Over the years, aircraft and ships have vanished without trace in this infamous triangle located between Miami, Bermuda and Puerto Rico. While their disappearance remains unexplained, another mystery surrounding this phenomenon lies within reports of disappearances declining quickly over time.
At one point during the late 20th century, we would learn of the Bermuda Triangle – an area within the Atlantic Ocean known for consuming planes and ships believing they are food sources.
Over the last several years, new questions about Bermuda Triangle have arisen, most notably: “What has become of Bermuda Triangle and its mystery?” and why it seems less mysterious? Was there an unexpected cease in disappearances recently or perhaps because many “mysteries” have already been solved – just to keep things more intriguing, let’s go back and revisit its origins for an extra dose of suspense:
Attracting interest for this marine area covers 1.5 million sq km can be traced back to an article that was published in 1968 entitled, Flight 19. On 5 December 1945 five US torpedo bombers went missing over the Bermuda Triangle during average weather conditions with several skilled pilots operating them and training pilots nearby.
At 4 pm, trainee and his teacher exchanged a radio message indicating they weren’t sure of their location and that the plane’s compass wasn’t in sync, prompting the planes to fly off course and disappear somewhere to the east of Florida without ever being seen again. Even more tragic was when a helicopter rescue plane sent to search for lost plane disappeared too – leaving 14 bomber crew members and 13 participants of rescue plane in question uncertain of their fates today.
Planes often go missing for various reasons. Navy investigators speculated that following an initial loss of direction, its crew may have had no choice but to land at seas that were rough and violent in order to navigate their way home safely.
According to their report, it is also possible that an unexpected development of weather conditions occurred, although there were no evidence of unusual storms at the time.
Theories suggest that their aircraft had run out of fuel and that an error in technology caused a fatal firefight between rescue plane and rescue helicopter.
Through time, some aspects of the Triangle were linked with sinkings of ships and planes that went missing; for instance, sinkings which occurred prior to 1945 have also been associated with it, such as when 366 passengers onboard USS Cyclops perished while traveling from Panama to Brazil in 1918.
Following disasters which resulted in more than 1,000 deaths, reports circulated suggesting there was some mysterious force present that caused planes and vessels to vanish when passing through it. Explanations given include an unidentified magnetic field attracting metals towards the ocean, alien life living nearby or simulations of time-warps as potential explanations.
However, they did note that the US Coast Guard had created a document detailing potential rational explanations for planes and ships disappearing in the region.
“Most of the disappearances can be attributed to unique environmental characteristics of this area,” they reported. “First, the Devil’s Triangle’ is one of two locations on Earth where magnetic compass needles point toward geographic true north instead of magnetic north – known as compass variation; the difference can reach 20 degrees during an orbit. Navigators should compensate for such change or errors on compass in their calculations as failing to do so can put themselves into serious peril.”
Fishermen also pointed out the existence of another area known as “Devil’s Sea”, off Japan’s eastern coast, where similar issues exist.
“Gulf Stream currents can quickly cover up evidence of disaster that has taken place, turning an accident into an enduring mystery that may never be fully explained.” Additionally, unpredictable Caribbean-Atlantic weather often plays its part as sudden local thunderstorms or choppy waters may prove fatal for pilots and sailors.
What Is Real About the Bermuda Triangle? All this debate about the famous Bermuda Triangle is immaterial because there’s no disputing its facts – as has been shown statistically speaking there are relatively few accidents in that region relative to others in the oceans and seas. A study that assessed dangerous spots for ships found no mention of Bermuda Triangle among their top ten spots for incidents or accidents logged against ships in its top 10.
Most ships sink within the Coral Triangle, an area encompassing coral reefs in a triangular formation located on the western side of oceans in Southeast Asia’s Pacific region and located nearby Southeast Asian islands. This maritime region covers around 6.25 million square km and encompasses Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Philippines along with Solomon Islands and East Timor as part of this region.
Channel 4 produced a documentary exploring events surrounding the Bermuda Triangle. They concluded that “many ships that claimed to have sunk there did not actually occur”, as per US Coast Guard official website. Furthermore, no evidence was found to support any unusual factors being present such as radio waves.
The misconception that there have been more crashes and drownings in this region stems from media (and conspiracy theory believers) who reported on every drowning incident which took place there, adding fuel to its mystery. Actually there have been far fewer incidents here compared to other areas, even given its high traffic flow – yet losses do not exceed other regions due to such densely packed shipping lanes as this one.
Increased reported disappearances may also have resulted from inexperienced investigative work; for example, reports in the media of ships going missing without their return or location being disclosed to authorities.
Why have we become less attentive to this area of the Bermuda Triangle and no longer report disappearances of planes and ships within its boundaries?
Researchers believe this may be attributable to the recent flood of documentaries, television shows and news articles about mysteries that were produced over recent decades. As a result, most people now realize the “Bermuda Triangle Mystery” doesn’t actually exist and that flight arrival and departure numbers within its boundaries are consistent with anywhere else worldwide.
