Hello, friends! The year 1945. on 5th December, at 10 past 2 in the afternoon, 5 torpedo bomber aircraft of the US Navy, took off from Florida. This mission was called Flight 19. It was a 3-hour long routine training mission. It wasn't anything special, they were simply flying to conduct their regular training missions. There were 14 crew members on the flight, led by their flight leader, a highly experienced pilot and war veteran. These five planes flew east from Florida. Everything was normal the weather was clear, but about 2 hours after the takeoff, their squadron leader reported that there were sudden problems in their compass. Their compass stopped working. They take out their backup compass, but the backup compass failed too. They can't determine their actual position. They ask the pilots of the other planes but their instruments were malfunctioning too. Lt Charles Carol Taylor was the squadron leader, after the compass broke down, utterly confusing messages were sent over radio transmission. The weather starts worsening. At 4:56 in the evening, Taylor believes that their planes were flying over the Gulf of Mexico. And that they needed to fly east to get back to Florida. So he commanded the rest of the planes to fly east. But some of the crew abroad the flight believed that they were already flying east of Florida. And that they needed to fly westwards. Right after this order, one of those planes sent a radio transmission saying It shows that some of the crew members believed that they had to fly westwards to get back home. But the weather continues to worsen. It's soon sunset and then the darkness of night. At this point, it is believed that the planes were actually 370km east of Florida. At 7:04 PM, we get the last radio transmission from Taylor. After this, all five planes are lost forever. Till date, we have no clue about these planes. Where are they? What happened to them? After the disappearance of Flight 19, a Search-and-Rescue Mariner aircraft took off, with a crew of 13 people. They were on the mission to find Flight 19. But while looking for them, they too disappear. First, 14 people of Flight 19 disappeared, And then 13 people of the Mariner search-and-rescue aircraft. For days after this, a large scale air-and-sea search operation was carried out. One of the largest search operations of the time, to look for both of these flights. But they could find nothing. Neither do they find a body of any person, nor any part of the aircraft. Everything had disappeared. Interestingly, the area where both planes disappeared, today, we know that area as the Bermuda Triangle. "We don't know which way is West." "Over the past 50 years, 3,000 ships, and 100 planes, have gone missing in a mysterious stretch of water in the Atlantic Ocean." "Ships have gone missing planes have gone missing." "Known as the Devil's Triangle, a source of intrigue, legend and fear, this is the Bermuda Triangle." The Bermuda Triangle is said to be a very mysterious part of the ocean. There, more than 100 aircraft and ships, have disappeared. They were never found again. This area lies between Florida in the USA, Puerto Rico and the country Bermuda in the North. It makes a triangular area like this. Overall, this area spans more than 500,000 square miles. Tales of the Bermuda Triangle are older than 500 years. In 1492, when Christopher Columbus set out to find the New World, he reported that when he was passing by this area, his compass stopped working. And one night, when he looked at the sky from his ship, he saw a weird light. A strange light that looked like a ball of fire. And he saw that ball of fire fall out of the sky into the ocean. This was the beginning of the mystery, over the next few eras, several names were given to this area. The Graveyard of the Atlantic. The Sea of Doom. Sargasso Graveyard. These names were used in the 18th and 19th centuries. But the name the Bermuda Triangle, was used for the first time in 1964. In a magazine called Argosy, there was an article by Vincent H. Gaddis in 1964, titled 'The Deadly Bermuda Triangle.' This was the first time the phrase Bermuda Triangle was used. In this article, many disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle over the last several decades were summarised by him. He had tried to link them all. Trying to create a mystery. Claiming that there is something peculiar in this area of the ocean, because of which so many aircraft and ships disappear. Although, there were no explanations in the article as to why it happened. But this made the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle the most popular at the time. So popular that many books were written on it. Many films and computer games were made, there were songs on the Bermuda Triangle too. Talking about some other incidents, there was another horrifying incident in the year 1918. It involved the USS Cyclops. One of the biggest and fastest ships of the US Navy at the time. It was a very important asset for the American Navy. Especially when America began taking part in World War I. It was used to transport the troops and coal. On 4th March 1918, 306 people were aboard the USS Cyclops. From a city near Washington, called the West Indies Baltimore, this ship began its journey towards Brazil. Other than people, this ship was carrying 11,000 tonnes of manganese. The journey was supposed to take 9 days. Everything was fine with the departure of the ship. The weather was clear. While departing, the ships send the message But this message, was the last message from this ship. After this ship began its journey there was no news from it. It had disappeared suddenly. This shocked everyone. One of the biggest ships of the US Navy, a ship this huge, how could it disappear suddenly? If you think that this incident was mysterious, a more daunting and frightful incident was the Ellen Austin mystery. In the year 1881, a 210 feet long ship the Ellen Austin. Travelling from London to New York, quite common for the day, many ships undertook this journey at the time. But on its way, Ellen Austin encountered an unidentified ship. Near the Bermuda Triangle area. From the outside, this unidentified ship looked completely normal but there was no trace of any humans aboard this ship. There was no crew, no people at all. The captain of Ellen Austin decided to go aboard the ship to see what had happened. First, he brought his ship alongside this ship and waited for 2 days so that they could see if there was anyone or even a trace of anyone, for any response from the other ship. But there was no response for 2 days. After that, the captain set foot on the unidentified ship. There was a lot of stuff on this new ship. And everything was in the place it should have been. During that time, people were wary of pirates, they used to be wary of an attack by the pirates who would steal from the ships. This unidentified ship hadn't been subjected to this. Because all the valuable items of this ship were intact. Due to this reason, the captain of Ellen Austin decided to send some of his crew members on the ship, and that they would continue their journey with both ships. For the first 2 days, both ships continued ahead normally. But then came a storm. Their paths separated and the unidentified ship had disappeared. After the storm was over, the captain of the Ellen Austin tried to look for the ship, and he spotted the ship with this spyglass at some distance. When he reached near it, there was again no trace of any human aboard the ship. The crew members he had sent from his ship to the other ship, they had suddenly disappeared. Where did they go? What happened to them? We don't know. But the ship was still intact. It's said that the captain of Ellen Austin tried once again to bring the ship with him, and sent some more crew members to steer the ship, but again, after a few days, there was another storm, and the same story repeated again. This unidentified ship gets separated, and the new crew members on it, disappear once again. When Ellen Austin returned, the owner of the ship was so terrified after hearing this story, that he sold off the ship to a German company. They change the name of this ship to Meta. Yup, that's right, the way that Mark Zuckerberg renamed Facebook into Meta, this ship, too, was renamed Meta. Isn't it an intriguing and legendary story? But unfortunately, friends, most probably, this incident is just a story. Because this incident is so old, it is not possible to verify it properly. And the stories that are very popular historically, those that are passed down to generations, but that cannot be verified properly, the truth cannot be unearthed, we call those stories, Legends. Urban Legends. Many rational thinkers believe that the Bermuda Triangle is one such legend. What lies behind the incidents of the Bermuda Triangle? There are many theories for it. Some people blame the aliens, that aliens had come and abducted the aircraft and ships, and had taken these with them. Some people believe that there is a giant sea monster under the ocean, that is behind the disappearances. Some people claim that this area of the ocean is peculiar and the aircraft and vessels drown here. These theories are truly outlandish. So let's focus on the theories that sound a bit more scientific. One of the explanations is based on magnetism. Friends, the thing is that the North Pole of the Earth and the magnetic North Pole, are two distinct points. So when you look towards North on a compass, the compass is pointing towards the magnetic North Pole. But the real North Pole is somewhere close by. It is known as the Geographic North Pole. You can see it in this photo. The difference between the Magnetic and Geographic North Poles. Normally, when people use the compass, as has been done for ages, they take this into account. But there are some areas on the Earth, if you use a compass in these areas, you would find the Magnetic and Geographic North Poles at the same place. The places where this happens are known as the Agonic Lines. These Agonic Lines shift with time. But for the last 200-300 years, the 0° line has been around or in the area of the Bermuda Triangle. This can basically create confusion. The next strange thing about this area is that the area in the Bermuda Triangle, is quite shallow. When you look at it on a satellite map, you'd see that the Bahamas, Caribbean Islands, they're surrounded by turquoise colour all around. This area in the ocean stretches across a long distance with shallow waters. You can see the deep ocean around it is represented in dark blue colour, and this area stands out when looked at through a satellite. Because of this, it is said that in the olden days, when the ships came to this area, got stuck here due to shallow waters. Hidden shoals were the points where the land beneath the ocean was quite high. But it was not visible from the ships. When the ships were atop the area, they would get stuck there. The third peculiarity, this area has one of the highest rates of hurricanes in the world. If you rank the countries where most of the hurricanes are seen, China is at Number 1, then the USA at Number 2 followed by Cuba. Cuba lies in this area. And which state gets the most hurricanes in the USA? Florida. It lies in this area. This area gets hurricanes and water sprouts more frequently. Methane Hydrates is the fourth explanation. There are some areas in the ocean, that have large fields of methane hydrates. In Australia, scientists had conducted laboratory experiments in which they had found that when there's an exceeding amount of methane bubbles in the water, the density of the water gets lower, and the buoyancy of a ship cannot be maintained, and so the ship drowns. It's the same logic as when the salt content of the water is high the density of water increases, and it becomes easier for things to float. As is the case of the Dead Sea. If you recall, I had made a vlog there. A normal person who would sink into the ocean, floats on the Dead Sea, because the density of the water is high. The same thing is happening here, in reverse. If there is methane in the water. It is hypothesised, if there are methane eruptions in the water, they are also known as mud volcanoes, when volcanoes erupt underwater, methane is released and if it happens when a ship is over the area, then the ship would instantly sink into the water, without any warnings. Never to be heard from again. This is an interesting explanation, But in all the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle, there was no direct evidence that any exact incident was due to methane hydrates. This is simply a scientifically proven thing that exists. But to have actually caused the disappearance of any ship has not been proven yet. The fifth explanation is the most important, in my opinion. Because this is related to human psychology. This is known as the Baader-Meinhof Effect. Or the Frequency Illusion. The Baader-Meinhof Effect or the Frequency Illusion is a psychological effect. It states that when we start to notice things more, then we start finding them more often around us. Remember when someone in your family bought a new car? The model of the car you got, after buying it, you would have noticed that over the next few days or even months, whenever you were on the road, you started noticing the model of the car you bought more and more. You would notice the same model on the road. You may also feel like more people bought the model after you bought it. In reality, the frequency of the car on the road didn't change much. It was just as common after you bought it as it was before. But because you bought the car, you started noticing it more. The same thing is said about the Bermuda Triangle. Though it is true that some big aircraft and vessels disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle, But if you've noticed, in many areas around the world across all oceans, there have been such disappearances of aircraft and ships, areas other than the Bermuda Triangle. One of the recent examples of this is the Malaysian Airlines flight. It hadn't disappeared around the Bermuda Triangle. The thing is that when people came across the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, people started paying more attention to the disappearances and incidents there. The incidents taking place around the Bermuda Triangle. And the similar incidents that took place outside the Bermuda Triangle, people didn't pay much attention to them. Journalist Larry Kusche, the author of the book 'The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved' reached this solution too. He wrote that though there were some incidents that took place initially, but when with time, when the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle gained prominence, some people started creating their stories. There was mystery-mongering, and some stories were totally absurd, and hadn't really happened. The story of Ellen Austin that I told you, is said to be one such fabrication. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the US state that there's no evidence that the aircraft and ships that disappear in the Bermuda Triangle, the mysterious disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle that we see, no evidence that they occur more frequently in the Bermuda Triangle, than compared to any other area of the ocean. It is not so. We see similar mysterious disappearances, in the other areas of the oceans as well. The United States Coast Guards have even said that It shows that the Coast Guard of the USA don't even recognise the Bermuda Triangle is a hazardous area. They said that the fact "that the area within the Bermuda Triangle is heavily trafficked, could account for some of the mystery." The area of the Bermuda Triangle, sees a lot of traffic of ships and aeroplanes, that's why the chances of such incidents happening here increase. "Pair that with the fact that the Bermuda Triangle is often swept by hurricanes, and the presence of the Gulf Stream, it is not hard to see why ships might occasionally sink there." If you bear in mind that this area sees a lot of hurricanes, and the water is shallow here, you arrive at the straightforward answer to the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle. But despite the frequent hurricanes, when WWF had conducted their detailed study in 2013, for the World's 10 Most Dangerous Bodies of Water for Shipping, in the top 10 most dangerous waters, the Bermuda Triangle area was not on the list. Simply speaking, the mysterious disappearances have nothing to do with the Bermuda Triangle. You might ask now what was the ball of fire that Christopher Columbus had seen fall into the ocean? There's a simple and scientific answer to it too. Scientists believe that it was actually a meteor seen by Christopher Columbus.