I love the internet! Where else can you find recipes for dinner, spend hours watching cat videos, get the weather reports, daily news and find out how much your neighbor dislikes their child’s teacher? The internet is a lovely and strange place. At times, the internet can feel almost like a Bermuda Triangle, you go in with a planned course and then something happens that you can’t explain. It is a vortex that sucks you in and you can’t escape. You don’t know what happened or how you got there, and you can’t explain how your 5-minute search turned into a 3-hour rabbit trail on flat earth theories.
We know the internet vortex is real, but what about the Bermuda Triangle? Is it really the phenomena that so many have claimed? I dove in, yes-pun intended and searched it out.
The Bermuda Triangle is an expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 500,000 miles. The exact borders are uncertain but the triangle points of Miami, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda are the most accepted.
It has been documented that strange and unusual occurrences happen to ships and aircraft while traveling in the triangle. This can vary from compasses spinning, electrical equipment ceasing to work, strange fogs and lights, and loss of radio contact to the outside world.
I would highly suggest that you dive into the many disappearances attributed to the Triangle. This one was my favorite.
Flight 19
In December 1945, 5 Navy bombers took off from Fort Lauderdale, Florida on a mission to do bomb runs over nearby shoals. It was supposed to be a routine two-hour flight but something happened. The leader of the group, known as Flight 19, and the other planes, and the planes 14 men crew were never seen again. It has been debated as to what happened to the group of 5 bombers…but it gets weirder. The rescue plane with their crew of 13 that searched for the missing bombers, well…that went missing too.
Was it supernatural phenomena? Maybe?
In his 1984 book, The Bermuda Triangle author Charles Berlitz writes his theory of what happened to Flight 19. According to Berlitz, the cause of the crash was due to less natural causes. He reports that the gyro and magnetic compasses on the planes were “going crazy” and all reporting different readings. Radio transmissions from the tower to the planes were static and transmissions were poor. The planes just vanished.
Berlitz tells of the organized search operation.
But in spite of history’s most intensive search involving, 240 planes plus another 67 additional planes from aircraft carrier Solomons, 4 destroyers, several submarines, 18 Coast Guard vessels, search and rescue cutters, and hundreds of private planes, yachts, and boats…nothing was found.
The Bermuda Triangle by Charles Berlitz, page 30
Berlitz also describes the review board’s findings and quotes an unnamed member as saying, “they vanished as completely as if they had flown off to Mars.” Here is where it gets strange. Berlitz starts to look at the possible connection to UFO’s and introduced the idea that the planes were here but in a different dimension, one caused by magnetic phenomena set up by a UFO.
So it was supernatural? But again…Maybe not.
According to an article from The Independent, Karl Kruszelnicki, an Australian scientist, had some suggestions that are more natural than supernatural, weather and human error.
“It wasn’t fine weather, there were 15m (49ft) waves.” Mr. Kruszelnicki added that the only truly experienced pilot in the flight was its leader, Lieutenant Charles Taylor, and his human error may well have played a part in the tragedy. [He] arrived with a hangover, flew off without a watch, and had a history of getting lost and ditching his plane twice before,” said Mr. Kruszelnicki. Radio transcripts from before the patrol vanished, he added, made it clear that Flight 19 had become unsure of its position. Mr. Kruszelnicki said Lt Taylor overruled a junior pilot who said they should turn west, and insisted the patrol fly east, unwittingly taking them further into the Atlantic, above deep water where it might be harder to find sunken planes or bodies. “If you read the radio transcripts,” said Mr. Kruszelnicki, “Some of the junior pilots are saying, ‘Why don’t we fly to the west?’, and the pilot says, ‘Why don’t we fly to the east?’”
An interview from news.com.au with Mr. Kruszelnicki taken from the Independent
Kruszelnicki also had an explanation for the search plane’s disappearance. In simple terms, it exploded. After the disaster, oil-slicks and debris were located. The type of search plane that was used was a PBM-Mariner seaplane, also called “flying gas tanks” by the Navy. Interestingly enough, all other planes of this type were grounded after the disaster.
So two sides of the Flight 19 disaster were presented…what do you believe? Is one of them right or is the truth somewhere in the middle?
Theories and Wonderings
Many theories abound as to what happens in the Bermuda Triangle to cause such a list of missing ships and planes.
- It is a busy area…it is one of the most heavily traveled shipping lanes in the world.
- It has so many disasters because of the amount of traffic, both air, and sea, and it is just going to happen. Think car wrecks on a freeway versus car wrecks on a country road.
- The weather patterns play a cause. The Gulf Stream runs in that area and can cause sharp weather changes, plus it is an activity area for tropical storms and hurricanes.
My Favorite Theory
The Bermuda Triangle trouble is caused by the lost city of Atlantis. In 360 B.C. Plato wrote about Atlantis in two of his dialogues, Timaeus and Critias. Plato describes the people of Atlantis as wealthy, technologically advanced, and far superior to the culture of his day. According to Plato, the city sunk into the ocean depths to disappear forever. Here is where Bermuda Triangle speculators pick it up. Atlantis, because of it’s technology and advancement continues to cause issues in the triangle. The legend says that the city of Atlantis heavily depended on powerful crystals which radiated huge amounts of energy. It is this energy that causes navigational instruments of passing ships and airplanes to malfunction.
This brings up a separate question though, was Atlantis a real city that Plato was writing about or a clever invention of his imagination to tell his story? That’s a mystery for another day.
So what do you think? I personally think that with the advancement of GPS, access to more accurate weather forecasts, and other navigational equipment it has helped sailors and pilots better understand where they are at sea and in the air. This has prevented much of the “lost” causes of old. I highly doubt aliens or angry Atlantians are messing with our world and causing chaos.
Would you travel through the Bermuda Triangle? Would you be confident or a little nervous? Let me know in the comments. If you want to learn more, I have hyperlinked my sources and you can check out the numerous books on the subject.
Thanks for journeying through history with me and examining the Bermuda Triangle. If you are new to the blog, I am in the middle of Mystery Month and have tackled several topics already, you can check out past posts here and I have some exciting ones coming up. You can get updates on new posts by following CampTown Media on Instagram or Facebook.
Till next time,
Kimberly
P.S. – Did you know my husband and I wrote a kids’ book? It is now available on Amazon!! Piggy & his best friend The Bear are excited to go trick-or-treating and need to find the perfect costumes. You can click here for more details.
