Bermuda triangle

Supernatural mysteries in Bermuda triangle

2011-11-28T12:00:00.000-08:00

Deep somewhere, in the northwestern region of the Atlantic Ocean, perhaps there exists a supernatural energy that engulfs massive bodies that come in contact with it. Yes, I am referring to the Bermuda Triangle, which is known to have caused a number of vessels and aircraft to disappear and has come to be known as the Devil's Triangle. Many have attributed the disappearing acts to extraterrestrial beings. Others believe there are supernatural powers causing this. One of the main reasons for associating the paranormal or supernatural element with these incidents is that, researchers have mostly failed in tracing these disappearances. In spite of detailed investigations of the incidents occurring in the Bermuda Triangle region, science has not been able to explain the exact reasons behind the disappearing of aircraft and ships.

Supernatural Mysteries surrounding the Bermuda Triangle

Greek mythology has stories of a continent called Atlantis that was lost. The leftover technological applications such as anti-gravity devises and other weird technologies of the region of Atlantis are believed as being responsible for the mysterious disappearing of airplanes and ships in the Bermuda Triangle. Many writers proclaim that the mysteries surrounding the Bermuda Triangle are a result of the activities of UFOs.

Mysterious incidents have been taking place in the Bermuda Triangle region of the Atlantic. Most instances of the disappearing of ships and aircraft could not be tracked to scientific phenomena or human error. The incidents bore an element of mystery as the causes behind the happenings could not be deciphered. There are records of quite a few incidents that can be called supernatural mysteries in the Bermuda Triangle.

One of the mishaps that dates back to 1918, was one of the greatest losses of life in the history of the US Navy. In March 1918, USS Cyclops carrying a crew of 309 departed from the island of Barbados, after which it disappeared. Some say enemy activities or natural disasters were reasons behind this mishap but no conclusive results have yet been obtained.

Flight 19, a training flight carrying bombers disappeared on December 15, 1945. The flight that began under the control of an experienced pilot was found missing while it was traveling over the Atlantic Ocean. There were no known records of the flight having to face problems. But some say that the control dials had started working in an erratic manner. However, the exact reason behind the disappearing of this flight is still unknown.

The other mysterious supernatural stories revolving around the Bermuda Triangle include, the disappearing of a schooner named Carroll A. Deering and that of a Douglas DC-3 aircraft while flying from Puerto Rico to Miami. The exact reasons behind both the ill-fated events could not be found through investigation or research.

Occurrences of such mysterious events like sudden disappearing of vessels and aircraft have left everyone puzzled. Mysterious disappearing of ships and airplanes led people to believe in the presence of supernatural powers in the Bermuda Triangle region. Science has failed to ascertain either human mistakes or any natural phenomenon causing these mishaps. This has given rise to a common belief that supernatural powers may be involved in the Bermuda Triangle mysteries. Till scientific research brings out concrete reasons behind the the unfortunate incidents that take place in the Bermuda Triangle region, the world will continue to attribute them to supernatural powers.

Bermuda Triangle facts

2011-11-22T01:47:00.000-08:00

Bermuda Triangle Facts and Theories

The Bermuda triangle, aka the Devil's triangle, became famous overnight as a result of the Flight 19 incident in 1945, wherein a group of US fighter planes mysteriously disappeared from this area, and the aircraft which went as a part of the search operation met with the same fate. What followed was a series of disappearances of aircraft and ships of all shapes and sizes, which left people wondering as to what was wrong with this region. One of the first conclusions came in the form of abnormal gravity pattern in this region, wherein anything that entered the demarcated triangle area would hit the bottom of the ocean floor, and thus meet a watery grave.

Yet another conclusion held the methane deposits of this region responsible for the disappearances. This concept came to light when a study at the Monash University, published in the American Journal of Physics claimed that the methane deposits in this area were responsible for the alleged disappearances. The study stressed on the fact that this area contained large deposits of methane, and the methane that was released from the ocean floor surfaced in the form of gigantic bubbles and knocked down the aircraft and vessels. The fact that this report was published in one of the leading magazines which claimed to be the proponent of science meant that people just closed their eyes and believed it, and thus methane gas theory became one of the most convincing plots of the mystery of the Bermuda triangle.

Then there were other concepts like alien abduction, wherein the aliens allegedly chose this area to collect specimen for their research, and passage to the other world, which suggested that the aircraft and ships that disappeared from here entered some other world, and still continue to thrive there. Many such assumptions came to light over the last few years, and all of them had one thing in common - all of them were illogical conclusions, based on baseless facts and half knowledge, which were produced as Bermuda triangle facts to convince people of something that didn't exist in the very first place.

Bermuda Triangle: Interesting Facts about the Disappearances that Never took Place

It is a well-known fact that adding some scientific words can make even the most incredulous statement look like a scientifically acknowledge concept. Same is the case with the Bermuda triangle mystery, wherein words like gravity, methane and extra-terrestrial create that aura of mysteriousness around an area which is as normal as any other part of the vast ocean. One has to understand the fact that this area lies in the tropical region. It is subjected to three way water currents in form of the jet streams, the easterlies and the gulf stream. This combination has the tendency of causing frequent storms in this area, sometimes powerful enough to damage a ship and cause it to sink.

One is bound to be left bewildered by the large number of accidents that take place in this very region? The answer is simple - several accidents which never took place in this region somehow make it to the list of accidents in Bermuda triangle over the course of time. Even more surprising is the fact that the ships which never sailed, and the aircraft which never took off, also find a place in the list of disappearances In the Devil's triangle. For instance the disappearance of a vessel named 'Mary Celeste' caused some commotion in this region in 1872, eventually it was found abandoned off the Portugal coast.

Facts about Bermuda Triangle and Flight 19 Incident
As far as Flight 19 incident is concerned, it was a group of trainee pilots on a routine training. The basic norm of fighter plane formations is that the leader guides the way, and coordinates with other members. In case of Flight 19, the leader himself lost his way as a result of a technical snag, and the entire group lost the coordination. This caused all the planes to hover into the sky until their fuel was over, and eventually they met their watery grave. The aircraft which went as a part of search operation had a history of technical problems, which resulted in crash landing into the ocean. It is virtually impossible to find anything that is lost in the vast ocean, and that explains why the remains of these aircraft were never recovered.

Bermuda Triangle Myths Debunked
Concluding that gravity causes the aircraft or ships to drown in the water is not really convincing when several ships and airplanes cross this area on a day-to-day basis. In case of methane gas theory, it is indeed a fact that this region has large deposits of methane, but then there are areas with even larger deposits (off the Carolina coast for instance), but we seldom hear about any accidents happening out there. More importantly, the methane gas bubbles surfacing from the ocean floor may be large, but they are not as large as to make a huge vessel vanish without any trace. In case of the theory of extraterrestrial activities and passage to the other world, it is just one of those assumptions based on our fancy towards the depiction of extraterrestrial and paranormal phenomena in the popular culture.

After going through these Bermuda triangle facts and myths, it becomes pretty evident that the alleged Bermuda triangle mystery was basically a deceit created to get some free publicity. The popularity of this region has also soared considerably over the last few decades. It isn't quite surprising as most of us have a tendency of believing and spreading the rumors, without putting in any efforts to check their credibility.

How did the Bermuda triangle myth begin?

2011-11-22T01:46:00.000-08:00

Bermuda Triangle: Beyond the Conspiracy Theories

Right from the disappearance of the 165m long USS Cyclops, which vanished without a trace in the Bermuda Triangle in March 1918, to the Flight 19 incident, wherein five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger bombers (and a Mariner aircraft) disappeared in December 1945, this region has some of the most unbelievable events to its credit. But as they say, "if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't," a little bit of investigation and you realize that the so-called Bermuda Triangle mystery is nothing, but a box full of exaggerated claims. The Flight 19 incident, for instance, turned out to be a simple case of human error, wherein the pilots lost the track of their position due to bad weather, kept circling over the ocean, and eventually went down when their fuel tanks became empty. Similarly, if you note that the Mariner aircraft, which went as a part of the search and rescue operation, and eventually disappeared, was notorious for technical snags, you realize that its disappearance was not at all mysterious.

We don't really need to resort to some paranormal phenomenon or blame the aliens for these disappearances, when we have obvious reasons, like rough weather prevailing in the tropical waters (USS Cyclops incident) and human error (Flight 19 incident), at our disposal. The number of actual disappearances in the Triangle is not at all surprising, if you take into consideration (i) the size of the demarcated Bermuda Triangle area in the North Atlantic, (ii) the fact that it lies in the tropical waters wherein rough weather, typically characterized by the presence of thunderstorms and water spouts, is not a rare phenomenon, (iii) the presence of the jet streams, easterlies and the Gulf stream in this region and (iv) the heavy flow of traffic that this region is subjected to. More importantly, these natural explanations also help us do away with the theories of methane hydrates and magnetic forces which sound scientific, but are actually baseless.

Origins of the Bermuda Triangle Myth

So how did the Bermuda Triangle phenomenon come into existence and, more importantly, how did it become so popular if there is nothing mysterious about it? This so-called mystery began with a series of articles that were published in various newspapers and magazines in the 1950s, and was further fueled by several books and documentaries which followed throughout the 20th century into the 21st. But obviously, the authors didn't make any attempt to investigate the incidents that they were speaking about. If they had done so, they would have known that the demarcated region of the North Atlantic Ocean was as dangerous as any other part of the Tropics. So who were these people who contributed to the mystery.... or should we say the hoax of the Bermuda Triangle?

It is not possible to pinpoint one individual in particular with many people contributing to the rise of this myth. However, there do exist some people who had a major role to play in its rise. One such person was E. V. W. Jones, whose article titled 'Sea's Puzzles still Baffle Men in Pushbutton Age' put the Bermuda Triangle into the spotlight. In this article, which was written for Associated Press (AP) and published in the Miami Herald on 17th September, 1950, Jones spoke about the mysterious region in the North Atlantic wherein ships and aircraft disappeared without leaving any trace. To support his claim, he enlisted some accidents which occurred in this part of the Atlantic between 1945 and 1950 - including the disappearance of five torpedo planes which took off from the Navy's Fort Lauderdale air station on 5th December, 1945 (Flight 19 incident), a British airliner (the Ariel), and a British plane (the Star Tiger).

In 1952, yet another article about the mysterious disappearances of vessels and aircraft in the North Atlantic appeared - this time in the October issue of the Fate magazine, a United States based magazine about paranormal phenomena. In the article titled 'Sea Mystery at Our Back Door', author George X. Sand linked the disappearances of airplanes and ships to the supernatural, thus becoming the first person to put forth the concept of supernatural mysteries in the Bermuda Triangle - and make it sound all the more mysterious. It was this very article by Sand which introduced the world to the demarcated region between Florida, Puerto Rico, and the islands of Bermuda, which we know today as the 'Bermuda Triangle'.

While a few more articles giving brief accounts of disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle followed over the course of time, the alleged mystery once again shot to fame in 1962 with an article that was published in the American Legion Magazine. The article, titled 'The Lost Patrol' by Allen W. Eckert, stressed on the Flight 19 incident i.e. the 1945 incident involving the five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger bombers wherein 14 people lost their lives. In his article, Eckert published what were believed to be the last words of the flight leader, wherein he said:

"we are entering white water, nothing seems right. We don't know where we are, the water is green, no white"
Alongside the disappearance of these five planes, Eckert also stressed on the disappearance of the Mariner aircraft which was sent as a part of the search and rescue mission. All this information contributed to the popularity of the Devil's Triangle. Though neither Jones, nor Eckert, made any attempt to reveal that the five TBM Avenger bombers which disappeared were on a training mission or that the Mariner aircraft was notorious for technical snags it experienced frequently. If they had, the Flight 19 incident would have been reduced to yet another aviation disaster, instead of the trademark Bermuda Triangle incident which features in virtually every write-up and documentary about the Triangle today. As with any other mystery, even the Bermuda Triangle mystery continued to sensationalize with time.

Contributions by Vincent Gaddis and Charles Berlitz

In February 1964, Argosy - a magazine of masterpiece fiction, published an article titled 'The Deadly Bermuda Triangle' which was written by Vincent Gaddis. In his article, Gaddis cited a pattern of strange events in this region. It was Vincent Gaddis who coined the phrase 'Bermuda Triangle'. In 1965, Gaddis published his research on the Triangle in form of a book titled the 'Invisible Horizons: True Mysteries of the Sea'. In this book, Gaddis enlisted nine separate accidents which occurred in this region, with extensive details about each of them.

While the 'Invisible Horizons: True Mysteries of the Sea', written by Vincent Gaddis, was the first book on Bermuda Triangle, it was eventually followed by numerous other books, including the 'Limbo of the Lost' by John Wallace Spencer in 1969, 'The Devil's Triangle' and 'The Devil's Triangle 2' by Richard Winer in 1974 and 1975 respectively, and 'Into the Bermuda Triangle: Pursuing the Truth Behind the World's Greatest Mystery' by Gian J. Quasar in 2003. While all these books, and a documentary released in 1971, did contribute to the popularity of the Bermuda Triangle hoax, the credit for actually sensationalizing this hoax to an extent that the whole world took a note of it goes to Charles Berlitz.

It was Charles Berlitz's 1974 bestseller, 'The Bermuda Triangle', which gave this mystery a serious boost, such that instantaneously the whole world was aware of this place which gobbled gigantic ships and aircraft - even before the crew realized what was happening. No other work on Bermuda Triangle was as sensational as that of Berlitz. Right from Christopher Columbus' log records, wherein Columbus speaks about unusual events he experienced, to the Flight 19 incident and other recent incidents, Simply put, Berlitz's book had everything required to make Bermuda Triangle a worldwide sensation - which it actually did, but only until Larry Kusche came into the picture.

Critical Analysis by Larry Kusche

In 1975, the Bermuda Triangle once again shot to fame with the release of Larry Kusche's critical take on this mystery - 'The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved'. Unlike the previous authors like Charles Berlitz and Vincent Gaddis, Larry left no stones unturned and investigated all the claims that were made by them. In his book, Larry cites:

"the legend of the Bermuda Triangle is a manufactured mystery, perpetuated by writers who either purposely or unknowingly made use of misconceptions, faulty reasoning, and sensationalism."

Larry noticed a 'strange' pattern wherein ships which never left the port, aircraft which never took off and accidents which happened in some other part of the Atlantic, found a place in these books about the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle. Loopholes like Berlitz going to the extent of attributing the disappearance of Mary Celeste to the Devil's Triangle, when this ship never passed through the region, made it clear that there was nothing unusual about the Bermuda Triangle.

It may come as a surprise for many but the radio transmissions of Flight 19 leader, which have become an integral part of the sensational literature on the Bermuda triangle, are not even mentioned in the official reports of the Navy Board of Investigation. The myth of the Bermuda Triangle became even more evident with the U.S. Navy refusing to identify any such region in the Atlantic, and oceanographers citing that accidents in this region were not at all rare as a result of weather conditions prevailing here.

Interestingly, the Bermuda Triangle is not the only place which is notorious for such disappearances of ships and aircraft. The Dragon's Triangle, off the coast of Japan, is also known for such mysterious disappearances of military vessels and aircraft. While that may not be intriguing any more, the fact that even this region owes its popularity to none other than Charles Berlitz and his storytelling, surely is!