Article : BERMUDA TRIANGLE, Shocking facts about Bermuda Triangle and Lost Planes & Ships in Bermuda Triangle

BERMUDA TRIANGLE, Shocking facts about Bermuda Triangle and Lost Planes & Ships in Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle, also called the Devil's Triangle, is an imaginary area that can be roughly outlined on a map by connecting Miami, Florida; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the Bahamas, an island chain off the coast of the United States. Within that triangular area of the Atlantic Ocean have occurred a number of unexplained disappearances of boats and planes. Additionally, readings on directional devices do not operate normally inside the triangle.

Unusual events in that area date back in recorded history to 1493 and the first voyage of Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) to the New World. In his log, Columbus noted that his compass readings were askew within the area now called the Bermuda Triangle, and he and his crew were confused by shallow areas of sea with no land nearby.

The term "Bermuda Triangle" was first used in an article written by Vincent H. Gaddis for Argosy magazine in 1964. Gaddis claimed that several ships and planes had disappeared without explanation in that area. The article was expanded and included in his book, Invisible Horizons: True Mysteries of the Sea (1965), where he described nine mysterious incidents and provided extensive detail. Many newspapers carried a story in December of 1967 about strange incidents in the Bermuda Triangle after a National Geographic Society news release brought attention to Gaddis's book. The triangle was featured in a cover story in Argosy in 1968, in a book called Limbo of the Lost (1969) by John Wallace Spencer, and in a documentary film, The Devil's Triangle, in 1971. Charles Berlitz's 1974 bestseller The Bermuda Triangle marked the height of the disaster area legend, but some of its sensationalized claims were quickly proved inaccurate.

As early as 1952, George X. Sands had noted in a report in Fate magazine that an unusually large number of strange accidents had occurred in the region associated with the Bermuda Triangle. That many of the accidents in the area are intriguing, and that the area does have some natural conditions that sailors and pilots need to be aware of, has not been challenged. However, neither statistics nor documented evidence indicates that the number of accidents is unusually high or without explanation.

In March 1918, during World War I, the USS Cyclops vanished in the Bermuda Triangle. That ship may have been a casualty of war, but the December 1945 disappearance of Flight 19, a training squadron of five U.S. Navy torpedo bombers, became the most notorious of disappearances associated with the Bermuda Triangle. The squadron left Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with 14 crewmen and disappeared after radioing in several distress messages. A seaplane sent in search of the squadron also vanished. Those two airplane disappearances were frequently cited as the Bermuda Triangle legend grew during the 1960s and 1970s.

Few of those stories included telling details. All of the crewmen of Flight 19 were in training, for example, except for their patrol leader, who had tried to withdraw from his flight duty that day because he was feeling ill. After his compass malfunctioned soon into the flight, the flight leader decided to navigate by land-marks below on the islands of the Florida Keys, with which he was familiar. Visibility became a problem because of a sudden storm, and the leader became disoriented. Flight 19 was still in radio contact with the Fort Lauderdale air base, but after some mechanical difficulties they failed to switch to an emergency frequency. Radio recordings indicate that some of the crew believed they were heading out over the Atlantic Ocean, instead of the Gulf of Mexico as their leader reported.

A search plane took off and was claimed to have disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle with Flight 19. The plane actually blew up 23 seconds after takeoff. Wreckage from Flight 19 has never been recovered.

Other aircraft that have disappeared in the area include a DC-3 carrying 27 passengers in 1948 and a C-124 Globemaster with 53 passengers in 1951. Among the ships often listed among the mysteriously disappeared are the Mary Celeste (1872), the Marine tankership Sulphur Queen with 39 men aboard (1963), and the nuclear-powered submarine Scorpion with a crew of 99 (1968). The Mary Celeste entered the list of supposed Bermuda Triangle mysteries many decades after its odd tragedy. The ship set sail from New York to Genoa, Italy, but was found sailing unmanned some 400 miles off course, off the coast of Africa. Personal articles of the crew were found and food storage areas showed no sign of upheaval. A tattered sail and a missing lifeboat suggested the boat had encountered a storm, but the ship's log, in which information was recorded as late as nine days before the ship was found, made no mention of any kind of catastrophe.

There is no evidence, however, that the Mary Celeste ever entered the area of the Bermuda Triangle. Still, the eerie, unanswered questions concerning its fate are often cited by those who attribute a malevolent force as being responsible for odd and tragic events of the triangle.

Nevertheless, there are many documented disappearances that occurred within the triangle. They include a four-engine Tudor IV air-plane lost in 1948, with 31 aboard; an American freighter, the SS Sandra (1952), which sunk without a trace; a British York transport plane, disappeared in 1952, with 33 aboard; a U.S. Navy Lockheed Constellation airplane, vanished in 1954 with 42 aboard; a U.S. Navy seaplane, 1956, with a crew of 10; a French freighter in 1970; and a German freighter, Anita, lost in 1972 with a crew of 32.

Theories about why so many air and water ships disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle involve strange magnetic fields, time warps, the lost continent of Atlantis, and alien abduction. Other proposed explanations include physical forces unknown to science, a "hole in the sky," and an unusual chemical component in the region's seawater. Several books have suggested that an intelligent, technologically advanced race living in space or under the sea has been responsible for jamming equipment and leading ships and planes to disaster.

Here are 10 Shocking facts about Bermuda Triangle : 

 

1

The Bermuda Triangle is not small. In fact, it is quite large and covers an area of 440,000 miles of sea. This is larger than the combined area of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh & Maharashtra. 

2

The triangle is certainly not fixed and its effect can be experienced outside of the triangle too. 

3

The disappearances are ascribed to UFO's and alien activity, city of Atlantis lost under the triangle, and various other technical, natural and geographical reasons. 

4

 Whenever any plane or ship disappears in the Triangle, its debris cannot be found. The reason behind this is that Gulf Stream runs near the triangle, which quickly gets rid of the debris. 

5

At least 1000 lives are lost within the last 100 years. On average, 4 aircraft and 20 yachts go missing every year. 

6

Inside the Bermuda Triangle, US Government has AUTEC (for Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center), which is located on the Andros Island of Bahamas. Here US Navy tests their submarines, sonar and other weapons. However many are of the view that it is more than just the testing center. 

7

People have experienced electronic fog in the triangle, which can be a Time Travel Tunnel too. Pilot Bruce Gernon claims he lost 28 minutes after flying through a time-warping cloud tunnel. The plane went missing from radars, only to re-emerge in Miami Beach. (Source: The Fog by Bruce Gernon.) 

8

One of the biggest and famous losses of US Military occurred in 1945. Five US Navy Avenger torpedo bombers flew from Fort Lauderdale, Florida for a sortie to the island of Bimini. The mission had 14 men. After about 90 minutes, the radio operators received a signal that the compass was not working. After that the communication was lost. The bombers were never found. The three planes that went for their rescue also disappeared. 

9

The first person to report about Bermuda Triangle was Christopher Columbus. He wrote in his journals that inside the triangle, the ship's compass stopped working and he also saw a fireball in the sky.

10

 Bermuda Triangle is one of the rare places on earth where the compass does not point towards Magnetic North. Instead of that, it point towards true north, which creates confusion and that's why so many ships and planes lost its course in the triangle

Lost Planes & Ships in Bermuda Triangle 

Here are some of the most amazing stories of planes and ships that disappeared 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. 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. 

 

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 have been victims of different circumstances and situations. Things happened quickly and unexpectedly. While many theories have come out, there are few that come close to solving the Bermuda Triangle Mystery.  

 

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. 

 

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. 

 

There are many other theories that try to solve or explain the mysteries of Bermuda Triangle. Check out the Theories of Bermuda Triangle that describes most of such strange factors that would have caused the disappearances. 

 

And there are also theories that took recourse to some supernatural events to explain the disappearances. Check out Supernatural Theories to know about them. 

 

History of Bermuda Triangle 

So how and when did it all start, and who first noted the abnormal incidents in the triangle area? Check out Bermuda Triangle History to know about that. 

 

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