Why So Many People Have Gone Missing in Bermuda Triangle

**Sanitized Transcript:**

On July 23, 2015, a 14-year-old American boy named Perry sent a message via Instagram to a friend: “Me and Austin are crossing to the Bahamas tomorrow. Come with us.” Shortly after, one of his friends received a message on Snapchat that read, “We’re in trouble.”

Eight months later, their 19-foot vessel was found capsized off the coast of Bermuda. Strangely, the engine switch was in the off position. Even more puzzling, an iPhone 6 was found, but it had been switched off before the battery ran out. The contents of that iPhone might help solve what has become a perplexing mystery. The boys were nowhere to be seen. Like many other ships and planes that have gone missing in the area known as the Bermuda Triangle, these two young men completely vanished.

What happened to them? We’ll discuss this later. For now, we can say that these boys might have shared a similar fate to hundreds of people who seemingly vanished into thin air in this region. After their disappearance, Bermuda Triangle conspiracy theories flourished online, flooding forums and comment sections. The urban legends of vanishing ships and planes date back to a time long before digital communication.

The Bermuda Triangle conspiracy theory began when writer George X. Sand published an article in Fate magazine, a U.S.-based publication featuring stories on paranormal phenomena. The article, titled “Sea Mystery at Our Back Door,” discussed a 350-foot ship named Sandra, which set off from Savannah, Georgia, in 1950 with the intention of delivering 12 men and 300 tons of insecticide to Puerto Cabello, Venezuela. Sands wrote, “It would not be delivered. Not ever.” A search for the vessel proved fruitless, and the case, like many others in the future, was labeled “unsolved.” Sands described the incidents as baffling occurrences in a strange series of marine disappearances in a “watery triangle” bounded roughly by Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico.

One notable case mentioned by Sands was the disappearance of Flight 19, which involved five TBM-type aircraft that took off from the Naval Air Station in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on December 5, 1945, for a training exercise. Fourteen men on those five planes vanished, shocking the nation and embarrassing the U.S. Navy.

Leading the exercise was Navy Lieutenant Charles Carroll Taylor, who had around 2,500 flying hours and was familiar with the aircraft type. The young pilots he was leading each had about 300 flight hours of training. This was the last flight exercise they needed to complete before graduation. They encountered trouble during the operation, with Taylor’s last message being, “All planes close up tight…we’ll have to ditch unless landfall…when the first plane drops below 10 gallons, we all go down together.” He had earlier reported problems, stating, “Both of my compasses are out. I am trying to find Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I am over land, but it’s broken. I am sure I’m in the Keys, but I don’t know how far down, and I don’t know how to get to Fort Lauderdale.”

The mysterious part isn’t that the planes ran into trouble, but that, as the last message was received only 4 hours and 10 minutes after takeoff, Taylor and his trainees couldn’t have gotten far from the base. Taylor was mistaken about his position, but the fact that all five planes vanished so close to home is indeed perplexing. After learning that Flight 19 was in trouble, two PBM Mariner flying boats were dispatched from the base at Banana River in Melbourne, Florida. Only one returned. Just under 30 minutes after takeoff, one of the PBMs reported they were close to the assumed location of Flight 19. That communication was the last anyone ever heard from that plane, which vanished along with its 13 crew members.

The Navy faced a puzzling situation. How could so many planes disappear without a trace? The U.S. launched one of the largest search operations in history, with 248 planes and numerous ships searching for any remnants of the lost aircraft. The Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum later stated that six planes from the Third Air Force, 120 planes from the Navy Air Advanced Training Command, and several aircraft from the Coast Guard and RAF joined the hunt.

Taylor was later found “guilty of mental aberration” for leading his trainees to their deaths, but his mother was not pleased with that outcome. She led a subsequent investigation, after which, in 1947, the Navy admitted that Taylor was not responsible for the loss of lives and naval aircraft, leaving the situation without a clear conclusion.

At that time, the U.S. was also preoccupied with reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), with numerous sightings in the late forties of possible alien spacecraft. The public was captivated by stories of “men in black suits” and flying saucers. A comedian later joked about the oddity of aliens crossing galaxies only to end up in rural areas.

The Roswell UFO Incident was part of what became known as the “flying disc craze” of 1947. In the years that followed, there were many more UFO sightings, with some claiming to have encountered little green men. In 1961, a couple in New Hampshire claimed they were abducted by aliens, sparking fears of alien abduction among many Americans.

Even the CIA took an interest. Dr. H. Marshall Chadwell, CIA Chief of Scientific Intelligence, wrote in the 1950s about unexplained objects at high altitudes near major U.S. defense installations, suggesting they were not attributable to natural phenomena or known aerial vehicles. He warned that misinformation could easily spread, and a portion of the U.S. population might believe it.

When people read Sand’s article on the Bermuda Triangle, an urban legend was born. Speculation arose that perhaps aliens had abducted the missing planes and ships. This was a prime time for selling magazines and newspapers, leading to more articles on the topic. In 1962, novelist Allan W. Eckert wrote that one of the last communications from Flight 19 was, “We are entering white water, nothing seems right. We don’t know where we are, the water is green, no white.” His next comment suggested that the Navy Board of Inquiry stated the planes “flew off to Mars,” which was met with skepticism.

Despite the sensationalism, many ships and planes have indeed vanished in this area. The question remains: is there anything paranormal occurring?

In 1918, the USS Cyclops set off from Brazil carrying 306 passengers and crew, intending to deliver magnesium ore to Baltimore, Maryland, but vanished along the way. The vessel had a displacement of 19,360 long tons and was 542 feet long. It’s unusual for a ship of that size to disappear, especially considering its sister ships also went missing in the same area. In 1941, the USS Proteus vanished with 58 crew members in the Bermuda Triangle. The Cyclops had three sister ships, and the Nereus also disappeared in 1941. Speculation arose that the Germans were responsible, but no U-boats were reported in the area.

The only remaining sister ship, the USS Jupiter, was converted into the U.S. Navy’s first aircraft carrier, USS Langley. On February 27, 1942, Japanese bombers attacked her, resulting in casualties.

The loss of the USS Cyclops is often cited as the largest loss of U.S. Navy lives on the high seas not directly related to combat. However, some historians argue that the USS Insurgent, which disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle in 1800, should hold that title as well.

In the late 1940s, there was a series of plane disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle, including the British South American Airways flight Star Tiger, which vanished on January 30, 1948, with no distress call. Investigations concluded that the fate of Star Tiger remains an unsolved mystery. Later that year, another American airliner disappeared under similar circumstances, with no distress call and no trace of the aircraft or its passengers ever found.

The term “Bermuda Triangle” was first used in 1964 by writer Vincent Gaddis in Argosy magazine. His article suggested that something unnatural was to blame for the many tragedies. After Gaddis’s article, various hypotheses emerged, ranging from alien abductions to sea monsters, and even theories about a vortex to another dimension.

Some rational explanations have been proposed, suggesting that many accidents were due to human error or vehicle malfunctions. For example, in the case of Flight 19, Captain Taylor’s compasses were malfunctioning, and he was not wearing a watch, which was crucial for navigation at the time.

The planes involved were heavy and could have sunk quickly if they went down. The PBM Mariner was known for being dangerous, and reports indicated a fireball was seen in the sky near the time of the accident. Weather conditions were also challenging that day, with squalls and high winds recorded.

The sea floor of the Bermuda Triangle is deep, with some areas reaching over 27,000 feet. While methane eruptions have been suggested as a possible cause for some disappearances, bad weather is often cited as the most likely culprit. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has stated that there is no unique Bermuda Triangle phenomenon; rather, the area has heavy traffic, and the number of disappearances is not statistically worse than other parts of the ocean.

In conclusion, while the story of the two missing boys is tragic, it is essential to approach the topic with a critical mindset. The truth behind these mysteries is often less sensational than the speculation surrounding them.

For more intriguing stories, consider watching “The Sinking of the Titanic (Hour by Hour)” or “Chernobyl Nuclear Explosion Disaster Explained (Hour by Hour).”