December 5th, 1945, Flight 19, 14 lost.
Ah, same day, another 13 on a PBM Mariner.
Two years later, a B-29 Superfortress, vanishes entirely…
Oh, hey YouTube, Jim here.
Welcome back to Top10Archive!
I was just going over some of these cases, entire aircraft and ships that just vanished
around 25° N 75 W°, or as you may know it, the Bermuda Triangle.
This mysterious slice of the North Atlantic has been a topic of conversation for years,
and we’re hoping to join in on the oddities and unusualness that surrounded the Bermuda
Triangle with these ten mysterious facts.
Should we get lost in our travels to the triangle, it’d be great if you remembered us by subscribing
to the Archive.
If you click the bell, you’ll also get a notification should we happen to return!
Have your own anecdotes about the Devil’s Triangle?
Share them in the comments below and be sure to give this video a thumbs up!
10.
A Matter of Size There are a few different answers you’ll
get for this one, but it seems the average answer lands at around 500,000 square-mi (1.2
million square km), a whopping 117,000 square-miles smaller than the Gulf of Mexico.
There are, however, estimates that also believe it to be much larger at 1.5 million square-mi
(3.8 million square km).
What can be agreed upon is that it generally stretches from Puerto Rico to the Florida
Keys up to Bermuda, forming the namesake triangle that also covers the Caribbean.
9.
Compass Variation We bet if you go down to the Bermuda Triangle
and try to get your compass to point to magnetic North, you won’t be able to.
Go ahead, try it, we’ll wait.
Didn’t work, did it?
It probably pointed to true North, an area that’s about 1,500 miles (2,414 km) away
from magnetic North.
This compass variation, which can be as much as 20° off course, has to do with the agonic
line, or the imaginary line that puts magnetic and true North in perfect alignment.
Skeptics refute that compass variation has anything to do with missing craft because
experienced pilots and captains would know to account for it.
8.
Bruce Gernon and the Electronic Fog Adding a layer of science fiction to the Bermuda
Triangle are people like Bruce Gernon, seaplane flight instructor, master captain, and time
traveler.
Yes, you heard us right.
Gernon claims to have traveled through a “timestorm,” or an Electronic Fog, that propelled him 30
minutes ahead in time and 100 miles (160 km) forward along his flight path.
After his own experiences with the mysterious cloud, Gernon hypothesized that fog actually
traveled with his aircraft, attaching itself to the plane.
Within the fog, electronic and magnetic equipment failed and it wasn’t until his landing at
Palm Beach that he realized his flight was cut short by 30 minutes.
7.
The Underwater Area 51 The Atlantic Underwater Test Evaluation Center.
Yeah, sure, that doesn’t sound too mysterious.
Dubbed “The Underwater Area 51,” AUTEC is an American testing center on Andros Island
in the Bahamas and West Palm Beach, FL that specializes in measurements of hydrospace
and aerospace trajectory as it pertains to underwater, simulated warfare.
In layman’s terms, it’s a facility intended to improve upon tactics of the United States
Navy, but theorists believe AUTEC is no different than Nevada’s secret military base and has
some connection to the Bermuda Triangle and UFO sightings in the area.
As they say, where there’s a military presence, there, too, will be aliens.
They say that, right?
6.
Not the Most Dangerous Waters People can run around frantically screaming
about the dangers of the Bermuda Triangle, but the truth of the matter is, it’s not
really that dangerous.
At least not when compared to the rest of the world’s bodies of water.
In fact, the World Wildlife Fund commissioned a study to determine the most dangerous seas,
factoring out piracy and other human aggressors, and came to find that the Bermuda Triangle
doesn’t even compare to spots like the East Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
The South China Sea alone has had almost 300 incidents since 1999.
Now compare that to the Bermuda Triangle’s several dozen since the early 20th century.
5.
Christopher Columbus and the Triangle Maybe you’ll want to take this with a grain
of salt considering the man’s reputation, but Christopher Columbus is thought to be
among the first to have experienced the triangle.
According to the Italian explorer, as he passed through the region we now know as the Bermuda
Triangle, he spotted a fiery object crashing into the water.
Weeks later, he spotted a light rising up from the ocean.
Written accounts of Columbus’ journey through the triangle included complaints of inaccurate
compass readings.
And if you were paying attention earlier, you’d know that was likely compass variation.
4.
The Disappearances that Never Were How do you bring popularity to something as
polarizing as a supernatural formation in the middle of the Atlantic?
Well, you can start by linking real, unrelated, and shocking stories to it!
Now, we’re not saying every disappearance attributed to the Bermuda Triangle is either
fabricated or unassociated, but we can’t help but call attention to one – the Mary
Celeste.
Setting sail from New York City towards Genoa, the Mary Celeste reemerged on December 4th,
1872, completely deserted.
To account for the missing crew, the Bermuda Triangle sounds like the perfect scapegoat,
but the merchant brigantine was, according to the log book, deserted a long ways away
from the triangle. 3.
UFOs and the USS John F. Kennedy It was an unremarkable time in 1971 when the
USS John F. Kennedy, a Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier, made its journey through the Bermuda
Triangle.
Unfazed by the stories of disappearances, the crew went about its business as normal.
Then, the irregularities started.
Information being filtered into the communications center was nonsensical and the bridge started
to panic over an unknown object hovering over the John F. Kennedy.
As sailors rushed to the flight deck, they were met with an immeasurable flowing sphere
that floated steadily over the ship.
Nothing ever came of the flying object and crewmembers weren’t keen on talking about
it, calling into question the validity of the incident.
2.
The USS Cyclops and Flight 19 Though many disappearances have been attributed
to the triangle, the loss of the USS Cyclops and the five bombers of Flight-19 are two
of the strangest and most memorable.
In total, over 300 lives were lost between the two incidents, the first of which, the
missing USS Cyclops, occurring in 1918 as the vessel sailed from Barbados to Baltimore.
The pilots of Flight-19 were on a training exercise in 1945, scheduled to leave Ft.
Lauderdale, FL for bombing practice.
In both instances, there were no signs of any wreckage and even when a recon plane sought
out the missing Flight-19, it, too, was lost.
Was it a matter of poor navigation?
Unexpected weather conditions?
Or a mysterious force within the triangle?
1.
It’s Been Solved?
Maybe the most intriguing thing about the Bermuda Triangle is that…
it’s not really a mystery at all.
Australian scientist Karl Kruszelnicki looked at the disappearance of Flight-19 as a means
of debunking the supernatural aspects of the triangle and determined that the missing Flight-19
bombers and the disappearances framing that shocking story were unquestionably victims
of human error.
Speaking specifically on Flight-19, Dr. Karl, very confidently stated that Lieutenant Charles
Taylor, the mission’s commander, led his trainees further east, eventually causing
them to crash.
As for the rescue plane?
While that is a true part of the story, it didn’t just vanish.
It was shown to have blown up.
Dr. Karl also points out that there is no substantial number of losses that make the
triangle any more shocking than similar areas across the world.
Well, what do you think?
Give us your thoughts in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe and give this
video a thumbs up!
Looking for more mysteries from the Top 10 Archive?
Check out these two here!