The Mystery | The Bermuda Triangle

Bermuda Triangle is one of the most mysterious places on this planet. It is an area of the Atlantic Ocean between 500,000 – 1,510,000 square miles in size which is located off the South-eastern coast of the US in the Atlantic Ocean, between Bermuda, Florida, and Puerto Rico, this region has become the center of unresolved mysteries. It is also known as the Devil’s Triangle.

Before looking into the mysterious stories related to Bermuda Triangle, it is necessary to know some points about Bermuda Triangle to clear false assumptions.

• The Bermuda Triangle sustains heavy daily traffic, both by sea and by air.
• The Bermuda Triangle is one of the most heavily traveled shipping lanes in the world.
• The agonic line sometimes passes through the Bermuda Triangle, including a period in the early 20th century. An agonic line is a place on Earth’s surface where true north and magnetic north align, and there is no need to account for magnetic declination on a compass.
• The Bermuda Triangle is subject to frequent tropical storms and hurricanes.

By the above points, it’s clear that many times people have sailed or flown over the area and not noticed anything out of the ordinary but there are several cases that occurred suddenly out of nowhere in the area that have no explanation for its occurrence. Many scientists believe this area is also prone to sudden geomagnetic anomalies. But still, researches are going on for the proper explanation.

• One of the famous story related to Bermuda triangle date back to 1492 when Christopher Columbus sailed through this area across the Atlantic Ocean on his first voyage to the New World, he reported that a great flame of fire crashed into the sea one night and that a strange light appeared in the distance a few weeks later. The most unusual thing that Columbus reported that he saw a glowing object coming out of the water and shooting towards the sky. He also wrote about sudden erratic compass readings, perhaps it may be because the agonic line sometimes passes through the Bermuda Triangle and an agonic line is a place on Earth’s surface where true north and magnetic north align.
• The mysterious disappearances in this area were mostly overlooked until Flight 19 case on December 5, 1945. Flight 19 was a training flight of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers carrying 14 men, which disappeared after taking off from the Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station on a routine patrol (navigation and combat training exercise). Each of the 5 aircraft was fully fueled and checked before the flight and it was a clear day favorable for flight. But suddenly during flight, all 5 bombers were having issues with their compass and other navigational devices. They reported this to the head station but after some time they disappeared from the radar. The Navy immediately launched two seaplanes to search for 5 missing aircraft. Just 20 min after take-off they too disappeared. Later many searches occur in the area but not a single trace of aircraft or anything was found, it was like they just vanished in the sky.
• The Ellen Austin was a large cargo ship. In 1881, the crew onboard found a small ship drifting along, within the Bermuda Triangle. They decided that it had been abandoned because they found no one in it but food, personal belongings, etc was there, except the caption’s logbook and ship’s nameplate. Captain Baker ordered four members of his crew to board the unnamed ship and sail it to New York. After two days both ships separated due to the storm and then several days later Ellen Austin again found the same ship drifting erratically in the sea. When they checked it they found no one in it so, Captain Baker ordered a new crew to board it but strangely the new crew disappeared too and Ellen Austin left that ship in the sea because people got afraid after seeing these missing incidents.
• A US Navy ship called the USS Cyclops set off on a journey from Brazil to Baltimore, USA. The ship was almost 170 meters long and had a crew of 306 sailors aboard. On the ninth day of the ship’s journey, it vanished without any distress call and it has never been seen or heard from again. No explanation was given for its disappearance, and no wreckage was found.
• Did you know? After gaining widespread fame as the first person to sail solo around the globe, Joshua Slocum disappeared on a 1909 voyage from Martha’s Vineyard to South America. Though it’s unclear exactly what happened, many sources later attributed his death to the Bermuda Triangle.
• One bizarre experience of Pilot Bruce Gernon, who was flying from Andros Islands (Bahamas) to the coast of Florida in a flight called Beechcraft Bonanza having 2 more people with him on December 4, 1970. Bruce had flown through the Bermuda triangle many times and had never experienced anything mysterious until December 4, 1970. The normal time for a flight from the Bahamas to the coast of Florida would have taken one and a half hours approximately. Bruce took off the land and as soon as he reached 1000 ft., he saw a lenticular-shaped cloud formation in his path which kept growing bigger. As he started passing through the cloud, they saw lighting inside it which was getting more and more intensified as deeper they were going. Turning back the plane in such a condition was not easy so they decided to pull out of the cloud. But when they come out of the cloud, they realized the situation was even worse than they thought. Their plane was surrounded by all sides by a giant storm. They lost their radio communication from the station and were also not visible on the radar. They were trapped inside a sudden strange storm, then suddenly Bruce (main pilot) noticed a tunnel-like formation in a storm which was approx. a mile wide and 10 miles long. After discussing with others in-plane they decided to pass through it in the hope to come out of the storm. In that tunnel, the plane system started malfunctioning, they were feeling like they were floating and somehow moving forward. As soon as the plane came out of the tunnel, the plane system was back to normal. Bruce looked back and saw the tunnel collapsing. Just after it, they heard a voice on the radar that they are above Palm Beach. Bruce was astonished he didn’t believe them but when he saw they were really on top of Palm Beach. It had only been just 47 minutes but his plane couldn’t go faster than 180 miles/hour, so it would be physically impossible for the plane to have taken 47 minutes from the Bahamas to Palm Beach which are 201 miles apart (usually it takes 75 min). So, the question which remains still unanswered that how they traveled 201 miles in just 47 mins?
• In the Bermuda triangle, the exact number of ships and airplanes that have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle is not known but it is estimated more than 50 ships and 20 airplanes are said to have mysteriously disappeared. The wreckage of those ships and airplanes reported missing in the region has not been recovered till now. There was no trace of their disappearances.