Bermuda Triangle - Mysteries & Disasters

The Bermuda Triangle ia a region of the western Atlantic Ocean that has become associated in popular imagination with mysterious maritime disasters and where more than 50 ships and 20 airplanes are said to have mysteriously disappeared. Also known as the Devil's Triangle, the triangle-shaped area covers about 1,140,000 sq km (about 440,000 sq mi) between the island of Bermuda, the coast of southern Florida, and Puerto Rico.

The reputation of the Bermuda Triangle may be traceable to reports made in the late 15th century by Italian-Spanish navigator Christopher Columbus concerning the Sargasso Sea; others date the reputation of the area from the mid-19th century, when a number of reports were made of unexplained disappearances. The incident that consolidated the reputation of the Bermuda Triangle was the disappearance in 1945 of Flight 19, a training squadron of five United States Navy planes. At least four other reports of missing aircraft or boats were made from the 1940s to the 1960s. Some ships were discovered completely abandoned for no apparent reason; others transmitted no distress signals and were never seen or heard from again. Aircraft have been reported and then vanished, and rescue missions are said to have vanished when flying in the area. However, wreckage has not been found, and some of the theories advanced to explain the repeated mysteries have been fanciful.

Never the less, some losses actually occurred outside the region, in inclement weather conditions, or in darkness, and some can be traced to mechanical or equipment problems. Scientific evaluations have concluded that the number of disappearances in the region is not abnormal and that most of the disappearances have logical explanations. They've also revealed nothing to confirm the storied peril of the region--wherever it may be. Regardless of the fact, boaters and fliers continue to venture through the triangle without event.