier ship U.S.S. Cyclops in Bermuda Triangle has been one of the greatest mysteries of the sea.
USS Scorpion: USS Scorpion (SSN-589) was a Nuclear powered submarine of United States Navy that disappeared in Bermuda Triangle area in May 1968.
List of Incidents
The above were only few cases. Check out Bermuda Triangle Incidents for a list of all the major indents in the triangle area that took place over the past centuries including the latest ones along with fascinating stories for many.
Popular theories solving the mystery
So what caused the ships and aircraft to disappear mysteriously? There have been many research and explorations done to uncover the mystery. There is no single theory that can explain all the incidents of disappearances. The ships and aircraft could have been victims of different circumstances, and things would have happened quickly and unexpectedly. While many theories have come out trying to explain the various incidents, here are some of the most popular ones including those that took recourse to supernatural powers and events.
Methane Gas trapped under the sea floor can erupt, and as a result can lower the water density and cause ships to sink like a rock. Even planes flying over it, can catch fire and get completely destroyed during such gas blowout.
Sargasso Sea is a strange area that has no shores and bounded only by water currents on all sides. Many ships passing through it have been stranded and made motionless. Many of them were found derelict and without a soul.
Electronic Fog, a strange thick cloud appears from nowhere and engulfs a ship or a plane. Instruments begin to malfunction, and finally the ship or the aircraft vanishes without a trace.
Supernatural Theories: Lost City of Atlantis under the ocean, UFOs, Aliens are also thought to be behind such mysteries.
More Theories...
There are several other theories that try to solve or explain the mysteries of Bermuda Triangle and try to identify factors causing such incidents. Visit Theories of Bermuda Triangle to know about them all.
Conclusion - The Facts
Since a magazine first coined the phrase 'Bermuda Triangle' in early 1950s, the mystery has continued to attract attention. When repeated mysterious incidents of such scale take place in the same area, it's understandable that it would spread like fire, draw large interests among people at all levels including critics and take a mammoth shape over time. Indeed Bermuda Triangle has become a living legend. But what is the real truth behind all this?
Larry Kusche, a librarian in Arizona State University was a big critic of Bermuda Triangle and made a deep research into the incidents and finally published his book 'The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved' in 1975. Most of his research was based on referring newspapers of the periods that reported the incidents, checking out the meteorological (weather) reports of the days the incidents took place etc. He concluded that the total number of such incidents in the triangle area is nothing unusual in a place where tropical cyclones or hurricanes are quite common. His study also showed that number of incidents here is not significantly more compared to several other ocean areas.
Kusche further stated that several authors wrongly reported the incidents. He pointed out a case where an author misreported a ship disappearing three days after it left a port in Atlantic while the fact was the ship actually left a port of the same name from Pacific ocean which was over 3,000 miles away. In another case Kusche showed that an author described a ship getting lost in calm sea while the meteorological report showed a strong cyclone was passing by.
Now read this... Lloyd's is a London based insurance body and active in marine insurance market since long. They insure ships on voyage. When Lloyd's was asked by a UK television channel if they noted unusual number of ships sinking or getting lost in Bermuda Triangle, they answered 'NO'. They further confirmed that they do not even charge higher insurance rates for ships passing through Bermuda Triangle area because they consider it safe. The US Coast Guard also supported Lloyd's observation that the number of reported missing cases in Bermuda Triangle is nothing unusual.
Here is one more... A study conducted in 2013 for WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) reported the 10 most accident prone ocean areas in the world for shipping, and that does not include Bermuda Triangle. In fact based on accidents recorded, the most dangerous water areas are South China Sea, the Mediterranean and the North Sea.
So does it all mean the notion of Bermuda Triangle being dreaded is baseless? Is it all hunky-dory out there?
Well, there are several questions which still need to be answered before we can come to that conclusion, if at all. Hundreds of ships and planes were actually lost in that area, and many such cases are not yet explained with evidence. It is a fact that authors fanned the fire to take commercial advantage of the situation. But it is hard to believe that a legend of such gigantic nature is just a baseless myth that continues to engulf the world for so many decades. Despite thorough and sustained investigations, numerous incidents continue to baffle the investigators.
Scientists have found some interesting formations on the seafloor within the Bermuda Triangle boundaries. The ocean floor at some places suddenly drop to huge depths. In fact, some locations within the triangle have deepest trenches in the whole of Atlantic. And within this area many vessels were seemingly lost.
It is also a fact that marine and airway corridors across Bermuda Triangle are some of the busiest and most commercially used routes in the world. They are used extensively by numerous cruise lines and airlines connecting The USA, Europe, Caribbean islands, Bermuda, South America and even Africa. Think of what may happen to billions of dollars of thriving international business and its impact on economy if the area gets to be known as dreaded? Will anybody want such flourishing economy to get jeopardized by calling out the area as dangerous?
No comments:
Post a Comment