The Bermuda Triangle
The Bermuda Triangle is a geographic area1 of the Atlantic Ocean that has been believed to have witnessed a large number of disappearances of ships and aircraft1. However, this widespread belief is based mainly on erroneous, embellished or misinterpreted information and not on obvious evidence, the triangle statistically speaking presenting no anomaly1,2,3. Thus, according to a report by the World Wide Fund for Nature in 20134, the Bermuda triangle is not among the most dangerous places for navigation3
The geographic area represented by the Bermuda triangle is very fluctuating according to the stories reported and the considerations of the writers who described the mysteries related to this geographic area. According to the authors, the area varies from 500,000 to 1.5 million square kilometers2, which influences the number of disappearances reported there.
It was in February 1964 that Vincent Gaddis in an article called "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle", defined in the pulp magazine Argosy, the geographical area covered by the Bermuda triangle2. This area is located within a triangle formed by the Bermuda archipelago, Miami and San Juan in Puerto Rico.
However, this geographic area is not recognized by the United States Board on Geographic Names2.
This is an article from the Miami Herald dated September 17, 1950 and signed by Edward Van Winkle, which mentions for the first time unexplained disappearances in the sector5. Two years later, Fate magazine published an article "Sea Mystery at Our Back Door" signed George X. Sand6, dealing with the disappearance of a squadron of five fighter-bombers on December 5, 1945 off Florida, known event. under the name of Vol 197. It is this unexplained disappearance which will really popularize the myth of the Bermuda triangle1,8,9 and feed the legends concerning the sector9. However, it appears that the exercise aircraft, devoid of navigation elements, were simply lost at sea after the pilot instructor's compass, Lieutenant Charles Taylor, broke down8.
Inspired by previous articles published in the 1950s, the name "Bermuda triangle" was coined by the American journalist Vincent Gaddis in an article in Argosy magazine from February 1964: "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle".
In the 1970s, several books and newspaper articles were devoted to the mystery of the Bermuda triangle. Among them, The Bermuda Triangle10 published by Charles Berlitz in 1974, became a successful book and marked the start of a series of investigations and counter-investigations on the subject.
To explain the disappearances, some authors evoke the extraterrestrials, the influence of Atlantis, a space-time distortion or supernatural magnetic fields, while others opt for climatic disturbances, natural physical or chemical reactions related to the environment in this sector (for example, rising to the surface of methane hydrate) or human failures.
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This section does not cite its sources enough (November 2018).
The modern history of disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle would begin in the early 19th century:
From 1800 to 1850
In 1800, the USS Insurgent, a French ship captured by the Americans in 1799 with 36 guns and 340 sailors.
In 1800, the USS Pickering.
In 1812, the Patriot.
In 1814, the USS Wasp.
In 1815, the USS Sparrowhawk.
In 1824, the USS Wildcat with 31 crew members, the schooner Lynx with 40 crew members.
In November 1840, the Rosalie, a French ship found adrift off the coast of Cuba, without crew, the sails deployed, the lifeboats in place and its cargo intact.
In 1843, the USS Grampus.
From 1850 to 1900
In 1866, the Lotta, a Swedish three-masted.
In 1868, the Viego, a Spanish merchant ship.
In 1880, the Atalanta, a British training ship with 290 student officers.
In 1884, the Miramon, an Italian schooner.
From 1900 to 1950
In 1909, the Spray, a ship led by Joshua Slocum, considered the best sailor of his time.
In 1917, the SS Timandra (in) with 21 sailors.
In 1918, the USS Cyclops, with 300 sailors, disappeared without sending an SOS.
In 1920, the SS Hewitt (in), this steam freighter disappeared at sea.
In 1921, Carroll A. Deering was found beached near Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. The 11 crew members were missing.
In 1925, the SS Cotopaxi with 32 sailors and the Raifuku Maru (en), a Japanese freighter, disappeared after sending the following message: “Danger like dagger now. Come quick! ("Danger like a dagger now. Come quickly!").
In 1926, the Cargo SS Suduffco with 29 sailors.
In 1938, the Australian Anglo with 38 sailors. His last message was: "Ideal weather. Everything is fine ".
In 1939, the Quenn of Scoths, an English boat.
In 1942, a TBF Avenger (airplane).
In 1943, a PBY Catalina, a TBF Avenger, a Four Lockheed PV-1 Ventura and a PB4Y Privateer (aircraft).
In 1944, a PBY Catalina, a PB4Y Privateer, an SBD-5 Dauntless and a PBY-5A Catalina (en) (planes).
In 1945, a B-24 Liberator and a PB4Y Privateer (planes), and squadron 19: five Avenger torpedo planes.
In 1947, a Douglas C-54 (airplane).
In 1948, the SS Samkey, the Evelyn K, the Star Tige, a British aircraft which provided the Azores-Bermuda link (last message: "Excellent weather conditions. We will arrive on time"), a Douglas DC-3, making the connection between Puerto Rico and Florida (last message: "We are approaching the airport ... We are only 80 km south ... We can see the lights of Miami ... Everything is fine. Wait for the instructions for the landing ”).
In 1949, a Tudor IV: the Star Ariel (en) (plane).
From 1950 to 2000
In 1950, a Costa Rican freighter with its 28-man crew, a Grumman F6F fighter, a large freighter.
In June 1950, the Sandra, a freighter.
In February 1953, the British transport plane York.
In October 1954, the Super Constellation transport plane.
In December 1954, the cargo ship Southern Districts.
In September 1955, the Connemara IV yacht.
In November 1956, a Navy patrol bomber.
In January 1956, the yacht Revonoc.
In October 1961, a giant B-52 bomber with 8 reactors disappeared in an isolated cloud during a spaced formation flight exercise.
In January 1962, the KB-50 army supply plane.
In February 1963, the SS Marine Sulfur Queen (en) '- the trial found that the sinking was linked to the poor condition of the ship11.
In July 1963, the fishing vessel Sno'Boy.
In August 1963, two K-C-135 stratotankers.
In June 1965, a Flying Boxcar C-119, transport plane.
In January 1967, the transport aircraft Chase YC-122, Beechcraft Bonanza and Piper Apache.
In December 1967, the Witchcraft yacht.
In November 1970, the Piper Commanche transport aircraft.
In October 1971, the Caribe cargo ship.
In February 1972, the ship V.A. Fogg.
In March 1973, the Norse Variant and the Anita, two cargo ships.
In March 1977, birth on board the Chu-Li-Moji of Flore B. which later became Paule Auster. She still lives in Brooklyn.
In October 1977, the ship Sylivia S. Ossa.
In February 1978, the military aircraft KA-6 Navy attack bomber (Fighting Tiger 524).
In May 1980, the Erco 415-D, an airplane.
In October 1980, the ship SS Poet12.
In November 1983, the Cessna 340A aircraft.
In March 1984, the Piper and Cessna 402b aircraft.
In December 1984, the Aeronca 7AC aircraft.
In January 1985, the Cessna 337 aircraft.
In May 1985, the Cessna 210k aircraft.
In July 1985, a Piper aircraft.
In August 1985, the Cessna 172 aircraft.
In August 1986, the Twin Otter charter aircraft.
In May 1987, the Cessna 402c aircraft.
In June 1987, the Cessna 401 aircraft.
In December 1987, the Cessna 152 aircraft.
In February 1988, the Beechcraft aircraft.
In February 1989, a Piper plane.
In January 1990, the Cessna 152 aircraft.
In April 1991, the Piper Comanche aircraft.
In May 1991, a Piper plane.
In September 1993, the Cessna 152 aircraft.
In August 1994, the Piper PA-32 aircraft.
In September 1994, the Piper PA-23 aircraft.
In December 1994, the Piper PA-28 aircraft.
In 1995, the Jamanic K, a freighter.
In May 1996, an Aero Commander aircraft.
In August 1998, the Piper PA-28 aircraft.
In 1999, the Genesis, a freighter with 40 sailors.
In May 1999, an Aero Commander aircraft
From 2000 to the present day.
In June 2000, a ship sank, the O.B Commander with its 125 sailors.
In December 2001, the plane M.P Plane with Mikael Paré as commander.
In December 2002, the Piper PA-23 plane crashed into the sea 15 km north of Freeport, Bahamas.
In March 2004, the Piper PA-32RT aircraft disappeared from radar screens 25 km west of Freeport, Bahamas.
In March 2004, the Piper PA-32-300 plane disappeared and was never found.
In September 2005, the Beech BE-58 plane disappeared.
In May 2006, the Cessna 402C aircraft was damaged following a failure of the right engine. 2 people were killed, 6 slightly injured and 2 unharmed.
In October 2015, the cargo ship El Faro disappeared during Hurricane Joaquin, with 33 people on board.
Among the various hypotheses, we have often mentioned magnetic disturbances and oceanic flatulence, i.e. underwater emissions of a highly flammable gas, methane, the presence of which in the form of bubbles in water greatly reduces the density of the sparkling water thus formed to the point of causing a loss of buoyancy for boats (see methane hydrate) 13. The presence of methane in the air decreases its density and explains the loss of lift of aircraft; if the concentration is sufficient, it would then explain the stopping of piston engines or reactors14.
Resulting from the decomposition of organic elements like petroleum and coal, compressed by the great depth and the very low temperature of the environment, released during the creation of faults by tectonic activity, we also find important deposits in North Sea where certain drilling platforms, ships and aircraft were engulfed or pulverized by the same phenomenon. This thesis was recently reinforced by the publication of the works of Anatoly Nesterov, of the Russian Academy of Sciences. However, by the author's own admission, there is no scientific evidence to support this hypothesis15,16,17.
It should be noted, however, that many stories show white grains in this sector, as the film Lame de fond relates.
Oceanographer Simon Boxall18 of the National Oceanography Center Southampton at the University of Southampton hypothesizes that rogue waves could be the cause of many disappearances of ships in the triangle19.
In 1975, the American librarian Lawrence David Kusche took all the testimony on the subject from the source. His book, The Bermuda Triangle Mystery resolved, shows in particular that a large part of the disappearances took place in other places than in the Bermuda triangle, and that the works on this subject peddled mainly speculations, if not inventions and lies, to maintain the alleged known mystery21.
Thus, the Naval Commission of Inquiry, which studied the disappearance of the bombers in 1945, does not notice any inexplicable fact and does not mention any of the radio transmissions reported by Charles Berlitz in his book on the Bermuda triangle. The planes, lost on mission, were in fact victims of a fuel shortage and could no longer communicate due to the too great distance which separated them from their base. As for the missing ships, they would have been caught in storms or victims of manufacturing defects which led them to sink without leaving a trace. According to Kusche, all disappearances, far from being mysteries as some authors claim, can easily be explained according to weather conditions, technical problems or natural accidents (gas, corals, etc.).
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