Bermuda Triangle
Stuid
The story of ‘Bermuda Triangle’ began 56 years ago, in 1964 to be precise. American author Vincent Gaddis described an area with the shape of a triangle in the Atlantic ocean as ‘Bermuda Triangle’. He talked about the area off the coast of Florida in Argosy magazine.
It is also known as the ‘Devil’s Triangle’. Over decades, it has been a hot topic of discussion in several movies, books and documentaries. The place is pretty popular!
‘Bermuda Triangle’ has always been in the news for a series of unexplained disappearances of ships and aircraft.
In an incident in 1945, five US navy planes and 14 men disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle while performing routine training exercises. The last recordings of the flight’s leader Lieutenant Charles Taylor was rather scary!
The incident was reported as ‘cause unknown’ by the US navy after several investigations. Until the mid-1980s, 25 small planes disappeared while flying over the Bermuda triangle. They just vanished into thin air! Authorities could never recover the wreckage of these flights.
These stories did catch the attention of the public. Some people came up with some extraordinary explanations. They even said that there was something paranormal or supernatural going on in the area. A few even suggested that aliens or the mythical underwater lost city of Atlantis is responsible for the tragic events.
The official accounts of the incidents described them as ‘cause unknown’ and it was intriguing.
Critical thinking
It is time to reflect on ourselves. It is quite common that, if we don’t know what caused something, or if something seems entirely mysterious, we describe them as being paranormal (ghosts/spirits) or supernatural (magic/miracles)!
Some people find such explanations exciting. And this has been happening for decades with the incidents in the Bermuda Triangle.
But if we take enough time to learn more about these events and avoid jumping into conclusions, they will look much more ‘ordinary’.
For example, let’s discuss the disappearance of Charles Taylor and the five US navy planes. The investigation suggests that it got dark outside and the weather had changed, which forced Taylor to navigate the planes to the wrong location.
It is said that Taylor had a history of getting lost while flying. He was rescued twice in the Pacific Ocean. Actually, the navy had an idea of what had happened ahead of the disappearance.
But the incident was eventually described as “cause unknown”, as Taylor’s mother did not want her son to be blamed for the disappearance. She was of the opinion that if the navy couldn’t find the aircraft, they can’t be sure of what had happened. Even the navy decided not to blame Taylor for the tragedy.
To add on to it, most of the pilots involved in the incident were trainees. They weren’t taught how to use aircraft instruments while flying at night, or in bad weather conditions.
The planes they were flying were known to sink in as little as 45 seconds in case they landed in water. And we all know that once aircraft sink in a vast ocean, it is difficult to recover them.
Despite developing better aircraft technology and search-and-rescue methods, only a small amount of debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 flight, that disappeared in 2014, has been found.
Moving on
In the modern day, several large passenger planes fly over the Bermuda Triangle and none of them disappear. We can even track them live online.
It should be noted that between the mid-1940s and mid-1980s, more small planes have crashed over the US mainland than in the Bermuda Triangle. As they crashed on land and their wreckage was found, the incidents were not considered mysterious!
In reality, the number of ships and aircraft reported missing in the Bermuda Triangle is not ‘really’ large, when compared to those that have gone missing in other parts of the ocean.
If an event is hard to explain, it is human tendency to describe it as being paranormal or supernatural!
For instance, if 1,000 aircraft fly over the Bermuda Triangle and if we are able to explain what happened to 990 of them, then why should we be explaining the rest of them as supernatural cases?
If we don’t know what happened, we should try to learn more! As we learn more, the mystery tends to disappear!
Read more:Hologram
Check your knowledge
Answer) Devil’s Triangle.
Answer) Vincent Gaddis.
Answer) The Atlantic ocean.