Disclaimer: I used an article in a Swedish science magazine for most of the reference in this article. While doing some additional research, I've found a few contradictive facts. However, I think the point of the article goes by undamaged. Also know that I had to translate a lot of the information into English from another language, so some words or terms used might not be correct. This goes especially for the ranks and words used in the part about Flight 19. Also, the accuracy of the conversations in that part might be wrong, but again - the big picture remains the same.
Another source used: Wikipedia
The area in the waters to the east of Florida, with Puerto Rico and Bermuda as its edges, is called The Bermuda Triangle. Here, boats go missing without explanation. Here, planes crash without leaving any traces. Here, power outside of human understanding rules.
Or is it all just a fake?
People have always been fascinated with things we can't explain. And sometimes, we need more than reality to make life exciting enough. Who doesn't like a good fictional novel, that makes you think beyond the dull average life?
But in the twilight zone between reality and imagination, there is room for explaining events with fascinating explanations, where the truth is actually much simpler and more mundane.
This is how a lot of today's myths and conspiracy theories were created. Roswell, Area 51, the Philadelphia Experiment, and many more.
The Bermuda Triangle is one of the strangest of these myths. In most cases, there is an event of some kind to preceed the actual myth. However, when it comes to the Bermuda Triangle, it is mostly the work of one person. Others added bits and pieces to the story, which all seemed to show that there is something fishy going on in the waters outside of Florida.
The Myth Arises
The story about the scary triangle got its breakthrough by a man named Vincent Gaddis. Gaddis published a newspaper article in 1964, in which he declared that a lot of ships had gone missing in the waters to the east of Florida. Others had mentioned the area before, but Gaddis created the phrase "Bermuda Triangle", as he imagined a triangle, with its corners in Florida, Puerto Rico and Bermuda. He gave the area its name, and then ventured into speculations about ships and planes missing in the area. According to Gaddis, the disappearings were of such nature, that everything seemed to prove there were forces of some unknown kind in action in the area.
Gaddis had people after him that all did their part in spreading and enhancing the story. In 1974, Charles Berlitz published his book "The Bermuda Triangle", which really boosted the fame of the whole story. The popularity of the book was largely due to the writing style of Berlitz, and his ability to dramatize, and make it exciting. During the following years, he kept the book sales alive by bringing out new facts about the triangle into the open.
The Pyramid
In a sequel, Berlitz revealed he had gained the knowledge of a huge pyramid, located on the bottom of the sea somewhere inside the Bermuda Triangle. He didn't want to reveal the exact location, because he was afraid the sea explorer Jacques Cousteau would examine it before Berlitz himself would have time to finance an expedition.
The pyramid on the bottom of the sea naturally sparked all kinds of theories of what was really there. The pyramid was supposed to have secret powers, and it was thought to be the reason for all the disappearances. Some theories stated that it was the sunken Atlantis that had been found. Berlitz, for whatever reason, never revealed the location of the pyramid.
Flight 19
One of the most famous and astonishing disapperances is the one of Flight 19, a group of five bombers on a training flight. In his book, Berlitz explains that the pilots were all experts, who disappered, after seeing some visual anomalies. He also wrote that the planes in question, TBM Avengers, was constructed to float for a long time, if having to land on water.
After performing a practice attack on a ship, the planes headed home, to Ft. Lauderdale. But right before the planes arrived at their base, the flight commander, Charles Taylor, contacted flight control:
-This is an emergency. We seem to be off course. We can't see land...
Flight control in Ft Lauderdale asks Taylor for their position. The answer makes things even more mysterious:
-We are not sure of our position. We are not sure where we are. We seem to be lost.
To this, flight control advised for them to head west.
-We don't know which way west is right now. Everything is wrong - it's so strange - we can't figure out any directions. Even the sea doesn't look like it's supposed to.
In that very moment, chief instructor Robert Cox is coming in to land. He had overheard the conversation and called for Taylor:
-Flight 19, what is your altitude? I will head south and meet you.
The reply takes some time, after which Taylor says:
-Don't come here, it looks like...
After that, silence.
A large recon operation was initiated immediately. But several days later, they were forced to give up, without finding any planes, or parts.
Reality Is Revealed
Lawrence Kusche, a librarian with Arizona State University at the time, became interested in the story of the Bermuda Triangle. He started investigating every single case in the books about the triangle, especially Berlitz's book.
Piece by piece, he dismantled the whole story. A lot of the events did take place, but in very different locations around the globe. In some cases, like the Norwegian ship Stavanger, which supposedly took several hundered people's life, it was revealed that neither ship nor accident ever existed.
When it comes to Flight 19, Kusche showed that Berlitz hadn't been very exact with his facts. According to him, he based his story on personal notes, written down by the chief commander of Ft Lauderdale, RH Wirshing.
Wirshing had a completely different story. He didn't take notes, simply because he was not on duty until the day after Flight 19 disappeared.
The compasses that reportedly went nuts while flying, had had the same problem since way back. And when it comes to Lt Taylor's comment to Robert Cox, "Don't come here, it looks like...", it seems Berlitz had edited it to better serve its dramatic purpose. The truth is that Taylor said:
-Don't come here and meet us. It looks like we are on the right track now. We know where we are.
Investigations in the accident brought forth a pretty clear picture on what had happened. All the pilots, except for Taylor, were inexperienced. After the practice attack, they flew in the wrong direction, lost orientation, and had to look for a piece of land which could give information on where they were. Taylor believed, after finding some islands, that he was on the right course. He wasn't, however, and the group's fuel didn't last for a long flight across the water. And with non-stop jamming from Cuban radio transmitters, it wasn't unusual for radio communication to be bad. The group had simply been forced to land on the water, and later investigations have shown that an Avenger sinks in less than a minute.
Kusche kept controlling every piece of "evidence", step by step. It turned out that ships that reportedly had gone down in calm weather, had really sunk during storms. After Kusche was done, there were not a lot of unexplained facts left. Kusche published his discoveries in the book "The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved".
The Fight
Kusche's book sparked a long fight between Berlitz and himself. Berlitz accused Kusche for not having enough in-depth knowledge about the triangle, and not having made any research on the spot. Kusche wondered what he was supposed to do there, as all the logs, reports and investigations were easily available through his library.
Kusche also thought Berlitz could have read the factual reports that were available, instead of basing his book on earlier books, hearsay, and finally spicing it up with his own imagination.
Kusche's book put an end to a lot of the hysteria around the Bermuda Triangle. But as with so many other cases, the Bermuda Triangle had become a myth that people wanted to believe in. However, amongst the true believers of the Bermuda Triangle, Kusche is accused of having written his book by assignment from the government, or the military.
As far as Berlitz goes, none of his following books reached the popularity that his first book gained.
Triangles Around The Globe
The myth about the Bermuda Triangle still exists today, and a lot of the followers are still waiting for Berlitz's underwater pyramid to be found once again.
Other authors have launched their own triangles around the world. Still, however, nobody has been able to prove that more ships or planes disappear in any specific area than any other. On the contrary, it seems that the number of disappearing ships are pretty evenly divided throughout the world, with consideration taken to the number of ships inhibiting the area, naturally.