“At least 50 ships and 20 aircraft have vanished in the Triangle, most without a trace — no wreckage, no bodies, no nothing. Many disappeared in reportedly calm waters, without having sent a distress signal.” This eerie quote from the New York Times caught the attention of many people around the world for its scary and mysterious topic, The Bermuda Triangle. The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the “Devil’s Triangle”, has always captured the interest and imagination of people around the world with its many mysterious disappearances and unexplained events. Lots of theories have been brought to the media’s attention regarding aliens, sorcery, The lost city of Atlantis, huge rogue waves, and other paranormal activities. But are these simply stories or is there something more behind the great mystery of the Bermuda Triangle? Scientist Dr. Karl Kruszelniucki claims to have an answer to these mysteries saying it is purely scientific and the area is heavily traveled, meaning more accidents are likely to happen and the number of disappearances aren’t unusual due to human error and poor weather rather than extraterrestrial or paranormal activities. Many of the crazy stories that have been told throughout history about the bermuda triangle can be debunked from a new perspective while applying the science behind the matter.            

Another example coming up is a Fox News interview with scientist Dr. Karl Kruszelniucki, who claims to have finally solved the bermuda triangle mystery.  When he was asked about the many disappearances in the area he says we should go to the facts” (Kruszelnicki). He then states evidence from U.S. coast guard and insurance companies from London that there is no record of a bigger number of disappearances in the triangle than any other place in the ocean. He claims, “No extra losses of ships or airplanes in that area as the percentage of that travel through that area compared with other parts of the world” (Kruszelniucki). Essentially he’s saying that if a higher concentration of boats and planes are going through an area, it will statistically have more crashes and disappearances.  So, the many planes and boats that travel through the Bermuda Triangle dont have a higher chance of crashing due to paranormal aspects but instead are just in a well traveled area of the ocean that happens to have some boat and plane crashes. But how does this explain the planes and ships disappearing with no trace?  Kruszelniucki takes regard to the high chances to storms in that area and also informs us that, “the ocean goes down to, not 5,000 feet but 30,000, when it (plane or ship) goes down it’s staying down” (Kruszelniucki) meaning that it would be hard to find evidence for these wrecks simply because they would sink into very deep water. This statement concludes that the loss of evidence is normal and not caused by paranormal activity.

If these claims are true, why does the bermuda triangle have such a bad reputation and where did these myths come from? The New York Times says, “Long before the myth of the Bermuda Triangle became popular, Bermuda had already earned a reputation as an enchanted island. It was nicknamed “The Devil’s Islands” by early sea travelers, frightened by the calls of cahow birds and the squeals of wild pigs that could be heard on shore”. This shows us that the claims of the Bermuda triangle being “haunted” or the “devil’s triangle” dates back to the same sailors that started the stories about mermaids or sirens. Another quote from NYT supports this idea. “The early origin of the Triangle myth stretches as far back as Columbus, who noted in his logbook a haywire compass, strange lights, and a burst of flame falling into the sea. Columbus, as well as other seamen after him, also encountered a harrowing stretch of ocean now known as the Sargasso Sea”.  The haywire compass can be explained by the idea that the bermuda triangle is one of the only places on earth where a compass points true north, and as for the lights and flames could simply be lightning and methane gas being ignited by the lightning to make fire.  More evidence of this being true is from Dr. Kruszelnicki. In the interview he states that “it started with a science fiction story by somebody called Gidus in a science fiction magazine …  then followed up by Charles in 18-1972, and then Larry Kaiuse debunked them all in 1980, making references to both the coast guard and London”.  So as we look at the sources of either random people or the coast guard records we can conclude that the tales of the bermuda triangle are just that of folktale and stories. 

As we look into the many disappearances that have occurred in the bermuda triangle. An article from The New York Times called “Bermuda Triangle Demystified?” written by Kim Dismont Robinson says that “In the past 500 years at least 50 ships and 20 aircraft have vanished in the Triangle, most without a trace — no wreckage, no bodies, no nothing. Many disappeared in reportedly calm waters, without having sent a distress signal.” These events being true may sound alarming but if Dr. Kruszelniucki’s claims are true; this should be normal for the amount of people going through this area. Yet, another article from Britannica says the bermuda triangle is a, “section of the North Atlantic Ocean off North America in which more than 50 ships and 20 airplanes are said to have mysteriously disappeared”. The same article states, “Some ships were discovered completely abandoned for no apparent reason; others transmitted no distress signals and were never seen or heard from again.”, The triangle seems to have disappearances and no scientific reason for these strange behaviors from the people that were on these ships and planes, but has this strange disappearance situation happened in other parts of the ocean? People could just be looking for a reason to prove that the bermuda triangle stories are true and ignoring all of the other mysterious disappearances around the rest of the ocean not in the bermuda triangle area. An article from Discover magazine states, “The ocean is a dangerous place, after all, and it’s not uncommon even today for things to go wrong. In the storm-tossed waters of the North Atlantic, safety is never a guarantee”. This proves that we really know nothing about the ocean and it has many unexplainable mysteries, The bermuda triangle being one of them but people should not jump to the conclusion of aliens and other conspiracies.

Let’s look into the facts and scientific view on the area shown in the image above. Many new claims of why the bermuda triangle is prone to strange activity have come up in recent years. One idea from NOAA (National ocean atmospheric administration) tells us that, “The majority of Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes pass through the Bermuda Triangle, and in the days prior to improved weather forecasting, these dangerous storms claimed many ships.  Also, the Gulf Stream can cause rapid, sometimes violent, changes in weather.” Sudden changes in weather could mess up radars or even go completely off the radar, explaining why planes and ships would go into this area unknowing of the conditions ahead. This reason may be the secret behind all of the bermuda mysteries but storms are known to happen all over the world so why is this happening in the bermuda triangle such a big deal? Another quote from the same article says, “Additionally, the large number of islands in the Caribbean Sea creates many areas of shallow water that can be treacherous to ship navigation. And there is some evidence to suggest that the Bermuda Triangle is a place where a “magnetic” compass sometimes points towards “true” north, as opposed to “magnetic” north.” This fact along with the storms in the area make waters very dangerous for ships passing through. There are even more dangerous factors contributing to the dangers of the triangle, Benjamin Radford from Live Science writes ““Perhaps ships and planes are destroyed by pockets of flammable methane gas known to exist in large quantities under the sea — maybe lightning or an electrical spark ignited a huge bubble of methane that came to the surface right next to a ship or plane, causing them to sink without a trace. There are a few obvious logical problems with this theory, including that methane exists naturally around the world and such an incident has never been known to happen.”  This theory is a more unique circumstance and could explain why planes and ships are gone without warning or evidence. One more quote from the NOAA supporting these claims says, “The U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard contend that there are no supernatural explanations for disasters at sea. Their experience suggests that the combined forces of nature and human fallibility outdo even the most incredulous science fiction.”  All of these scientific ideas debunking the triangles mysteries have lots of evidence and facts to back up their claims. This proves that the legends of the bermuda triangle are simply stories from scared sailors and crazy conspiracy theorists. 

If these mysteries are all fiction, how did they become so popular amongst people all around the world? Kim Dismont Robinson from the New York Times writes, ““Long before the myth of the Bermuda Triangle became popular, Bermuda had already earned a reputation as an enchanted island. It was nicknamed “The Devil’s Islands” by early sea travelers, frightened by the calls of cahow birds and the squeals of wild pigs that could be heard on shore” Knowing this and how frightening the ocean can truly be, it seems that these sounds could easily be mistaken for mythical creatures or actions. It is common for the brain to play tricks on people if they are frightened or paranoid, they could be seeing a wave but mistake it for a serpent or an alien creature if these rumors become popular and that’s what they are being told is in the area that they travel through. “The early origin of the Triangle myth stretches as far back as Columbus, who noted in his logbook a haywire compass, strange lights, and a burst of flame falling into the sea. Columbus, as well as other seamen after him, also encountered a harrowing stretch of ocean now known as the Sargasso Sea” The origin of these stories goes far back so these stories could have been exaggerated extremely as they have been told throughout history. Columbus is a big figure in history and it is likely that these other seamen could have simply been influenced by him. During the Columbus era there was very little scientific evidence of big storms or rogue waves that would have explained strange encounters, and as this area of the world was new to the explorers it gives them more reason to think of something extravagant to come up with as an explanation of strange activity. 

Some specific disappearances that occurred in the Bermuda triangle that even knowing all of the scientific explanations are still eerie and hard to explain or imagine what could have caused these accidents. The missing flight 19, “Flight 19. At 2:10 on the afternoon of December 5, 1945, five TBM Avenger Torpedo Bombers took off from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on a routine two-hour training mission. Their last radio contact was at 4 PM. The planes and 27 men were never seen or heard from again. The official navy report said the planes disappeared “as if they had flown to Mars.”  It is unlikely that a storm took these planes out as they would have seen it on the radars and turned around or canceled the mission all together. As for the methane gas theory could be the explanation but taking out all 5 of the aircrafts is odd. The other strange disappearance that is well known is  “ the Mary Celeste, a 103-foot brigantine found floating and abandoned in 1872. But the real mystery of the Mary Celeste is that she turns up in Triangle tales at all. The ship was actually found off the coast of Portugal.”  This disappearance is odd because Portugal is on the other side of the ocean from the bermuda triangle and that is a very long trip for an abandoned ship. The ship was completely abandoned and there was no evidence to why it was. But according to Britannica, “Some ships were discovered completely abandoned for no apparent reason; others transmitted no distress signals and were never seen or heard from again.” making it sound like this is a recurring event that is unexplainable. One more theory from the same britannica article is that “the missing vessels were felled by so-called “rogue waves,” which are massive waves that can reach heights of up to 30.5 meters (100 feet) and would theoretically be powerful enough to destroy all evidence of a ship or an airplane.” “The Bermuda Triangle is located in an area of the Atlantic Ocean where storms from multiple directions can converge, making rogue waves more likely to occur.” This could possibly be the reason for these abandoned ships as the waves could have been big and sudden and wiped all the people off of the ships. 

In conclusion Dr. Kruszelniucki’s ideas of lots of people passing through the area and simply being caught in storms, waves, and gas is very likely and can explain most of the disappearances. The lore of the bermuda triangle will surely stay popular and keep people wondering if it is fact or fiction but,  as more research comes out and proves these conspiracy theories wrong the triangle will become a folktale and not a real mystery.