PlotFiles

The Bermuda Triangle - the greatest modern mystery in the world we pretend to know all about. The Bermuda Triangle is a stretch of the Atlantic Ocean bordered by a line from Florida to the islands of Bermuda, to Puerto Rico and then back to Florida. Here ships and airplanes seem to disappear more often than in other parts of the ocean. Usually the craft are never seen again, which is not too surprising in an area noted for hurricanes and high waves.

The term “Bermuda Triangle” was first used in an article written by Vincent H. Gaddis for Argosy magazine in 1964. In the article Gaddis claimed that in this strange sea a number of ships and planes had disappeared without explanation. A fact that is unexplained about the Bermuda Triangle is that electro-magnetic compasses that normally point to the magnetic north pole, point to the true north pole when used inside the area of the Bermuda Triangle. This phenomena happens in only one place other than the Bermuda Triangle – the Devil’s Sea off the east coast of Asia.

There have been a number of strange and sometimes unexplained disappearances in the Triangle. The tale of Flight 19 – a group of five Navy torpedo bombers and one search plane disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle area (perhaps!) – is the most notorious of these.

The tale of Flight 19 started on December 5th, 1945. Five Avenger torpedo bombers lifted into the air from the Navel Air Station at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at 2:10 in the afternoon. It was a routine practice mission and the flight was composed of all students except for the Commander, a Lt. Charles Taylor.

Another fact about the Bermuda Triangle that is undeniable is that the area has claimed over 1,000 lives in the past 100 years. Some of these are a result of “human error” in navigating the area. However there are always suspicious or unexplained disappearances happening in the Bermuda Triangle.

The saga of Flight 19 is probably the most repeated story about the Bermuda Triangle. The planes, and their pilots, even found their way into the science fiction film classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

It has been inaccurately claimed that the Bermuda Triangle is one of the two places on earth at which a magnetic compass points towards true north. Normally a compass will point toward magnetic north. The difference between the two is known as compass variation.

The amount of variation changes by as much as 60 degrees at various locations around the World. If this compass variation or error is not compensated for, navigators can find themselves far off course and in deep trouble. Although in the past this compass variation did affect the “Bermuda Triangle” region, due to fluctuations in the Earth’s magnetic field this has apparently not been the case since the nineteenth century. We know of no US Government-issued maps that delineate the boundaries of the Bermuda Triangle. However, general maps as well as nautical and aviation charts of the general area are widely available in libraries and from commercial map dealers.

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