Bermuda Triangle
Roughly spanning the Atlantic waters between Puerto Rico, Bermuda, and the southern tip of Florida, the Bermuda Triangle is famously linked to the unexplained disappearances of various ships and aircraft. Interest in the area began rising in the 1950s, when journalists started attributing these vanishings to mysterious forces instead of typical maritime hazards like storms. Reports highlighted that some vessels and planes vanished in good weather, without sending distress signals or leaving behind any debris.
One of the most well-known incidents occurred in December 1945. During this time, a squadron of five U.S. Navy bombers departed Florida on a training exercise and vanished somewhere over the Bermuda Triangle. An extensive search followed, involving 930 flights over a five-day period, yet no trace of the aircraft was ever found. Sceptics argue that nothing supernatural occurred, noting that the search crews observed no unusual events. They suggest that the planes likely crashed after becoming disoriented during challenging weather conditions and running out of fuel. Supporting this theory, U.S. Navy documents show that the flight’s commander had reported faulty compasses and that the squadron was lost. His final transmission came at a point when the aircraft’s fuel levels were presumably near empty.
Even so, many are convinced that an unknown force was behind the incident. The malfunctioning navigational instruments in particular have led some to speculate that the area may be affected by an unusual magnetic disturbance. Others propose that alien forces could be involved. Additional theories include ideas such as vessels slipping through a tear in space-time or being abducted by the underwater inhabitants of a hidden civilization known as Atlantis. The last theory was popularized in Ivan T. Sanderson’s 1970 book Invisible Residents, which speculated on the presence of advanced aquatic beings.
However, various statistical studies have shown that the rate of disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle is not significantly higher than in other heavily travelled maritime regions, especially when accounting for the frequency of storms and volume of traffic. Additionally, some reports have been found to contain inaccuracies that exaggerated the mystery. For instance, in his 1974 bestseller The Bermuda Triangle, Charles Berlitz claimed that certain ships went missing in calm weather, when storms were actually reported at the time. He also included the disappearance of a vessel that did not vanish in the Bermuda Triangle at all. Despite these errors, Berlitz’s work played a key role in cementing the Bermuda Triangle’s reputation as a hotbed of paranormal phenomena.
SOURCE:
The Greenhaven Encyclopedia of Paranormal Phenomena – written by Patricia D. Netzley © 2006 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning
NOTE:
Edited and revised for the Web by Occult Media, the 2nd of April of the Year 2025. We use British English spelling.
