BERMUDA TRIANGLE- DEVIL'S TRIANGLE

THE BERMUDA, Or Devil’s, Triangle is an
area of ocean found off the southeastern
tip of the United States. It is a
region of water indelibly connected with
mysterious vessel disappearances; the
popular perception is that countless boats
and planes have been inexplicably lost there.
The triangle extends from Bermuda to Miami
and then to the Puerto Rico, and is said to
contain a supernatural secret. Some high
profile disappearances have occurred there,
and the notion of its existence has been
turned into a modern myth in the media.
Even the term ‘Bermuda Triangle’ was
coined in a fictional publication. But does
the sea here really house some unknown
power that pulls sea and airmen to their
doom, or is this mystery based mainly on
imagination?
The most famous loss in the triangle is
known as the mystery of Flight 19, and
happened on 5th December 1945. A
squadron of five US Navy Avenger torpedo
bombers set off from their base in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida to conduct a practice
mission over the island of Bimini. The flight
contained 14 men, all of them students apart
from the commander, Lt Charles Taylor.
About an hour and a half after the mission
began, radio operators received a signal from
Taylor saying his compasses were not
working, but he believed he was over the
Florida Keys. He was advised to fly north
which would bring him back to the
mainland. In fact, he was over the Bahamas,
and his attempts to head north and northeast
merely took him further away from solid
ground. A terrible storm that day hampered
communications and it seems Taylor rejected
a suggestion to pass control of the squadron
to one of the other pilots.
Radio contact was entirely lost and search
craft were dispatched to try and find the
flight to guide them back in. Of the three
planes used to rescue Flight 19, one lost
communications itself because of an iced
over aerial, one was just unsuccessful whilst
another seemed to explode shortly after takeoff.
Flight 19 itself has never been found, but
it is assumed that they ditched into the
raging sea when their fuel ran out, with the
heavy planes rapidly sinking to the ocean
floor. The US Navy recorded that the disaster
was caused by Taylor’s confusion, but an
appeal by his family had this overturned,
and a verdict of ‘causes or reasons unknown’
was given. However, Flight 19 is not the only
high profile official loss in the area, and the
USS Cyclops and Marine Sulphur Queen
have also disappeared without trace.
The legend of Flight 19 was cemented by its
inclusion in Steven Spielberg’s Close
Encounters of the Third Kind movie. Indeed,
some theories state that visiting UFO craft
enter an underwater base in the Bermuda
area, and they have been the cause of the
disappearances. Other fantastical ideas such
as technologies from Atlantis or evil marine
creatures have also been considered. Some
people even suggest the triangle is the site of
a gateway into another dimension. Strange
oceanographic features such as huge clouds of
methane gas escaping from the seabed have
also been blamed for the disappearances.
In reality, the triangle does have one
natural quality which may contribute to the
losses. Unlike everywhere else in the world –
apart from the Dragon’s Triangle near Japan –
compasses point to true north rather than
magnetic north. This may be a contributing
factor to the triangle’s legend, but the US
Coastguard officially believes the losses are
caused by a mixture of environmental and
man-made mistakes. This region is used by a
large amount of ocean and air traffic, much
of which is navigated by inexperienced
pleasure-seekers. A strong Gulf Stream and
unpredictable weather conditions not only
cause vessels to run into trouble, but also
remove many traces of them once they have
been wrecked.
It is interesting also to note that the
coastguard does not view the area as having
a particularly high incidence of accidents.
One researcher examined many historic
losses in the triangle. He came to the
conclusion that rumours and elaboration had
clouded the real, understandable, causes
behind the events. Similarly, the international
insurers, Lloyd’s of London, have
records that demonstrate that this region
near Bermuda is no more treacherous than
any other waterway. However, the myth of
the Bermuda Triangle is so strong it will live
on as long as fictional writers use it as a site
of mysterious happenings