Where the facts come from
Every factual claim on this site links to its source. This is the full list.
How we checked
Each fact was written in our own words alongside its source. Our build script stores the text of every source and, for each fact, checks that the key words and figures really appear in it. 113 of 113 checks passed when this site was last built (11 November 2026). Where we couldn’t find a named source saying something, we left it out. Where good sources disagree, we say so and give both.
Where sources differ
- Flight 19’s last radio messages. The Navy’s overview page still repeats dramatic messages such as “It looks like we are entering white water”. The Navy historian’s H-Gram sticks to the official record and says many accounts have embellished the story; Larry Kusche traces fictionalised messages to a 1962 magazine article. We quote only messages that appear in the official record as reported by the H-Gram and the National Archives.
- Who was to blame for Flight 19? The National Archives says the Navy’s investigation blamed pilot error. The H-Gram explains that, after Taylor’s mother challenged it, the Navy’s records board cleared him and recorded the cause as unknown. Both are true, one after the other.
- Compasses near the agonic line. Britannica gives the idea that pilots failed to allow for it; Kusche, a pilot, says a near-zero correction makes navigation simpler. NOAA notes that compasses there can point to true north. We give all three.
- How many losses? Britannica says more than 50 ships and 20 aircraft are said to have vanished; NOAA says there is no evidence that disappearances happen more often there than elsewhere. “Said to have” is doing a lot of work.
All sources (9)
- Skeptical Inquirer: The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Delusion, by Larry Kusche (2015) (26 facts)
- NHHC H-Gram 057-4: The Disappearance of Flight 19 and Training 49 (Samuel J. Cox, 2021) (25 facts)
- Britannica: Bermuda Triangle (with Sargasso Sea) (18 facts)
- NOAA National Ocean Service: What is the Bermuda Triangle? (12 facts)
- National Archives Prologue blog: The Official Record and the Loss of Flight 19 (2017) (10 facts)
- Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: Cyclops II (Fuel Ship No. 4) (8 facts)
- NOAA National Ocean Service: How fast is the Gulf Stream? (6 facts)
- Naval History and Heritage Command: The Loss of Flight 19 (5 facts)
- National Museum of the U.S. Navy: USS Cyclops Mystery (3 facts)