Modern Mysteries

The Bermuda Triangle mystery has turned 70

By T.K. Randall
December 6, 2015 ·  6 comments

Many ships and planes have vanished within the Bermuda Triangle. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0 Vix_B There are few mysteries as enduring and as well known as the Bermuda Triangle - an expanse of ocean in the North Atlantic that spans the area between Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico.

Over the years the region has become synonymous with the unexplained disappearances of ships and airplanes - often with no trace of them or their crews ever being found.

The first big mystery of the Bermuda Triangle was that of Flight 19 - a routine training mission consisting of five airplanes that left Fort Lauderdale in Florida on December 5, 1945.

All five of the aircraft disappeared completely and no sign of any wreckage was ever found.To make matters worse, a PBM-Mariner seaplane, which had been sent on a search-and-rescue mission to locate the other five planes, also disappeared along with its 13-man crew.

But not all was as it seemed, as in later years the truth of what took place during these incidents eventually presented itself. As it turned out, Flight 19 had become lost due to a navigational error and ended up so far out to sea that the planes ran out of fuel before they could reach land.

The PBM-Mariner seaplane that went to look for them was thought to have exploded in mid-air.

Other subsequent disappearances over the region were ultimately blamed on a combination of technical failures and human error - each unrelated to the actual Bermuda Triangle itself.

Despite this however, given the region's ongoing reputation as a place of mystery and intrigue, it seems unlikely that the Bermuda Triangle enigma will be disappearing anytime soon.

Source: Telegraph | Comments (6)

Tags: Bermuda Triangle