If you have ever traveled to the Caribbean from South Florida, be it by ship or plane, then you have ventured into the Bermuda Triangle. Are you scared yet?
Stretching from Bermuda to Miami to Puerto Rico, the Devil's Triangle, as it is also called, isn't recognized by any geographical organization. It's an imaginary zone where spooky stuff seems to occur. The fact is that an abundance of boats and planes have entered the triangle, never to be heard from again.
It was December 5, 1945. The war had ended and the world was once again at peace. Military personnel were back on training missions and this was precisely the case for the boys of Flight 19. The men from the Navy and the Marine Corps were to practice bombing submarines near the Bahamas.
After 2pm, the entire squadron of TBM Avengers left its base at Fort Lauderdale and soon began their diving runs. The single engine Avenger was a sturdy aircraft and had proven itself against Axis powers in previous years. The aviators believed themselves quite safe.
Lieutenant Robert F. Cox was an instructor pilot flying by the Florida coast. He was intending to join up with his squadron of students when just before 4pm, he heard about their disappearance. The boys were on the airwaves indicating that they were lost and that their compasses were malfunctioning. Attempts to redirect the planes to base failed and communication was lost after more than two hours. Flight 19 had disappeared forever.
At around 6pm, the Navy launched a number of aircrafts to locate the missing Avengers. Half an hour later, one of the PBM Mariners didn't report back. Another pilot maintained he had seen an explosion in mid-air and later a pool of oil on the sea surface. But the rescue plane was never found. It seemed that the Bermuda Triangle had claimed another victim. Twenty-seven men and six aircrafts were lost that day in an event the Navy still cannot explain.
What could be the secret of the Devil's Triangle? Giant octopi have been cited as being monsters that reach out and pull ships and aircrafts under the tide. Others believe the triangle is home to the lost civilization of Atlantis and crafts are being swiped through its magical power ray.
Yet, there's another theory that is widely popular. This one focuses on UFOs, which use a magnetic field to allow humans to travel to their dimension, a theory that was sponsored by Steven Spielberg's classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, in which the lost Avengers reappeared and the pilots of Flight 19 returned.
More theories, and will the hype surrounding the Bermuda Triangle ever disappear? Find out...
It's always more intriguing to believe in myths and legends rather than the scientific data used to support theories. One such scientific theory states that the Bermuda Triangle, at the 80th meridian, is one of two spots on Earth where compass variation is unnecessary. At this agonic line, where actual north and magnetic north are aligned, sailors must compensate.
The region is also host to high magnetic activity, which could perhaps cause compasses to go wild. Meso-meteorological storms also share the blame. These weather systems are composed of thunderstorms, miniature cyclones and tornadoes, and they can appear without warning as they follow abnormal weather patterns.
Another explanation is that methane is often released from the planet's core, which diminishes the water's density and is said to cause a vessel to sink or capsize in an instant. This is what some believe happened to the USS Cyclops in March 1918. The ship was reported to have an eccentric captain at its helm, a man who would apparently pace along the quarterdeck in his underwear. It was this event that allegedly inspired Paul Gallico to write The Poseidon Adventure.
It is widely believed that most boats or crafts that disappeared suffered from human error. Even the men of Flight 19 could have made mistakes; had they known about the peculiar environment in this area, they probably could have saved themselves.
The fact is that the area covered by the Bermuda Triangle is one of the most frequented spots for pleasure boating in the world. Given the area's popularity, people want to know if they are in any danger should they choose to vacation there. Could you be the next victim? The term is likely searched as a precautionary measure.
And let's not discard the media frenzy over the matter. A week doesn't go by without one documentary or another popping up on cable somewhere, be it TLC, the Discovery Channel, or the History Channel.
The first media mention of the mystical phenomenon dates back to October 1952, when George X. Sand wrote a short article entitled "Sea Mystery at Our Back Door" in Fate magazine. Later, a string of articles appeared in the '60s that elaborated on the subject. It was Vincent Gaddis who first mapped the area and gave us its famous name in his article "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle," in the February 1964 issue of Argosy magazine.
Over the years, a dozen exploitative minor films have been released and as many books have been published. It seems that even if scientists have come up with reasonable explanations for the various disasters that have occurred, few people really want to accept them as fact. It's much more interesting to believe in unexplained incidents and speculate about them. And so the myth of the Bermuda Triangle is here to stay
Stretching from Bermuda to Miami to Puerto Rico, the Devil's Triangle, as it is also called, isn't recognized by any geographical organization. It's an imaginary zone where spooky stuff seems to occur. The fact is that an abundance of boats and planes have entered the triangle, never to be heard from again.
It was December 5, 1945. The war had ended and the world was once again at peace. Military personnel were back on training missions and this was precisely the case for the boys of Flight 19. The men from the Navy and the Marine Corps were to practice bombing submarines near the Bahamas.
After 2pm, the entire squadron of TBM Avengers left its base at Fort Lauderdale and soon began their diving runs. The single engine Avenger was a sturdy aircraft and had proven itself against Axis powers in previous years. The aviators believed themselves quite safe.
Lieutenant Robert F. Cox was an instructor pilot flying by the Florida coast. He was intending to join up with his squadron of students when just before 4pm, he heard about their disappearance. The boys were on the airwaves indicating that they were lost and that their compasses were malfunctioning. Attempts to redirect the planes to base failed and communication was lost after more than two hours. Flight 19 had disappeared forever.
At around 6pm, the Navy launched a number of aircrafts to locate the missing Avengers. Half an hour later, one of the PBM Mariners didn't report back. Another pilot maintained he had seen an explosion in mid-air and later a pool of oil on the sea surface. But the rescue plane was never found. It seemed that the Bermuda Triangle had claimed another victim. Twenty-seven men and six aircrafts were lost that day in an event the Navy still cannot explain.
What could be the secret of the Devil's Triangle? Giant octopi have been cited as being monsters that reach out and pull ships and aircrafts under the tide. Others believe the triangle is home to the lost civilization of Atlantis and crafts are being swiped through its magical power ray.
Yet, there's another theory that is widely popular. This one focuses on UFOs, which use a magnetic field to allow humans to travel to their dimension, a theory that was sponsored by Steven Spielberg's classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, in which the lost Avengers reappeared and the pilots of Flight 19 returned.
More theories, and will the hype surrounding the Bermuda Triangle ever disappear? Find out...
It's always more intriguing to believe in myths and legends rather than the scientific data used to support theories. One such scientific theory states that the Bermuda Triangle, at the 80th meridian, is one of two spots on Earth where compass variation is unnecessary. At this agonic line, where actual north and magnetic north are aligned, sailors must compensate.
The region is also host to high magnetic activity, which could perhaps cause compasses to go wild. Meso-meteorological storms also share the blame. These weather systems are composed of thunderstorms, miniature cyclones and tornadoes, and they can appear without warning as they follow abnormal weather patterns.
Another explanation is that methane is often released from the planet's core, which diminishes the water's density and is said to cause a vessel to sink or capsize in an instant. This is what some believe happened to the USS Cyclops in March 1918. The ship was reported to have an eccentric captain at its helm, a man who would apparently pace along the quarterdeck in his underwear. It was this event that allegedly inspired Paul Gallico to write The Poseidon Adventure.
It is widely believed that most boats or crafts that disappeared suffered from human error. Even the men of Flight 19 could have made mistakes; had they known about the peculiar environment in this area, they probably could have saved themselves.
The fact is that the area covered by the Bermuda Triangle is one of the most frequented spots for pleasure boating in the world. Given the area's popularity, people want to know if they are in any danger should they choose to vacation there. Could you be the next victim? The term is likely searched as a precautionary measure.
And let's not discard the media frenzy over the matter. A week doesn't go by without one documentary or another popping up on cable somewhere, be it TLC, the Discovery Channel, or the History Channel.
The first media mention of the mystical phenomenon dates back to October 1952, when George X. Sand wrote a short article entitled "Sea Mystery at Our Back Door" in Fate magazine. Later, a string of articles appeared in the '60s that elaborated on the subject. It was Vincent Gaddis who first mapped the area and gave us its famous name in his article "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle," in the February 1964 issue of Argosy magazine.
Over the years, a dozen exploitative minor films have been released and as many books have been published. It seems that even if scientists have come up with reasonable explanations for the various disasters that have occurred, few people really want to accept them as fact. It's much more interesting to believe in unexplained incidents and speculate about them. And so the myth of the Bermuda Triangle is here to stay
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