The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and surface vessels allegedly disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Popular culture has attributed these disappearances to the paranormal or activity by extraterrestrial beings.[1] Documented evidence indicates that a significant percentage of the incidents were inaccurately reported or embellished by later authors, and numerous official agencies have stated that the number and nature of disappearances in the region is similar to that in any other area of ocean.
Origin:
The earliest allegation of unusual disappearances in the Bermuda area appeared in a September 16, 1950 Associated Press article by Edward Van Winkle Jones.[5] Two years later, Fate magazine published "Sea Mystery At Our Back Door",[6] a short article by George X. Sand covering the loss of several planes and ships, including the loss of Flight 19, a group of five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger bombers on a training mission. Sand's article was the first to lay out the now-familiar triangular area where the losses took place. Flight 19 alone would be covered in the April 1962 issue of American Legion Magazine.[7] It was claimed that the flight leader had been heard saying "We are entering white water, nothing seems right. We don't know where we are, the water is green, no white." It was also claimed that officials at the Navy board of inquiry stated that the planes "flew off to Mars." Sand's article was the first to suggest a supernatural element to the Flight 19 incident. In the February 1964 issue of Argosy, Vincent Gaddis's article "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle" argued that Flight 19 and other disappearances were part of a pattern of strange events in the region.[8] The next year, Gaddis expanded this article into a book, Invisible Horizons.[9]
Others would follow with their own works, elaborating on Gaddis's ideas: John Wallace Spencer (Limbo of the Lost, 1969, repr. 1973);[10] Charles Berlitz (The Bermuda Triangle, 1974);[11] Richard Winer (The Devil's Triangle, 1974),[12] and many others, all keeping to some of the same supernatural elements outlined by Eckert.[13]
triangle authors:
The incidents cited above, apart from the official documentation, come from the following works. Some incidents mentioned as having taken place within the Triangle are found only in these sources:
* Gian J. Quasar (2003). Into the Bermuda Triangle: Pursuing the Truth Behind the World's Greatest Mystery ((Reprinted in paperback (2005) ISBN 0-07-145217-6) ed.). International Marine / Ragged Mountain Press. ISBN 0-07-142640-X.
* [11] Charles Berlitz (1974). The Bermuda Triangle (1st ed.). Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-04114-4.
* [14] Lawrence David Kusche (1975). The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved. Buffalo: Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-971-2.
* [10] John Wallace Spencer (1969). Limbo Of The Lost. ISBN 0-686-10658-X.
* David Group (1984). The Evidence for the Bermuda Triangle. Wellingborough, Northamptonshire: Aquarian Press. ISBN 0-85030-413-X.
* [38] Daniel Berg (2000). Bermuda Shipwrecks. East Rockaway, N.Y.: Aqua Explorers. ISBN 0-9616167-4-1.
* [12] Richard Winer (1974). The Devil's Triangle. ISBN 0553106880.
* Richard Winer (1975). The Devil's Triangle 2. ISBN 0553024647.
* [42] Adi-Kent Thomas Jeffrey (1975). The Bermuda Triangle. ISBN 0446599611.
