CNN Report Disputes Bermuda Triangle Myths
Everything from gargantuan sea monsters [pictured] to Unidentified Flying Objects have been blamed for the disappearance of vessels and aircraft in the so-called Bermuda Triangle and the neighbouring Sargasso Sea.
But CNN reports today [May 31] there are natural, scientific explanations for what have often been labelled as paranormal or supernatural occurrences in the two great expanses of ocean.
“The vast triangular area of ocean with imaginary points in Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico — popularly known as the “Bermuda Triangle” — has long been associated with mysterious disappearances, paranormal activity and even fissures in the fabric of space itself,” says the cable news channel. “Interest in the region began after a group of military planes carrying 14 men inexplicably vanished somewhere off the coast of southern Florida in December 1945.
“Before losing radio contact, it’s claimed the flight leader was heard saying: ‘We are entering white water, nothing seems right’ …”
Hours after the disappearance of the US Navy’s Flight 19, a further 13 crew-members – dispatched as a flying search party — themselves vanished. Neither group’s remains were ever discovered and the modern Bermuda Triangle legend was born.
Later disappearances — including two British commercial flights in the late 1940s – attributed to the area’s alleged paranormal forces.
“A raft of books, like ‘The Devil’s Triangle’, ‘Limbo of the Lost’ and ‘The Riddle of the Bermuda Triangle’” all contained supernatural explanations — from UFOs to “wormholes” to technology left over from the mythical lost continent of Atlantis,” said CNN.
“However, in later years, skeptics have argued that the number of ships and aircraft reported missing in the area is, statistically, no more significant than in any other part of the ocean.
“Indeed, the area is today one of the most heavily traveled shipping lanes in the world, and most appear to get by without so much as dipping oar into another dimension.”
The Bermuda Triangle continues to exert a powerful grip on the popular imagination. The recent Jack Black version of “Gulliver’s Travels” used the Triangle as a plot device. And an upcoming fifth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise starring Harrison Ford as well as a new Brad Pitt project and the second film in the teen-oriented Percy Jackson series will boast Bermuda Triangle-themed narratives.
Bermuda also sits on the western fringes of the Sargasso Sea — another region of the Atlantic which CNN says “has an intriguing reputation for robbing sail boats of their crew, leaving nothing but empty, wandering vessels.”
Among its supposed victims was the tall-mast ship “Rosalie,” which sailed through the area in 1840, but was subsequently found drifting and derelict with her sails set and no crew on board.
“Grisly 19th-century paintings show sailing vessels being devoured by monstrous weeds, and the area has featured in books by Jules Verne, among others,” said the cable news outlet. “But the mystery of the Sargasso is no longer much of a mystery.
“Surrounded by some of the strongest surface-water currents in the world, the ‘sea within a sea’, as it is known, is effectively cordoned off from the rest of the Atlantic.
“This isolation gives the region its uncharacteristic temperature and surprising tranquility — causing wind-powered sail boats to come to an absolute standstill and creating all the ingredients for a nautical fairy tale.”
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The Bermuda Triangle myth is the best free advertising we’ve ever had.
true, but i reckon there’s some stupidly superstitious people out there refraining from coming because of the myth. guess its a good thing we are no longer known as the Devil’s Isle on maritime charts, although we might as well be with all the great and wonderful news coming from the place today
When doppler weather radar was first installed in the early 1990s at the National Weather Service Office located in Melbourne, Florida, the Meteorologist in Charge, Mr. Bart Hagemeyer, stated “I think we may have solved one of the mysteries of the Bermuda triangle”. His comment was based on the doppler radar detecting super cell thunderstorms to the east of central Florida. He noted these were similar or stronger than those he had observed at his previous assignment in St. Louis, Missouri.
Since the Bermuda Triangle is outside of the normal great circle naviagation routes, surface weather observations are sparse over this part of the Atlantic Ocean. Also as mentoned in previous articles the Sargasso Sea lies within this region. This is due to a lack of and/or light winds (general center point of the Bermuda High). Cold fronts moving off the North America continent often stall in this region but remain active for weeks. Thunderstorms/squalls will continue to develop along these stalled fronts (per satellite observations), but with a lack of surface observations, they are often not “forecast” as severe nor are warnings issued on them. Ships and airplanes have wandered into the Bermuda Triangle and encountered this weather could easily have sunk or crashed into the Ocean. Reference the 1986 sinking of the “Pride of Baltimore”, a sailing vessel that sank enroute to Bermuda from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
I have seen few too many documentaries on TV (Nat Geo, Discovery, History channel etc) and the mystique of the triangulated area known as the “Bermuda Triangle” reads as much into folklore as into scientific discoveries. As a qualified pilot I can attest to the westward moving weather (squalls, low pressure depressions off the Florida coast that seem to appear on the radar overnight) that originates within the triangle and the impact upon aircraft in flight. When we look back 60 years, the instrument capabilities of aircraft (and pilots) were primitive compared to today’s glass cockpits and Nexrad radar displays. The dynamics of entering storm cells or even in the vicinity of them (these can produce effects as far as 20NM away from the cells even in good visibility and clear or clouds) have been discovered more recently (thanks to NOAA et al) that the weather and aerodynamics knowledge of a private pilot may be better than the standards of some commercial and military pilots back then! It comes as no surprise that with the advent of oceanic aviation and the unknown factors of the “triangle” that airspeed and attitude indications may have led entire fleets towards spatial disorientation in rapidly worsening visual conditions and turbulence. Such confusion and failure to trust their instruments, coupled with the “black hole” effect and lack of any ground references would have been a recipe for disaster that shows itself even in the modern cockpits of today’s jet aircraft- two examples within the last 20 yrs include the loss of a 757 off Peru, an American Airlines jet in Colombia and another (unknown type) off the Dominican Republic- all attributed to false/misleading instrument indications, pilot disorientation and ultimately confusion.
Daytona Beach, FL
I WANT MYTHS!!!!
the bermuda triangle
screw the bermuas triangle