The Bermuda Triangle is a region situated in the Northern part of the North Atlantic Ocean where it has been alleged that several aircrafts and vessels of the surface have disappeared. These disappearances usually occurred in mysterious circumstances. Most of these circumstances have been attributed to activities that are beyond human comprehension, with others claiming to be as a result of the work of extraterrestrial beings or supernatural forces.
The triangle area is comprised of an area that covers the Straits of Florida, the Bahamas and the whole of the Entire Caribbean. Most written works point that the boundaries of the triangle are located somewhere on the Atlantic Coast of Miami, San Juan and Puerto Rico and most accidents have mostly occurred along the boundaries of the southern parts of the Bahamas and the Straits of Florida.
The Bermuda Triangle is one of the busiest lanes in the world used by ships and ships cross through the triangle on a daily basis with most of them destined for ports in North America and the Caribbean Islands. The Triangle also serves as a heavy route for commercial and private planes heading to North and South America. Over the past hundred years, there has been a witness of significant and inordinately high number of disappearances of planes, ships and people. Several reports indicated that the number of ships and planes that have disappeared through the triangle exceed hundred and more than one thousand people have lost their lives. However, these facts have been disputed by many organizations, including the United States Coast Guard. Others have disputed the existence of the Triangle with some claiming that it does not exists and the disappearances are just related to changes in weather patterns.
The disappearance in 1945 of five Navy Avengers around the triangle was the first highly publicized mystery about the triangle. Initially, the cause of the disappearance was attributed to pilot error, but was later changed to “unknown causes” after the family members rejected the ideas that the pilot may have made a mistake. This was later followed by other mysterious disappearances with each one leaving no trace. As these incidents increased, the reputation of the triangle increased and other past events that had occurred in the area were re-analyzed to add to the legend of the area. Furthermore, books, magazines and articles have appeared perpetuating the myths about the triangle from the normal disappearances to extreme cases of alien sighting. Other well known disappearances around the triangle include the U.S.S Cyclops, a ship that disappeared in 1918 with 306 passengers on board and none of them was ever recovered. Also, a DC- 3 flight plane from Puerto Rico disappeared on its way to Miami and was never traced (Berlitz, 112).
Various explanations have been put across to explain the events that occurred along the triangle. Some of these explanations are supernatural in nature with some writers explaining that the events may have occurred as a result of the technology that was left over by the mythical continent of Atlantis and also due tom submerged rock formations. Others have attributed the events to Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), while others attribute them to anomalous and unexplained forces. Natural factors have also been attributed to these events with compass problems being cited as one of the factors. These problems have been related to magnetic anomalies. Additionally, these tragedies have also been attributed to deliberate destructions done by human beings through acts of war and piracy with the loss of the USS Cyclopes being attributed to an attack by submarines. It is further argued that some of the accidents might also have occurred as a result of gulf streams and also human error. The human error factor could be attributed to deliberate or accidental mistakes since information from the Coast Guard indicated that there could have been poor training of the crews of one of the ships that sunk.
The Bermuda triangle continues to generate much controversy, interest and conspiracies. However, these controversies over mysterious disappearances have come under criticism from various scientists with many arguing against the purported mysteries around the triangle. Many of the alleged disappearances have been explain through rational discourse and put to rest the myths and mystery surrounding the triangle. Larry Kusche, one of the experts on the triangle puts the mystery to rest through extensive research which found that there was no significant difference between the number of ships and planes reported missing in the triangle when compared to other parts of the ocean. Furthermore, it is only possible that such tragedies could have occurred on a large scale in that area because the area witnesses a high frequency of tropical storms. Besides, some of the disappearances that were reported had not really occurred and some ships that were reported missing eventually surfaced and this was never recorded. Thus, with other notable figures, they concluded that the legend of the Bermuda Triangle was a manufactured story which was perpetuated by writers through purposive and intentional sensationalism, misconception of facts and reasoning that was faulty.
Work Cited:
Berlitz, Charles. The Bermuda Triangle. Garden City, N.Y:
Doubleday, 1974.
