Fading myths.. Bermuda Triangle

ByElsa Sc S

Doing her graduation from LUMS & a keen researcher

Dated

June 28, 2022

Fading myths

The universe is full of mysteries and never fails to surprise the human race. Human curiosity knows Fading myths & no bound and the urge to explore various aspects of the environment and beyond is always there. However, many areas remain inexplicable and fascinate human curiosity. The unknown side of the universe, summed up in enigmas, sometimes takes fabulous and poetic forms and like dreams they are difficult to set aside but some of them gradually fade away. Other times, without knowing why, these Fading myths and enigmas fade through time human race stores them in folklore, popular beliefs, fantasy and even mysterious reality.
In this context, it is now known that human race has always been fascinated by ghosts but now this genre has been modernised. The iconic white sheet has given way to other forms. Already in 1982 the famous horror film ‘Poltergeist’ showed how the inhabitants of the afterlife manifest themselves to the living. Though still in 2010 National Geographic went for the title: ‘Noah’s Ark found in Turkey’ but people soon lost interest in it.

One mystery gained tremendous currency and that was the Bermuda Triangle located in a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of planes and ships are said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The idea of the area as prone to disappearances arose in the mid-20th century. While some writers have set the vertices of the triangle in Miami, San Juan (Puerto Rico) and Bermuda, others have given different boundaries and vertices, even stretching it as far as the Irish coast. It was repeatedly reported that passing through the Bermuda Triangle, compasses stopped working, ships were swept away by currents and clouds devoured airplanes in their path.

The first big incident that is usually mentioned is the disappearance of the Atlanta ship. It disappeared with her entire crew after setting sail from the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda on 31 January, 1880. Much has also been written about Flight 19, a training flight that left from Fort Lauderdale base in Florida in 1945 and never returned. One of the search and rescue aircrafts deployed to look for them, also disappeared. It was Charles Berlitz who invented the Bermuda Triangle with a book published in 1973. He had heard stories of pilots and sailors who considered that area “cursed”, and so decided to compile those enigmatic tales.

In an interview given by Charles Berlitz in 1977 he talked about how the weather changes when entering the Bermuda Triangle. And he said that there are pilots who fly, what they think are a few minutes, only to find that the tank is empty because hours have passed. He added that at other times, the planes arrive at their destination two hours in advance and on other occasions, ships or airplanes never arrive at their destination. These terrifying stories inspired the film ‘The Bermuda Triangle’, directed by Mexican René Cardona Jr and starring John Huston, the director of classics like ‘The African Queen’, ‘The Asphlat Jungle’ and ‘Annie.’

However, this legend, which was part of the mystery folklore of the 1960s and 1970s, faded away. And ships and planes no longer disappear in the Bermuda Triangle. If something does happen, there is a scientific explanation for it such as compasses change position abruptly in many places due to natural magnetic variations related to the poles. In addition, the Bermuda Triangle is under the influence of the Gulf Stream which can affect navigation. TW

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