Is the Bermuda Triangle Real?

Bermuda triangle, also referred to as the Devil's triangle, is a region in the Atlantic Ocean, renowned as a mysterious place owing to the disappearances of a number of aircraft and vessels traveling through it. The demarcated triangle is located off the Bermuda coast, from which it derives the name 'Bermuda triangle'. Although, there is no concrete evidence supporting this mystery, many people have imputed the alleged disappearances to paranormal phenomena as well as extraterrestrial activities.

So what exactly is the Bermuda triangle? Are these disappearances really caused by paranormal forces, or is it the handiwork of extraterrestrial beings? Is the triangle really as mysterious as it is claimed? Hundreds of individuals have hundreds of explanations for this so-called supernatural mystery in the Atlantic. Some of popular ones are given below

• According to some, the area sports abnormal gravity patterns, such that any aircraft or surface vessel passing through the region is pulled down into a watery grave.

• Some people think that extraterrestrial beings or aliens have decided to experiment on the lifeforms on our planet, and they use the Devil's triangle as the 'spot' to pick human specimen for further lab tests.
• There are some who even argue that the triangle in itself is a portal to another world and all the ships and aircraft that have disappeared have reached that 'other world'.

• Some believe that this region has rich stores of methane, and huge bubbles of this gas originating from the ocean floor sink the vessels and blow down the aircraft.
• The latest claim is that it's a secret base for the United States, where the US army is testing its deadly weapons. And the whole negative publicity is sparked by the army itself, so that the entire world doesn't come to know about their evil intentions.

These are just some of the various theories supporting the alleged Bermuda triangle disappearances. What we realize after reading these theories, is that people do have creativity in abundance; what they lack is critical thinking.

The theories mentioned above have some or the other loopholes in them, but they can be noticed only when you try to analyze them critically. For instance, the Bermuda triangle-methane gas bubbles theory was put forth by a researcher from the Monash University and published in the American Journal of Physics.

These sources were enough for people to blindly believe that the theory was really applicable for the disappearances in this region. Not many people tried to find out about the other places with high methane concentration.

Had anyone tried, they would have realized that the demarcated triangle is not the place with the largest concentration of methane. There are several other places, such as off the Carolina coast, where methane concentration is much higher.

Methane gas does tamper the density of water, which may, in turn, cause a ship to sink, but the process is not so fast that the crew can't send signals, nor does the ship disappear without any trace.

Like the methane gas theory, all the other theories which claim that the mystery is real, are nothing, but baseless assumptions made by self-proclaimed Bermuda triangle experts of the likes of Charles Berlitz.

Of course not! And there is no dearth of evidence to prove that the so-called Bermuda triangle mystery is just a hoax created by some limelight-hogging frauds. What this so-called mystery banks on, is exaggeration of facts. Before we move on to the exaggeration part, let's take a look at some of the most famous incidents in the triangle.

Flight 19 Incident
It all started on December 5, 1945, when a group of US fighter planes, Flight 19 suddenly disappeared in this area. Surprisingly, the aircraft which went on the search mission also met with the same fate. It was the moment the Bermuda triangle mystery was born.

One could have termed it as a mystery back then, as no one really knew what had happened to all the aircraft. But investigations that followed revealed the reasons behind the allegedly mysterious disappearances and thus, the mystery was solved.

Flight 19 was actually a group of trainee pilots on a routine training session. In the process of training, the leader of the squad misinterpreted his position. As the entire group was supposed to follow the squad leader, all of them lost the way, hovered in the sky till their fuel was over, and then crashed into the sea.

In such fighter plane formations, all the fighter planes are expected to coordinate with the leader and follow him. This may sound absurd, but let's not forget that the pilots were trainees and the aircraft were not sophisticated as they are today.

The army sources confirmed that the aircraft which went as a part of rescue mission had a technical snag, which led to fume emission in its cockpit. The end result was an explosion and a tragic end to the rescue mission.

Extraterrestrial Beings and UFOs
People who claim that the Bermuda triangle is the handiwork of extraterrestrial beings, are most often the ones who misinterpret various celestial occurrences. Meteors, for instance, become UFOs when they are sighted in this region. Even Christopher Columbus mentions in his accounts that he and his crew witnessed a ball of fire in the sky, which traveled some distance before going down into the sea.

During the era of Columbus, some person mistaking a meteor for unidentified flying object was not surprising, but when some person does it now, it is not surprising, but absurd. Maybe it's the effect of the hordes of ET movies we get to see these days. There have been cases wherein fire at the oil rigs has been misinterpreted to be a UFO by the pilots of various aircraft.

When we talk about exaggeration of facts, we refer to various false claims made to support a mystery which doesn't exist. One such example is the number of accidents in this region. The large number of accidents that reportedly took place in the demarcated area are enough for a person to believe that there is indeed something extraordinary about this area.

However, a bit of investigation and you can save yourself the horror. The fact is that, a large number of accidents, which are said to have happened in the demarcated area, didn't occur in this region in the first place.

The demarcated triangle lies between the coasts of Miami, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda, and many of the accidents or disappearances that are alleged to have happened in this area, have actually happened miles away in some other part of the ocean. Even ships which never left the dock and aircraft which never took-off find a place in the Bermuda triangle casualty list. This was the handiwork of sensationalism on the part of media and false claims by self-proclaimed triangle experts.

The alleged mystery reached its all-time high with the release of Charles Berlitz's book, The Bermuda Triangle. When asked about the lack of statistical evidence to support his claims, Berlitz had a standard answer "the government, the navy in particular, is conspiring to keep these disappearances a secret."

This part of the ocean is familiar to three-way water currents: the jet streams, easterlies, and the gulf stream. Tropical storms are quite common in this area, and hence, ships fighting a storm and ending up in a watery grave is not at all mysterious.

As far as aircraft are concerned, fog is the main culprit, with some aid from the pilot being inexperienced. As we all know, it's not easy to find something that disappears in the vast ocean. And lastly, exaggerated numbers also play a vital role in creating an aura of mysteriousness around the phenomenon.

It's a normal human tendency to attribute anything which has no logical explanation to the supernatural; same has been the case with Bermuda triangle disappearances. Most of these disappearances never took place, and those few that did, had logical explanations in the form of rough weather and technical failure.

These facts are enough to prove that the Bermuda triangle phenomenon is a myth, which has been created out of sheer foolishness on the part of the believers, some shrewdness on the part of the creators, and sensationalism and irresponsible attitude on the part of the media.