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Let's Try To Explain The Bermuda Triangle

There is a scientific explanation for everything... Right?

By Mr. DavisPublished 3 years ago 10 min read
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The Bermuda Triangle is a large area that is mapped out from the coast of Florida, to the island of Bermuda. It then stretches down to Puerto Rico and back to Florida. This large mass of the Atlantic ocean has been part of numerous speculation, investigation, and urban legends for decades. But is there really anything going on in this location? Let’s take a look into the history of the Bermuda Triangle and try to reach a conclusion.

Part I: The Beginning.

Some trace the beginning of this legend to an article from 1950 written in the Miami Herald by Edward Van Winkle Jones. Now, I used Newspapers.com, a site with over a million archived newspapers, and couldn't find it. With that said, I did find an article written on the same date chronicling some incidents from the Bermuda Triangle from that same year and years prior. It brings up a flight from 1948 the departed from Puerto Rico and was headed towards Miami with 32 people aboard. 50 miles (ca. 80 km) from their goal, they radioed in to say they were landing soon but never did. The article states, “Searchers scanned 310,000 miles (ca. 498,897 km) of sea and land but the elusive libo intro which they flew was on no map.”

The earliest incident this article chronicles is from December 1945, though. In this case, five torpedo planes were said to have taken off from Fort Lauderdale in a training flight. A few hours passed and it was quickly becoming dark. Officers radioed out to the pilots but no one answered. More and more time passed until it was determined the planes would have run out of fuel and it was then a search was initiated. Numerous planes were sent out, including a PBM that held 13 people. Out of all 5 of the torpedo planes that departed… none were ever found. This had been the largest search effort in Florida at the time, and yet, nothing came of it.

Looking a little more into this, however, it seems the 1950s weren’t the start of this strange phenomenon. In writings from Christopher Columbus he speaks about a strange light in the sky while traveling through the area. This is believed to have been a meteor, however. Along with this, though, he also spoke about his compass acting up slightly, and not displaying the correct direction but rather spinning all over the place. This, of course, could mean that somewhere in the 500,000 square mile area known as the Bermuda Triangle, the North and South poles of Earth are lined up. Both have explanations, sure, but there are so many more instances that do not.

Part II: Stranger Occurrences.

As we said in the first part of this video, the occurrences in the Triangle weren’t widely talked about until the early to mid-1900s. This next case, which is incredibly strange, took place in March 1918. A Navy cargo ship, known as the USS Cyclops carrying over 300 men and 10,000 tons of manganese seemingly… vanished. Official reports place the disappearance the ship somewhere between Barbados and Chesapeake Bay. The ship never placed out an SOS or any distress call for that matter. A search was underway but yielded no evidence useful in determining what actually took place. And of course, the ship was never found despite it being nearly 550-feet long. (542-feet, 165 meters).

Other incidents date back to the 1800s. In the year 1800 a ship, USS Pickering, went missing with 90 people on board. Its believed this could have simply been the case of strong winds, however, and given how dated the case is, it's impossible to do anything but theorize. So… let’s take a look at more modern incidents. February 23, 2017. Turkish Airline flight TK183 had no choice but to change course from Havana, Cuba to Washington after there were mechanical and electrical issues reported while they flew over the Triangle. In May of that same year, a private MU-2B aircraft was flying at 24,000 feet (ca. 7 km) when it was said to have lost contact over the radio and air traffic control in Miami. It also dropped off the radar at this point. The wreckage of the plane was later discovered.

Part III: Bruce Gernon’s Flight Through the Tunnel

Other instances, that are even more perplexing, are the reported warps in time while traveling through the Triangle. The most notable case of this phenomenon is from Bruce Gernon Jr. and it took place on December 4th, 1970. Before we dive into that, however, it's necessary to build a profile for Bruce. At the time of this incident, he had over 600 flying hours and was well respected. An article from 1977 described him as having a “matter-of-fact approach” to flying. This leads many to believe we can take his word for fact. Whether what took place actually did, is up to you to decide, but let's at least talk about what he and his father saw.

The two departed Andros Island in a Beechcraft Bonanza A36 headed to Bimini. Bruce made it to 10,500 feet (3.2 km) in altitude when he saw a large elliptical, storm cloud in his flight path. Not wanting to fly directly through the storm, Bruce looked for a way around the large cloud. He noticed an opening that he described as a tunnel and thought it would bring him out of the path of the storm. He went inside… and something incredibly strange took place. In a television special about the Triangle Bruce said, “The instant the airplane penetrated into the tunnel these strange lines formed.” He goes on to explain this feeling of “zero-gravity” saying, “I felt like I was slipping through space and yet floating at the same time.”

Bruce believes the tunnel was only 10 miles (ca. 16 km) long which meant it would have taken him only 3 minutes or so to get through it. However, he claims to have been in it, no more than 20 seconds. All the while, Miami flight control reported not being able to see Bruce’s plane on their radar. Bruce says the reason for this was the “electronic fog” he’d been flying through. Along with this, his navigational markers, like his compass, were malfunctioning in a similar fashion to those of Christopher Columbus. They were spinning rather than staying in one place. Even when Bruce managed to make it from the tunnel, the strange occurrences continued.

Bruce said, “As soon as I came out of the tunnel the blue sky instantly changed to this strange gray color. And everything was like a fuzzy yellowish, gray.”

Following this, air traffic control regained contact with Bruce and said they were now seeing him over Miami Beach. But this would have been impossible given Bruce’s location over the Gulf Stream. At the time of this tunnel appearing, he was just over 100 miles (ca. 161 km) from his final destination. For him to have made it to Miami Beach at the time he did, he would have been traveling at nearly 2,000 miles (ca. 3,219 km) per hour (ca. 3,219 km/h). Bruce's plane only traveled at 200 miles (ca. 322 km) per hour. Interestingly enough, Charles Lindbergh even reported a similar fog in a flight over the triangle in 1928. This was later coined “The Hutchison Effect” and is agreed as one of the leading theories. We’re going to talk about this and other possible explanations.

Part IV: Trying to explain the unexplainable.

Part IV. I: The Hutchison Effect

John Hutchison coined this term in 1979 when he discovered that when electromagnetic fields of different wavelengths interact with each other, strange things take place. As seen in this video, metals react very strangely. Some metal objects bend, others seem to be thrown at a high rate of speed. It's said that during his testing John saw small fragments of metal dangling in the air, and some even flew toward him like we saw the wrench do in the video.

John was asked about his thoughts on the phenomenon in relation to the Bermuda Triangle incident, and he said, “I have personally experienced the grayish-type mist when I was doing my high voltage research, and this mist would appear and disappear. To look at it, it looks metallic. I couldn’t see through it. So it exists. . .it exists!” If this electromagnetic interplay is what’s taking place over the Bermuda Triangle, it would explain the compass malfunctioning and the strange light storm Bruce Gernon mentioned. Given the way the wrench, plate, and saw reacted in the video, it could be theorized that on a much larger scale, Bruce Gernon’s plane, could have been traveling much faster than it was believed to have been.

Part IV.II: A Roll Cloud

Next is the idea of the tunnel being nothing more than a roll cloud. As seen in this video, a roll cloud is a formation that is incredibly long, and tubular. There have been several instances of these being seen closer to the ground, though I’m not sure if they’re possible at the altitude a plane would be flying. With that said, there is not much known about them either. They’re very rare and there have been no tests done to determine what happens on the inside of them. It could be an electrical storm, or it could be a vortex; we simply don’t know.

That said, if planes were to fly through the tunnel, it's theorized a large amount of gust could propel a plane forward causing it to travel at seemingly impossible speeds. Also, if this is some type of storm, the electricity generated by it would cause compasses and other electronics to malfunction. This is being treated as a hypothesis rather than a theory, though. No one has been able to recreate such a formation and, as I said, studies into these clouds have never been done.

Part IV.III: Rogue Waves & Wind Gusts

Both of those only affect planes, however. Many ships, some we’ve mentioned, have also went down, which leads to the rogue wave theory. These waves are caused by two large storm fronts coming together and triggering extremely high wind gusts. The largest wave ever recorded was 100-feet in height back in 1958, so it is very possible. Along with this, the wing gusts themselves would be strong enough to turn over a boat from the early 1800s so that could explain those remains never being found.

Part IV.IV: Just coincidence

Finally, some believe it's simply nothing more than a series of misjudgments on the sailor or pilot's parts coupled with bad weather. An Australian scientist, Karl Kruszelnicki, said, “It is close to the Equator, near a wealthy part of the world — America — therefore you have a lot of traffic,” More traffic would lead to an increased number of incidents in that area. Think of it as a four-way stop. Many car accidents happen there simply because there are more cars to cause such accidents. It does make sense. It just takes all the fun out of the mystery.

Part V: The Conclusion

In the end, I’m not sure what I believe. I would like to keep it a mystery, personally, but at the same time, being able to answer the question is exciting. These theories are only scratching the surface here and I implore you to leave your own theories below. What do you think about the idea of it all being a coincidence? Does Ocham’s razor win out again with the simplest solution being the most likely? But what about the testing done by John Hutchison? Surely that holds some merit.

I believe there is something going on there, but it isn’t extraterrestrial or paranormal. While looking at pieces of it here and there can lead you to believe something paranormal or interdimensional is taking place, I think it's best to look at it logically. With that said, though, it's always fun to keep the mystery alive. Be sure to let me know what you believe took place on Bruce’s flight, and what your theory is on the triangle itself. Stay safe out there.

urban legend
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About the Creator

Mr. Davis

Horror-centric YouTuber who's looking to branch out a small bit. We'll try this out and see how it goes!

YouTube Page: https://goo.gl/eab66m

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