How the Bermuda Triangle legend grew
From a news story in 1950 to a Hollywood film in 1977.
How this site works. Every fact is in our own words and linked to its source, beside it. The pictures are our own drawings. We remember that real people died in these events, and we stick to the records.
Kusche argues that if Flight 19 had returned safely, the idea of the Bermuda Triangle would never have been created. Skeptical Inquirer
Timeline
- 1918 She vanished with all hands in early March 1918, on her way back from Brazil. US Navy Museum
- 1945 Shortly after 2pm on 5 December 1945, five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers left Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on a routine navigation training flight. US Navy history (NHHC)
- 1950 Kusche says E.V.W. Jones of the Associated Press, on 16 September 1950, was the first to write about the region as a place of mysterious disappearances. Skeptical Inquirer
- 1952 George X. Sand expanded on it in Fate magazine in October 1952. Skeptical Inquirer
- 1950s In the 1950s, best-selling UFO books suggested Flight 19 had been captured by aliens. Skeptical Inquirer
- 1962 Kusche traced fictionalised, dramatised radio messages back to a 1962 American Legion Magazine article by Allan W. Eckert; later writers attributed them to Flight 19. Skeptical Inquirer
- 1964 The catchy name came from Vincent H. Gaddis, in an article called “The Deadly Bermuda Triangle” in Argosy magazine in February 1964. Skeptical Inquirer
- 1965 The article became a chapter, “The Triangle of Death”, in Gaddis’s 1965 book Invisible Horizons. Skeptical Inquirer
- 1975 In 1975 the librarian and pilot Larry Kusche published The Bermuda Triangle Mystery—Solved. Skeptical Inquirer
- 1977 In the 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Avengers suddenly appear in the Mojave Desert. Skeptical Inquirer
The name
The catchy name came from Vincent H. Gaddis, in an article called “The Deadly Bermuda Triangle” in Argosy magazine in February 1964. Skeptical Inquirer
Vincent Gaddis, who popularised the name, described it as a line from Florida to Bermuda, another from Bermuda to Puerto Rico, and a third back to Florida through the Bahamas. Skeptical Inquirer
Gaddis wrote that the disappearances were “far beyond the laws of chance”, but gave no figures. Skeptical Inquirer
The article became a chapter, “The Triangle of Death”, in Gaddis’s 1965 book Invisible Horizons. Skeptical Inquirer
The librarian who checked
In 1975 the librarian and pilot Larry Kusche published The Bermuda Triangle Mystery—Solved. Skeptical Inquirer
He went back to the earliest reports, newspapers and the official Navy report, and conducted 92 interviews about Flight 19. Skeptical Inquirer
He found that no one who had called Flight 19 paranormal or UFO-related had used the official Navy report. Skeptical Inquirer
What Kusche found
Larry Kusche found that roughly half of the so-called unsolved mysteries happened far from the Triangle, some thousands of miles away. Skeptical Inquirer
One ship found dismasted and lying on its side in the Pacific Ocean had been counted as a Triangle mystery. Skeptical Inquirer
Mystery writers rarely mentioned anything that spoiled the mystery, especially hurricanes and other severe weather. Skeptical Inquirer
Kusche found no credible evidence for the oft-repeated tales of a ship with only a canary on board, or still-warm meals on the table. Skeptical Inquirer
One book’s plane that “seemed to be landing as if buoyed up by a cushion of air” was simply ground effect, extra lift near the ground or water that any pilot knows. Skeptical Inquirer
He called the Triangle a “manufactured” mystery, built on poor research and copied, embellished stories. Skeptical Inquirer
Films and phrases
In the 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Avengers suddenly appear in the Mojave Desert. Skeptical Inquirer
The National Archives says lurid books, articles and films have blamed magnetic disturbances, whirlpools, sea monsters and aliens. National Archives
The name has entered the language: in baseball, a hit that can’t be caught is said to have gone into the Bermuda Triangle. Skeptical Inquirer
Our view: the most useful thing the Bermuda Triangle teaches is to ask where a story first came from. Kusche did, and the mystery mostly fell apart.
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