Bermuda Triangle: Plane and Boat Disappearances

Introduction:

It lies just west of Florida. An abyss where all known reasoning is called into question. Over the centuries it has had many names: the Sea of Doom, the Graveyard of the Atlantic, the Devil’s Triangle, but amid the mystery there is one certainty: perfectly functioning airplanes and ships seem to disappear in the Bermuda Triangle.

The Bermuda triangle is responsible for more plane and boat disappearances than anywhere else in the world, and these strange occurrences date back to 1492. If you were to fly or sail through the Bermuda triangle, it is important for you to know why these boats and planes are vanishing into plain sight. I personally have sailed through the Bermuda triangle multiple times on solo sailboats, and although I have no first-hand experience of an unusual incident and survived sailing through this dangerous area, I researched the Bermuda triangle extensively before making these trips, to find out what ultimately happened to the people who didn’t make it through.

If you want to travel safely, or just learn more about the Bermuda triangle, it is important to know the history, types of disappearances, and the science and arguments behind why the Bermuda triangle is much more dangerous than the rest of the world.

For those who do not know, the Bermuda Triangle, also known as the devil's triangle or hurricane alley, is responsible for many mysterious disappearances that are unexplainable to almost anyone who researches it.

The Bermuda Triangle is an area between Miami, Puerto Rico, and the Bermuda islands, which covers roughly 500,000 square miles. The area of the Bermuda Triangle is some of the most heavily traveled shipping lanes in the world because its access to ports in North and South America, the Caribbean Islands, and in the route of Europe trade routes. Some people have tried to explain these mysterious disappearances, crediting it to compass variations, the Gulf Stream, human error, and violent weather. Although these theories explain some disappearances, there are many that occurred with no explanation and are unable to be solved.

Christopher Colombus was sailing to the New World when he saw a large flame of fire crash into the ocean. A few weeks later on October 11th, he and his crew members were off the coast of the Bahamas when they spotted a strange and unknown light on the horizon. He also was getting strange compass readings due to the fact that within the Bermuda triangle there is a place where true north and magnetic north align.

Some of the most confusing and unexplained disappearances include the USS Cyclops, Flight 19, and Flight 441. The USS Cyclops was a Navy cargo ship with over 300 men and 10,000 tons of manganese ore onboard, and it sunk somewhere between Barbados and the Chesapeake Bay. They never sent out an SOS distress call and an extensive search found no wreckage.

“Only God and the sea know what happened to the great ship” US President Woodrow Wilson, 1918.

In 1941, 2 more sister ships of the USS Cyclops disappeared along the same route. Flight 19 was a training flight of five torpedo bombers that disappeared on December 5, 1945, while over the Atlantic ocean around 140 miles off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. 14 men went missing as a total of 5, 3 seater planes were never found. Some say that the leader of the flight's compass was malfunctioning and caused him to get lost and therefore run out of fuel, so the planes following did the same. On the same day, the rescue flight with 13 crew members also disappeared.

Flight 441 was a US Navy carrier when it disappeared 400 miles off the coast with absolutely no trace or communication prior to disappearing They had radio communication until 11:30 pm which recorded their location as about 400 miles off of the coast, and then it became silent with no distress signals or sign of any failure.

The actual disappearance is one of the few Bermuda triangle occasions in which there is no trace and no sign of anything that could have gone wrong with the plane or crew. The weather was normal, the pilot was well trained with many hours of experience, and the aircraft was equipped with top-of-the-line radar and other tools needed to safely navigate the area. There were 111 life vests, 46 exposure suits, 660 paper cups, and 5 life rafts which would all have floated leaving a trace, but there was nothing ever found.

Every couple of years a “new theory” comes out on why the Bermuda Triangle has claimed over 1,000 lives, with the most recent being hexagonal clouds. Scientists have claimed that these Hexagonal clouds are causing “air bombs” with winds of up to 170 mph while at sea. They claim that these are so powerful that ships and planes can be plunged into the sea in an instant, leaving us with an explanation as to why so many ships and planes haven’t sent out distress signals before going missing. Using radar satellites to measure what was happening underneath the unusual clouds, the research group found sea-level winds were reaching dangerously high speeds, creating waves as high as 45ft as a result.

Although there are scientific possibilities for these occurrences, an extremely likely case as to why disappearances are elevated in this area is just human error. Simon Boxall, an oceanographer at the University of Southampton, did some research and found out that according to the US Coast Guard, in 2016 “82 percent of incidents in this area that year involved people who had no formal training or experience of being at sea”. Inexperienced sailors and travelers often rely on their cell phones for navigation, communication, and other important tasks that are unavailable once you get 30 miles offshore.

Although this does not account for all disappearances as some were trained Armed Forces captains and pilots, it is a major factor to why so many disappearances lack a distress signal.

Conclusion

Ultimately, with my past experiences sailing through these treacherous waters and the research that has been put into explaining what occurs, it is possible to travel through safely. Before traveling it is important to learn about the history and where the Bermuda Triangle is even located because you might not even be sailing through it. You must also know the different types of disappearances and why they occurred or what could have happened.

And lastly, the science and explanations for these occurrences is important to know, so you don't make the same mistake as some of the previous captains and pilots did. Now I will leave you with a question that you can ask yourself. Are the Bermuda Triangle disappearances just due to human error and strange clouds, or could it be possible that it is Earth’s black hole?

Sources

1. Aaron, and Justin. “Bermuda Triangle Mystery- 132.” The Generation Why Podcast. 2015.
2. Admin. “Bermuda Triangle Incidents of Disappearances.” Bermuda Triangle Incidents of Disappearances, www.bermuda-attractions.com/bermuda2_000051.htm.
3. Frost, Natasha. “Bermuda Triangle Mystery: What Happened to the USS Cyclops?” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 31 July 2018, www.history.com/news/bermuda-triangle-uss-cyclops-mystery-world-war-i.
4. Ratner, Paul. “The Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle May Finally Be Solved.” Big Think, Big Think, 28 Apr. 2019, bigthink.com/surprising-science/bermuda-triangle.
5. Willsey, Marie, and Editors of Publications International, Ltd. “10 Disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle.” HowStuffWorks, HowStuffWorks, 21 Sept. 2007, adventure.howstuffworks.com/7-disappearances-in-the-bermuda-triangle1.htm.