… Is the Bermuda Triangle?
IN the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean there is a region that, legend has it, likes to swallow up ships sailing through it and suck planes out of the sky. Even more frightening, many of the ships and planes that sink or crash into this spot in the sea appear to vanish without a trace. This treacherous region is known as the Bermuda Triangle, or the Devils Triangle, and you can define it on a map by drawing lines connecting Miami, FL, Bermuda and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The legend of the Bermuda Triangle is based on mysterious incidents of ships disappearing in its waters tracing back two centuries.
In the 20th century, flights passing over it met the same unknown fate — in most cases, no wreckage, debris or bodies were to be found.
The story was first introduced to the world in a magazine article in the 1950s, and the Bermuda Triangle has been the subject of countless books, films, articles, television shows and research projects.
Theories as to what happens to ships and planes crossing through the triangle range from the practical weather, pirates to the paranormal, and as the legend grew, so too did the focus on something spooky and supernatural going on in those balmy waters.
One of the most famous Bermuda Triangle cases is the disappearance of Flight 19, a US Navy training mission of five TBM Avenger bombers, in December of 1945. The squadron disappeared, and the search and rescue Mariner aircraft sent out to look for the missing squadron also vanished. Neither were ever seen nor heard from again.
In the early 1950s, articles about Flight 19 prompted people to look into other incidences of seemingly mysterious disappearances in the Triangle. For example, in 1918, the Naval Ship USS Cyclops disappeared, without a trace, with 309 crewmembers aboard. Its the largest non-combat loss of life in US Navy history, yet to this day, nobody knows for sure what happened to the ship or its crew.
Some suggested the lost colony of Atlantis lay beneath the surface. Others proposed natural phenomenon: storms, hurricanes, pirates, mechanical failure, human error and the Gulf Stream. Other theories include giant waves that come out of nowhere to engulf ships, acts of war and the presence of a magnetic field that interferes with compass function.
However, over the past few decades, the legend of the Bermuda Triangle has been completely debunked. Modern research and data show that ships and planes do not sink or crash in the Triangle with any greater frequency than they do anywhere else in the world. In fact, the waters within that area are some of the worlds busiest and their rate of sinking or disappearing is not disproportionate.
Also, the water currents and the location in the tropical storm belt are quite treacherous. Many of the so-called disappearances have been proven to be either pure fiction or the result of storms, sea currents, or other simple explanations.
Picture Above: The area of the so-called Bermuda Triangle.
New York Post, December 15, 2010
Written by: Robin Wallace
