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BERMUDA TRIANGLE
The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is an
undefined region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean
where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared
under mysterious circumstances. For decades, the Atlantic Oceans
famous Bermuda Triangle has captured the human imagination with
unexplained disappearances of ships, planes, and people. More than
1000 ships and planes have disappeared in the triangle area over the
past five centuries and continue to do so. And all these happen when it
appears that there are no human errors, equipment failures or even
natural disasters. Strangely, the ships and aircraft just disappear
when everything seems to be okay. Many believe that Devil is at play
here and therefore call the area also as Devil's Triangle. The facts
however are quite far from what is generally known or believed to be
true. There are many stories and myths created through pure
imagination of writers who have used them like to draw publicity to
their books. In many cases, the facts got unclear.
So where Bermuda Triangle is located and how large is the area?
Is there a map?
Bermuda Triangle is located off the South-Eastern coast of the United
States and in the Atlantic Ocean. The three corners of the triangle
are: Miami (Florida); San Juan (Puerto Rico); and Bermuda (the northAtlantic island). Each side of the triangle is some 1000 miles long. But
the area of the Bermuda triangle has different from one writer to the
other. By the various definitions, it can be anywhere between half
million to 1.5 million square miles.

The accidents have mostly taken place near the southern boundary of
the triangle between Florida and Puerto Rico.
So the next question is why the name "Bermuda Triangle"?
At the time of coining the term, the first name that came up was
"Miami Triangle". But Florida objected saying that they would lose
visitors to Miami with such name as people would fear to come there.
So the next name taken up was "Puerto Rico Triangle".
Puerto Rico too raised objections. Then it was the turn for the 21
square mile small island Bermuda which forms the third corner of the
triangle. And no one seems to have worried. Bermuda was then also
known as the "Island of the Devils" which fitted to the triangle
concept quite well and therefore the final name "Bermuda Triangle"
was coined.

LOST PLANES & SHIPS IN BERMUDA TRIANGLE

Here are some of the most amazing stories of planes and ships that
disappeared while crossing the triangle area.

FLIGHT 19: five Avenger bomber planes of Flight-19 took off from
the U.S Naval Base of Florida for a routine training session, but never
returned.

PBM MARTIN MARINER: It was the same night of December 5,

1945 when the planes of Flight-19 went missing in the Bermuda
Triangle area. When the hope for Flight-19 was quickly declining, two
Martin Mariner planes were sent by US Navy to search them out. One
came back, but strangely the other didn't.

TUDOR STAR TIGER: Star Tiger, a Tudor Mark-IV aircraft

disappeared in Bermuda Triangle shortly before it was about to land at
the Bermuda airport.

C-54 SKY MASTER: The C54, that took off from Bermuda on July 3,
1947 met with a huge STORM - a massive thunderstorm. And that
would have surely caused the breakdown of the aircraft as reported by
the investigation Board at Florida.

USS SCORPION: USS Scorpion (SSN-589) was a nuclear powered

submarine of United States Navy that disappeared in Bermuda Triangle
area in May 1968.

USS CYCLOPS: USS Cyclops was a massive transporter ship and

supplied fuel to the American navy during the World War-I. The 522foot Cyclops displaced 12,000 tons of water. Disappearance of the
carrier ship U.S.S. Cyclops in Bermuda Triangle has been one of the
greatest mysteries of the sea.

ELLEN AUSTIN: the Ellen Austin was an American schooner; a large

multi-staffed ship considered over 1800 tons and was 210 feet long.
She used to work between London and New York over the Bermuda
Triangle zone in the Atlantic Ocean. In 1881 during one of her London New York trips, she met with another ship on the way which was moving

in good speed. Strangely, the other ship had no one on the ship. In
order to save this unnamed ship, the captain of the Ellen Austin sent
some of his top crew on board this ship. When the crew arrived the
ship, they in fact confirmed that there was not a single soul on
board. The captain of Ellen Austin ordered the crew to guide the ship
so that they could all sail together to New York. After two days, the
two ships got separated by a huge sea storm. And when the storm
subsided, the unnamed ship was gone and never seen again.

FLIGHT 441: Flight 441 was a huge carrier that belonged to the US
Navy. In military version, it was called R7V-1. The aircraft was one of
the greatest successes of its time. It was famous that it could cross
the Atlantic in 8 and half hours. On October 30, 1954, the flight 441
took off from the Patuxent River. There were 42 passengers, all naval
officers and their families who were transported overseas. Like in
many of the Bermuda Triangle incidences, initially there was regular
communication received from the aircraft. And suddenly, it was all
silent. The last transmission was received around 11:30p.m which was a
regular report informing its location. And after that, Flight 441 simply
disappeared. The disappearance of Flight 441 remains as one of the
biggest mysteries of Bermuda Triangle. Not even a single clue till date
has been gathered to cover any light on the cause.

FLIGHT DC-3: The flight DC-3 NC16002 disappeared when it was only
50 miles south of Florida and about to land in Miami. It disappeared in
the Bermuda Triangle area with all its 28 passengers and 3 crew
members.

POPULAR THEORIES SOLVING THE MYSTERY

There have been many research and explorations done to uncover the
mystery. There is no single theory that can explain all the incidents of
disappearances.
An expert on Bermuda Triangle claims that more than 50 ships and 20
planes have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle over the last century
itself, and up to 1000 over the last 500 years.
So how did the planes and ships disappear? What went wrong?
There are many theories that try to explain the mystery of missing
ships and planes in Bermuda Triangle. While some theories are close to
what may have happened in reality, some are just gossips.

SARGASSO SEA & ITS MYSTERY

The Sargasso Sea is a strange and a unique creation of the nature. The
sea area which is some 700 miles wide, 2000 miles long and located in
the North Atlantic has no beach. It is bounded by ocean on all sides. In
Northwest Atlantic there is a strange sea of quiet waters, not bounded
by land, where there are mysterious disappearances of ships, planes
and people. It's called the Sargasso sea because comparatively large
amounts of seaweed (large algae growing in the sea or on rocks
below the high-water mark) seen floating on the surface The
Sargasso is surrounded by the cold North Atlantic, but the sea is
warm, clear blue. Entire sea area with its mat like weeds slowly rotates
clockwise. The rotation also depends on the surrounding weather
conditions. Many ships were believed to have become completely
motionless here and later found in poor (broken down) conditions
without a soul on them.

METHANE GAS IN BERMUDA TRIANGLE

It is known that large amounts of Methane gas are found thousands of
feet below the seafloor.
If this gas gets released, water density in that area can reduce
significantly and the water can no longer provide the toughness or
hardness required to keep a ship afloat. Triangle area can cause the
planes and ships to disappear in no time. Methane gas bubbles are
formed on the sea floor and gradually they rise to the surface. These
gas bubbles are formed below the ocean floor due to dying and
decomposing sea organisms. Initially they are very small in size. As
they come up, they keep growing in size. These gas bubbles become so
big at times that they even get larger than size of a ship as they float
right below the surface of the water. When a ship passes over it, the
bubble bursts. And the vacuum inside the bubble completely press the
ship taking it down into the bottom. Even planes flying overhead could
catch fire during such a blowout.

COMPASS VARIATION & BERMUDA TRIANGLE

Compass variation has been one of the popular explanations for missing
ships and planes in Bermuda Triangle. A compass actually points to the
magnetic North, while the absolute geographic North (which is known
as the North Pole) is located at Greenland. And these two are not the
same location on the earth. They are away by about 1500 miles. Which
means that the north where a compass points and the absolute
geographic north which is the North Pole are different. So ships need
to make adjustment for this difference to keep to the right direction.
But in Bermuda Triangle, there is a narrow strip where both these
North's become the same.

ELECTRONIC FOG IN BERMUDA TRIANGLE

One of the explanations of Bermuda Triangle disappearances is based
on electronic fog. It is something like a grayish cloud of
electromagnetic fields that get made above the ocean. Such electronic
fog appears and completely engulfs a ship or an aircraft. The fog then
keeps moving along with the ship or the plane. And soon, all the
electronic systems and the instruments start going out of order.
Nothing works correctly any longer. And finally the ship or the aircraft
disappears without a hint.