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The Bermuda Triangle (sometimes known as Devil's Triangle) is a 1.5-million-square-mile (4,000,000 km²) area of ocean roughly defined by Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and the southern tip of Florida. Some believe it is a paranormal site in which the laws of physics are either violated, altered, or both.

It is said that within this area a number of ships and airplanes have disappeared under highly unusual circumstances. The United States Coast Guard and others disagree with the assessment of paranormal activity, arguing that the number of incidents involving lost ships and airplanes is no larger than that of any other heavily traveled region of the world. Many of the allegedly mysterious cases have, upon closer examination, proved not so unusual, with innacuracies and misinformation about the cases often cirulating and recirculating over the decades.

Another area that is classified by many as having the same paranormal effects is the Devil's Sea, located near Japan.

History of the Bermuda Triangle

First citations

The first mention of any disappearances in the area was made in 1950 by E.V.W. Jones as a sidebar on the Associated Press wire service regarding recent ship losses in the area. Jones' article notes the "mysterious disappearances" of ships, airplanes and small boats in the region and ascribes it the name "The Devil's Sea". It was mentioned again in 1952 in a Fate magazine article by George X. Sand, who outlined several "strange marine disappearances". The term "Bermuda Triangle" was popularized by Vincent Gaddis in a 1964 Argosy feature.mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Popularized by Berlitz

The area achieved its fame largely through the efforts of Charles Berlitz in his 1974 book The Bermuda Triangle (right) and its subsequent film adaptation. The book consists of a series of recountings of mysterious disappearances of ships and aircraft, in particular the December 1945 loss of five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo bombers known as Flight 19.

The book was a bestseller and included the various suggestions that had been made to account for the disappearances. Among these were high accident rates due to high traffic volumes; natural storms; "temporal holes"; the lost empire of Atlantis; transportation by extraterrestrial technology; and other natural or supernatural causes.

Scientific explanations

Skeptical responses

Critics have charged that Berlitz and others have exaggerated the "mysterious" aspects of some cases (Berlitz himself did not advocate any paranormal explanation), and argue that the Bermuda Triangle sees no more "disappearances" than any comparable area of the oceans. Of note, Lloyd's of London has determined the "triangle" to be no more dangerous than any other piece of the ocean, and does not charge unusual rates of insurance for passage through the area. Coast Guard records confirm this.

Skeptics comment that the disappearance of a train between two stops would be more convincing evidence of paranormal activity, and the fact that such things do not occur suggests that paranormal explanations are not needed for the disappearance of ships and airplanes in the far less predictable open ocean.

Kusche's research

Intrigued by the number of students coming to him looking for information about the Bermuda Triangle, Lawrence Kusche, a reference librarian with Arizona State University at the time of the Flight 19 incident, began an exhaustive follow-up investigation of the original reports. His findings were eventually published in 1975 as The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved.

Kusche's research revealed a number of inaccuracies and inconsistencies between Berlitz's accounts and statements from eyewitnesses, participants and others involved in the initial incidents. He noted cases where pertinent information went unreported, such as the disappearance of round-the-world yachtsman Donald Crowhurst which Berlitz had presented as a mystery, despite clear evidence that Crowhurst had fabricated the accounts of his voyage and had probably committed suicide. Another example was the ore-carrier Berlitz recounted as lost without trace three days out of an Atlantic port when it had been lost three days out of a port with the same name in the Pacific Ocean. Kusche also argued that a large percentage of the incidents attributed to the Bermuda Triangle's mysterious influence actually occurred well outside it.

Kusche came to several conclusions:

• The proportion of those ships and airplanes reported missing to those travelling through the Bermuda Triangle area was not significantly greater than any other ocean area.
• In an area frequented by tropical storms, the total disappearance of some ships was neither unlikely nor mysterious.
• The number of disappearances had been exaggerated by sloppy research. A boat listed as missing would be reported, but not necessarily its eventual if belated return to port.
• The circumstances of confirmed disappearances were frequently misreported in Berlitz's accounts. The numbers of ships disappearing in supposedly calm weather, for instance, did not tally with weather reports published at the time.

Methane hydrates

An explanation for some of the disappearances focuses on the presence of vast fields of methane hydrates on the continental shelves. A paper was published in 1981 by the United States Geological Survey about the appearance of hydrates in the Blake Ridge area, off the southeastern United States coast. Periodic methane eruptions may produce regions of frothy water that are no longer capable of providing adequate buoyancy for ships. If this were the case, such an area forming around a ship could cause it to sink very rapidly and without warning. Laboratory experiments have proven that bubbles can, indeed, sink a scale model ship by decreasing the density of the water. This effect, however, may not scale up to actual size of the ships due to the physics involved.

Some writers have suggested that methane hydrate is suddenly released in the form of giant gas bubbles, with diameters comparable to that of the ships purportedly sunk by them (see Bermuda Triangle mystery solved? It's a load of gas), though physical feasibility of this has been challenged, as even if release of large bubbles was possible, they would collapse and break up into smaller ones as they would be rising up towards the surface. However this could still reduce buoyancy to a dangerously low level, possibly sinking the ships.

Hypothetically, methane gas might also be involved in airplane crashes, as it is not as dense as air and thus would not generate as much lift required to keep the airplane flying. Furthermore, methane may interfere with functions of an altimeter in an airplane, which determines the altitude by measuring the density of the surrounding air: since methane is less dense, the altimeter would indicate that the airplane is climbing, which may cause the pilot to fly the airplane lower, crashing it. Another possibility is that methane in the engines disrupts the mix of fuel and air, possibly stopping combustion and stalling the engines. All of these effects of methane have been shown experimentally.

Freak waves

Research has shown that freak, or rogue waves can reach up to up to 30 m (100 feet) in height and are capable of sinking the largest ships within moments. Although these are very rare, in some areas ocean currents mean they happen more often than the norm. Such waves have now been hypothesized as a cause for many unexplained shipping losses over the years.

Famous incidents

Flight 19

One of the best known Bermuda Triangle incidents concerns the loss of Flight 19, a squadron of five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger torpedo bombers on a training flight out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on December 5, 1945. According to Berlitz, the flight consisted of expert Marine Corps aviators who, after reporting a number of odd visual effects, simply disappeared, an account which isn't entirely true. Furthermore, Berlitz claims that because the TBM Avenger bombers were built to float for long periods, they should have been found the next day considering what were reported as calm seas and a clear sky. However, not only were they never found, a Navy search and rescue seaplane that went after them was also lost. Adding to the intrigue is that the Navy's report of the accident was ascribed to "causes or reasons unknown".

While the basic facts of Berlitz's version of the story are essentially accurate, some important details are missing. The image of a squadron of seasoned combat aviators disappearing on a sunny afternoon is inaccurate. Rather, it was a squadron of lost, inexperienced flight trainees forced to ditch their out-of-fuel airplanes into unknown stormy waters in the dark of night. As for the Navy's report, it is claimed that the original report blamed the accident on the commander's confusion (Lt. Taylor abandoned his airplanes twice in the Pacific after getting lost returning to his carrier), but the wording was changed in deference to the wishes of his family.

Star Tiger

If the disappearance of Flight 19 had been isolated as an incident, it would remain a great mystery of aviation. However, aircraft disappearances continued to occur and be reported both to and by authorities, some near the same location, and/or with equally extended and confusing radio traffic, indicating that Taylor's flight may have been only one example among many...disappearances including that of a four-engined Tudor IV airliner named Star Tiger, in the predawn hours of January 31, 1948.

Piloted by Captain B. W. McMillan, the airliner, which carried twenty-nine passengers and crew on-board, had left hours earlier from Santa Maria, Azores, one of numerous scheduled fuel stopovers from London, England to Havana, Cuba. While approaching Bermuda, McMillan made the expected contact with Kindley Field, the next stopover, requesting a radio bearing to calibrate his navigation and insure he remained on course. With the response indicating that the plane was slightly off course, its position was corrected after Bermuda relayed a first-class bearing of 72 degrees from the island. At this point, with Star Tiger less than two hours flight away, McMillan gave confirmation of an ETA of 05:00 hours, an hour late due to strong headwinds; no further transmission from the aircraft was ever received.

With the plane's last known position report precise, placing the disappearance within a confined flight range of the position northeast, rescue operations were launched after the plane went overdue for arrival; in spite of the aid, no trace was ever found, and the search eventually discontinued with negative results.

In the report issued soon thereafter by the Civil Air Ministry, numerous hypotheses as to what might've occurred during the flight final two hours are given, before each being subsequently rejected: "There would accordingly be no grounds for supposing that Star Tiger fell into the sea in consequence of having been deprived of her radio, having failed to find her destination, and having exhausted her fuel." "There is good reason to suppose that no distress message was transmitted from the aircraft, for there were many radio receiving stations listening on the aircraft's frequencies, and none reported such a message." "...The weather was stable, there were no atmospheric disturbances of a serious kind which might cause structural damage to the aircraft, and there were no electrical storms." The aircraft was ruled unable to have gone off course, as the broadcast bearing from Bermuda, with winds pervailing, would have brought it within thirty miles of the island: "The aircraft could hardly have failed to find the island in a short time, in the conditions of visibility which prevailed." Engine difficulty was ruled out as likely cause, since at such late stage in the flight, without the added weight of extra fuel aboard, the aircraft might've been flown safely on three, or even two, engines instead of the four it had. The probability of the aircraft entirely losing three engines in the course of under two hours was considered absurd.

Faced with the accumulation of evidence, or perhaps lack thereof, the board of investigation addressed the loss of the Star Tiger with remarked eloquence: "In closing this report it may truly be said that no more baffling problem has ever been presented for investigation. In the complete absence of any reliable evidence as to either the nature or the cause of the accident of Star Tiger the Court has not been able to do more than suggest possibilities, none of which reaches the level even of probability. Into all activities which involve the co-operation of man and machine two elements enter of a very diverse chaarcter. There is an the incalculable element of the human equation dependent upon imperfectly known factors; and there is the mechanical element subject to quite different laws. A breakdown may occur in either separately or in both in conjunction. Or some external cause may overwhelm both man and machine. What happened in this case will never be known and the fate of Star Tiger must remain an unsolved mystery."

Depictions on Television

• An episode of Disney's DuckTales (Episode #28: Bermuda Triangle Tangle) left Scrooge a prisoner in the mysterious Sargasso Sea after a search for his missing ships.

• One episode of Rocko's Modern Life featured the main characters going on a cruise which ended up in the Bermuda Triangle. Chaos ensues as the young become old, old become young, and a strange airplane-esque alien appears.

• In Season 6, The X-Files released an episode that featured the Bermuda Triangle. It featured a 1939 story line on a luxury liner from the past that appeared in the present day.

• On December 5, 2005 the Sci-Fi channel began broadcasting its three part series called The Triangle. This series features a theory on electromagnetic disruptions and space-time holes.

• In an episode of Nickolodeon's The Fairly Odd Parents, Timmy's most dangerous wishes are transported to an island in the Bermuda Triangle. Jorgan Von Strangle gives the reasoning that it is so dangerous, nobody would be crazy enough to go there.

• In an episode of Scooby Doo, they entered the Triangle with the evil captain with many mysterious incidents.

Cultural references

William Shakespeare's The Tempest is placed after a shipwreck near the turbulent Bermoothes.

Barry Manilow sang a UK no. 15 hit in 1981 entitled Bermuda Triangle. It tells the story of a fictional holiday to the area where the singer's girlfriend elopes with a local, but he finds a more than adequate replacement, leading to the uplifting final refrain:

Bermuda Triangle, it makes people disappear
Bermuda Triangle, don't go too near
But look at it from my angle
And you'll see why I'm so glad
Now Bermuda Triangle not so bad!

— Barry Manilow, Bermuda Triangle (1981)

DC Comics’ Paradise Island city-state, controlled by Amazons and the home of Wonder Woman, is located there.

The Marvel Comics series Skul the Slayer was set in a world inhabited by people who had been swallowed by the Triangle, which was actually a trap created by aliens.

Milton Bradley released a board game named Bermuda Triangle in 1975.

Buckethead released an album named Bermuda Triangle in 2002.

Starlord, a British comic book, ran a story called 'Planet of the Damned', which portrays the triangle as a vortex in space and time leading to a hostile planet where survivors struggle against the alien environment. The story relies on a number of documented disaperances for its background. The story began 13 May 1978.

Jaws author Peter Benchley wrote a novel called 'The Island' in which a journalist investigates the Triangle and discovers the disappearances are the work of pirates - specifically the descendants of buccaneers who live isolated from civilisation and raid shipping to survive. In 1980 the book was made into a film directed by Michael Ritchie and starring Michael Caine.

The X-Files episode "Triangle" involves Mulder searching for a ship called the Queen Anne in the triangle. In the episode, the region is depicted as a time warp, which sends Mulder to the 1940's.

The narrator of Chuck Palahniuk's novel Diary often refers to any item which has disappeared as having been "Bermuda triangulated."

See also

• List of Bermuda Triangle incidents
• Chuck Wakely Incident

External links

• Claims that Bermuda Triangle accidents are caused by unnatural forces or extraterrestrial aliens are scientifically refuted, according to Bible life ministries
• Skeptic's Dictionary on the Bermuda Triangle
• World Atlas Bermuda Triangle Map Map and information.
• Opinion of a Geologist from the U.S. Geological Survey regarding the gas hydrate theory
• USGS Gas Hydrate Title Page
• Navy Historical Center FAQ
• The loss of Flight 19 FAQ
• Bermuda triangle "unmuseum"
• Bermuda Triangle.org Critical of Methane Hydrates

Further reading

• The Bermuda Triangle, Charles Berlitz (ISBN 0385041144): appears to be currently out of print; however, there are many other books available covering the same material, frequently the same stories.
• The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved (1975). Lawrence David Kusche (ISBN 0879759712)

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