Why do planes disappear in the Bermuda triangle?

On December 5th, 1945, five torpedo bomber aircraft of the US Navy took off from Florida at 2:10 in the afternoon. This mission was called Flight 19. It was an ordinary three-hour-long training mission with 14 crew, and regular training exercises was taking place. Flight 19 by was led Lt. Charles Carroll Taylor, a highly experienced pilot and war veteran. The five planes flew east from Florida. 

However, about two hours after takeoff, the squadron leader reported sudden problems with their compass. Their primary compass had stopped working. They checked their backup compass, but it failed too. They could no longer determine their actual position. When they asked the other pilots, they found that their instruments were malfunctioning as well.

After the compass breakdown, confusing messages were transmitted over the radio Lt. Charles Carroll Taylor said

“both my compasses are out.” Taylor did not know where he was, which direction he was flying, or which way to go. He mistakenly identified himself as MT-28, which meant “Miami torpedo bomber.” That revealed that, mentally, he was flying out of Miami; those flights were performed in the Florida Keys, not the Bahamas. His correct ID, FT-28, Fort Lauderdale torpedo bomber, was eventually learned.”

The weather started worsening. At 4:56 PM, Taylor believed that their planes were flying over the Gulf of Mexico and that they needed to fly east to return to Florida. Following this belief, he commanded the rest of the planes to fly east.

However, some of the crew aboard Flight 19 disagreed. They believed they were already east of Florida and needed to fly westward to return home. This led to further confusion. Shortly after Taylor’s command, one of the planes sent a radio transmission indicating that some of the crew members believed they should be heading west instead.

The weather continued to deteriorate. The sun set, and soon, the darkness of night engulfed them. At this point, it is believed that the planes were actually 370 km east of Florida. At 7:04 PM, the last radio transmission from Taylor was received. After that, all five planes vanished—lost forever.

Where do ships and aircraft go after they get to Bermuda triangle?

In response to the missing of Flight 19, a Search-and-Rescue Mariner aircraft carrying 13 crew took off. But while searching, the Mariner aircraft disappeared as well. largest air and seas searches in history as hundreds of ships and aircraft combed over 200,00 square miles of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.

Over the past 50 years, nearly 3,000 ships and 100 planes have gone missing in the mysterious area of the Atlantic Ocean where flight 19 and the rescue operation mariner Aircraft went missing. As a result, this area is also known Devil’s Triangle but is are commonly known as the infamous Bermuda Triangle. 

U.S.S. Cyclops Mystery adds to the mystery of this triangle

On March 4, 1918, the USS Cyclops set sail with 306 people aboard ( and also transport 9,960 tons of coal ) with an expected time of nine days of journey. Departing from a city near Washington, called the West Indies Baltimore, the ship was en route to Brazil, fro where it was expected to bring bring 11,000 tons of manganese. US Naval Institute revealed that after making a brief stop at Barbados on 3 March, the ship never made it back:

“the ship reportedly was lost in the Bermuda Triangle. Richard Winer investigated the Cyclops disappearance for his 1973 documentary The Devil’s Triangle... Was the ship fated to tragedy because of horrible leadership, or was she just another mysterious victim of the Devil’s Triangle? ” 

Mystery of Ellen Austin: not only aircraft but ships have been swallowed by Bermuda

If you think that incident was mysterious, an even more daunting and chilling mystery is that of Ellen Austin.

In the year 1881, Ellen Austin, a 210-foot-long ship traveling from London to New York encountered an unidentified ship near the Bermuda Triangle. From the outside, this unknown vessel appeared completely normal and therefore, the captain of Ellen Austin decided to investigate. He first brought his ship alongside the unidentified vessel and waited for two days, hoping for any sign of life or response. But there was none.

ater, a storm struck and the two ships lost sight of each other. When the storm finally cleared, the captain of Ellen Austin scanned the horizon with his spyglass and spotted the mysterious ship in the distance. When he reached it, he was met with an eerie sight—the ship was once again completely empty. The crew members he had sent aboard had vanished without a trace.

Bermuda Triangle
Photo: Danilo94 | Wikimedia CommonsDetermined to solve the mystery, the captain made a second attempt. He once again placed new crew members aboard the ship and resumed the journey. But history repeated itself. After a few days, another storm hit, and once again, the unidentified ship became separated. When Ellen Austin finally located it again, the new crew members had also disappeared.

When Ellen Austin finally returned, the ship’s owner became so shaken by the story that he decided to sell the vessel to a German company. The new owners renamed the ship Meta.

What really lies behind the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle?

There are many theories brought forth that try to unravel the mystery of the Bernuda Traingle – from a giant sea monster to alien abduction. Let’s focus on explanations that sound a bit more scientific.

The strange magnetism behind Bermuda Triangle

Despite the fact that magnetic and geographical poles are at opposite ends, there are certain areas on Earth where Magnetic and Geographic North Poles align. These locations are known as Agonic Lines. It has been said that the Agonic Lines shift over time, but for the last 200–300 years, the 0° line has been located around or within the Bermuda Triangle. This phenomenon can create navigational confusion for ships and aircraft.

The Shallow Waters of the Bermuda Triangle might lead to disappearance

Satellite maps reveal a turquoise-colored expanse surrounding the Bahamas and Caribbean Islands. This vast stretch of shallow water contrasts sharply with the deep ocean, which appears dark blue. 

Historically, ships entering this area often ran aground because of hidden shoals—underwater ridges that rise close to the surface but remain invisible to sailors. Many believe that these shallow waters have stranded numerous ships, leading to some of the mysterious disappearances.

Extreme Weather Conditions of Bermuda Triangle 

The third peculiarity of the Bermuda Triangle is that it experiences some of the highest hurricane frequencies in the world. Cuba, the nation with the third highest frequency of hurricanes lies within the Bermuda Triangle, and Florida—one of the most hurricane-prone states in the U.S.—is also part of this region. In addition to hurricanes, Bermuda Triangle experiences waterspouts, alongside powerful tornado-like vortexes that occur over the ocean. These extreme weather events can easily planes to vanish without a trace.

The Methane Hydrate Hypothesis

A fourth explanation for disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle is the presence of methane hydrate deposits i.e., frozen methane trapped beneath the seabed. When large amounts of methane bubbles are released into the water, the water’s density decreases, which inturn results in a loss of buoyancy, causing ships to sink almost instantly, reported SMU University:

 

“Gas hydrate is known to exist along the U.S. North Atlantic continental margin, with a very large province on Blake Ridge (north of the Bermuda Triangle)…In fact, a 2003 study published in the American Journal of Physics found that such bubbles could indeed sink ships, at least in principle. For that study, researchers built a model ship hull and released a large bubble underneath it, filming what happened. If the ship was in the right position above the bubble, the vessel would lose buoyancy and sink…”

Methane eruptions are also known as “mud volcanoes”. If a ship were directly above such an eruption, it could disappear without warning. However, no documented cases confirm that it has caused ships to vanish, reported the same publication:

.”..such large-scale methane releases have not been reported in recent history, when the ship and airplane disappearances supposedly took place within the Bermuda Triangle. The last time the ocean floor was venting gas in that area was after the last ice age, about 20,000 years ago”

The Baader-Meinhof Effect

The fifth and most important explanation : the Baader- Meinhof Effect, also known as Frequency Illusion.  This psychological phenomenon suggests that once we become aware of something, such as a new word we’ve recently discovered or a new car that a family member has purchased, we begin to notice it more often. The same goes true for the Bermuda Triangle.

Once a precedent about the Triangle’s aircraft-guzzling reputation, people tend to focus more on incidents that happen on this Devil’s traingle without realizing that similar events have occured in other stretches of ocean/land. Physchology Today offered an insight to this effect in the following way:

“Our brains are pattern-seeking missiles that cannot help but notice coincidences; whether we imbue them with meaning is another matter. The tendency to learn a new word or concept only to “suddenly” encounter it everywhere strikes people as somewhere between notable and miraculous, even though it can be explained by our brain’s capacity for selective attention: We home in on novel stimuli while filtering out myriad unrelated data.” 

Journalist Larry Kusche, author of The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved, reached a similar conclusion. He noted that while some real incidents initially fueled the mystery, as time went on, many exaggerated or entirely fabricated stories emerged. Some cases were sensationalized, while others—such as the Ellen Austin story—are believed to be complete fabrications.

What Do Experts Say about the disappearance of flights in Bermuda Triangle?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) states that

“There is no evidence that mysterious disappearances occur with any greater frequency in the Bermuda Triangle than in any other large, well-traveled area of the ocean. “

Similarly, the U.S. Coast Guard does not recognize the Bermuda Triangle as a hazardous area. According to them,

“ They does not recognize the existence of the so-called Bermuda Triangle as a geographic area of specific hazard to ships or planes. In a review of many aircraft and vessel losses in the area over the years, there has been nothing discovered that would indicate that casualties were the result of anything other than physical causes. No extraordinary factors have ever been identified.”

 Bermuda Triangle not in the list of world’s most dangerous oceans.

Additionally, in 2013, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) conducted a comprehensive study to identify the ten most dangerous bodies of water for shipping. Interestingly, the Bermuda Triangle did not make the list.

Simply put, the so-called mystery of the Bermuda Triangle has little to do with anything supernatural. Natural causes—weather, ocean currents, and human error—can explain the disappearances in this region.