The Bermuda Triangle: what the records say, and how the legend grew.
Where the Triangle is (and why it has no official edges); the real story of Flight 19 and of USS Cyclops; the storms, currents and compasses that NOAA and the Navy point to; and how a 1950 news story became a world-famous mystery. Every fact is linked to its source, and there is a quiz at the end.
The short version
NOAA says there is no evidence that mysterious disappearances happen more often in the Bermuda Triangle than in any other large, busy area of ocean. NOAA
The Bermuda Triangle is a stretch of the western North Atlantic where ships, planes and people are alleged to have vanished mysteriously. NOAA
Most Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes pass through the Bermuda Triangle, and before better weather forecasting they claimed many ships. NOAA
Flight 19 was the most significant event behind the Bermuda Triangle myth. NHHC H-Gram
Larry Kusche found that roughly half of the so-called unsolved mysteries happened far from the Triangle, some thousands of miles away. Skeptical Inquirer
Where the sources disagree, we say so. Where people died, we stick to the records.
Status of the mystery
The U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard say there are no supernatural explanations for disasters at sea: the forces of nature and human error are enough. NOAA
Britannica says geophysical and environmental factors are the most likely cause. Britannica
Open a case file
We draw our own pictures and don’t use other people’s photographs.
Try the games
A 12-question quiz and a myth-or-fact challenge, with the source behind every answer.