All language subtitles for Truthseekers.S01E08.Bermuda.Triangle.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track4_[eng]

[flames crackling]

[majestic music]

[narrator] A team of
truthseekers is on a mission.

Scientists.

Historians.

Archaeologists.

All on the trail
of history's enigmas.

[dramatic music]

Searching for the truth behind
the greatest mysteries

known to humanity.

It is an area covering
over 500,000 square miles.

A place where numerous ships
and dozens of planes

have gone missing
without a trace.

It is the Bermuda Triangle.

Is it caused by a
natural phenomena?

Is it a psychic doorway,

or portal
to another dimension?

[dramatic music continues]

Our four truthseekers combine
decades of experience

in different fields,

but they all have one goal:

to apply their knowledge
and reveal the truth.

There are mysteries,
and then there are mysteries.

I have always loved uncovering
the secrets of the past.

We need to go back and unpick
the untruths from the truths.

Age-old problems that
we've been asking ourselves

over a hundred years, really,
can now be solved.

[narrator] They'll follow
the clues left behind,

unravel the secrets of the past,

separate fact from fiction,

and together,
they'll uncover the truth

behind the greatest
mysteries ever.

[dramatic music]

[Fern] What's fascinating about
the Bermuda Triangle is that

with every age of technology,
from ships to planes,

we've remained fixed that this
is one point in the globe

where you are at danger
and at risk.

The Bermuda Triangle
appeals to us

on some kind of deep
psychological level.

It creates a place
where our fears live.

[narrator] All kinds of
extraordinary theories

have attempted to
explain these vanishings.

From magnetic force fields
to wormholes

to the lost city of Atlantis.

It's the stuff of legend.

But when exactly
did this legend begin,

and are supernatural
forces really to blame,

or are perfectly
reasonable explanations

hiding in plain sight?

The Bermuda Triangle today

brings me back to being
young and very fearful.

I really thought it
must be real, as a child.

[narrator] The 20th century
has seen the Bermuda Triangle

lodged in our psyche.

It's an unknown entity
in a known world,

a place where the laws of
nature no longer apply,

a place that we've been
told never to venture.

It tells us that between Miami,
Puerto Rico, and Bermuda,

there is an area where
things are disappearing.

[narrator] Each report brings
a new story, a new horror,

and a new mystery.

There's a flurry of
newspaper articles

about incidents within the--

what we come to call
the Bermuda Triangle.

[pensive music]

[narrator] Boats here one
minute, gone the next.

Planes lost in fog.

Warships sinking with no
wreck and no survivors.

The most recent incident
happened only a few years ago.

A 29-foot mako cuddy cabin
boat carrying 20 passengers

sets sail from
Bimini in the Bahamas

to Lake Worth Beach, Florida,

but the vessel never makes
it to its destination.

The US Coast Guard

searches 17,000 square miles

for 84 hours

until the mission is
finally called off.

It was a perfectly clear day,
no SOS signal sent,

but apparently,
the boat just disappeared.

[narrator] The boat seems to
have vanished into thin air,

stoking the imaginations of
many who believe the area

is a hotbed of
strange anomalies,

but the mako cuddy's
puzzling disappearance

is only one among
many vanishing acts.

Tales of mysterious happenings
in the Bermuda Triangle

go back centuries.

In fact, the first recorded
is by Christopher Columbus

when he sailed
the Atlantic in 1492.

[narrator] In his ship's log,

Columbus wrote about

several unusual accounts.

[Karen] Columbus described
a great flaming fire

that fell into the sea.

He wrote of a light
like a wax candle

that rose and lifted
up in the sky.

The third thing he noticed was
very strange compass readings.

They were off by eleven
and a quarter degrees

and didn't line up
with the north star.

This was incredibly distressing
to Columbus and his crew.

[narrator] Many have pointed
to these examples

as early evidence
of the supernatural,

but do these incidents have
a more grounded explanation?

The day Columbus noted
the appearance

of this flame of fire

was September 15th,

and we know now that
there were meteor showers

in the region at that time.

Now, of course, Columbus

wouldn't have recognized it
as such,

but it would have indeed created

the look of a tale
of fire in the sky.

[narrator] The explanation
for the light

rising like a candle

was even more straightforward.

As for the light that behaved
like a bobbing candle,

what's often left out is
that just a few hours later,

Columbus reached
the shore, and so,

scholars today think it's
likely he simply saw the fires

of the Taino People
of San Salvador.

[narrator] The discrepancies
with the compasses

are more complicated,
but not inexplicable.

Sailors often used
Polaris, the North Star,

to navigate across the seas.

If they could see the star,

they knew which direction
they were headed,

but if it was cloudy,
they turned to their compasses.

[Karen] When they found
their compass didn't align

with the north star,

it confused and upset them,

but what they didn't know
is that sometimes

magnetic north can change,

and the compass will align
with that instead.

[narrator] It wouldn't
be until the 1830s

when British scientists would
initiate the Magnetic Crusade,

an opportunity to measure
magnetic deviation.

The survey was to be
used to aid ships,

but also designed
to better understand

why earth's magnetic
field changes over time.

True north is the
northernmost point

of the earth rotational axis

and is where the lines
of longitude converge.

This is a fixed point
on the earth's surface,

which never moves.

Magnetic north, however,

is generated from
the magnetic field

the earth itself creates.

This point isn't fixed,

is located up to 500 kilometers
away from true north,

and is moving all the time.

The difference between
these locations

causes a phenomena called
magnetic declination

and can create anomalies
which need to be accounted for

to gain accurate
compass readings.

We're talking about a
thoroughly premodern

understanding of science
and how the world works.

We understand things about the
movements of the heavenly bodies

and the earth's magnetism that
Columbus simply could not know.

They believed in the
Aristotelian theory

that the earth was the
center of the universe.

Everything in the heavens
was considered

perfect and immovable,

and the idea of a meteor
would have been

incomprehensible to them.

[dramatic music]

[narrator] For
pre-modern people,

the ocean itself
was a frightening

and foreboding place,

holding myths and legends
of monsters since antiquity.

Monsters of the deep were
very real to these people.

Giant squids that
would devour sailors,

a serpent that would wrap
itself around a ship,

or a siren waiting to lure
mariners to their death.

[narrator] Decorated maps
from the middle ages

depict some of
these creatures.

While they appear whimsical,
they were taken

from what cartographers viewed
as scientific journals.

Sea monsters, like Leviathan,

portrayed as a whale demon
with several heads,

was considered to have
an unquenchable desire

to consume all of
God's creations.

Sea serpents were notorious
for snatching up sailors,

and seductive mermaids
lured them to their demise.

[Karen] The classic
sea monsters,

they were all a cautionary tale

for people to be
careful out there.

You know, the Leviathan,
the Kraken, the sea dragon,

the mermaids, they
were out there waiting.

The sea and its monsters

were externalizations of
humans' deepest fears,

the unseen, the unknown,
and death itself.

[narrator] These
mythical creatures and stories

even endured into the 1800s,

when a US hydrographic office
undertaking a routine survey

discovered and
recorded ghost ships

in the region of the
Bermuda Triangle.

1,600 ships just
floating aimlessly

without a sign of
any crew aboard.

That would have been one
scary report to read.

[thunder rumbles]

[narrator] And this
wasn't uncommon

for the area around
the Bermuda Triangle.

Drifting derelicts,
as they are known,

were being recorded at a rate
of over a thousand a year

up until the end of
the 19th century.

Most of these would
break up within a month,

but some stalked the
North Atlantic waters

for up to three years.

While sea monsters make
for a colorful explanation,

and ghost ships were
certainly common,

it's not always the case that
sinister events are at play.

A more likely cause might
have been the weather.

[Karen] One explanation
could be the doldrums,

when the northern hemisphere's
trade winds move southwest

and collide with the
southern hemisphere's

northwest trade winds.

[pensive music]

[narrator] The doldrums
is a popular nautical term

referring to the belt around
the earth near the equator

with slow-moving,
warm air currents.

This combined with trade winds
passing in opposite directions

has the effect of creating
still, windless waters.

These are particularly prevalent
in the North Atlantic,

where sailing ships
sometimes get stuck

and can drift
aimlessly for weeks.

[Karen] If they don't have
enough supplies on board,

sailors might have resorted
to drinking seawater,

which causes dehydration

and can lead to confusion,
and madness,

and hallucinations,
which would cause some

to jump right overboard
and abandon ship.

[narrator] This could
explain the numbers

of drifting derelicts,

sailboats abandoned
so thirsty sailors

could row for land.

But this doesn't
explain every account,

and we have to consider some
alternative explanations,

including piracy.

[narrator] Bermuda and
its surrounding waters

have long been a hotbed
for piracy and smuggling

from the golden age of piracy
in the 17th and 18th centuries

right through to
the narco-trafficking trade

of the late 20th
century and beyond,

but while that may
have contributed

to the notoriety of these seas,

they don't account for
wholesale disappearances.

Columbus and his men

undoubtedly experienced
things that were strange,

frightening, and very real,

but unlike the mako cuddy
and the myriad ghost ships,

they didn't disappear
into oblivion.

So, when exactly did this
mystifying stretch of ocean

begin swallowing ships
and planes whole?

And what was to blame?

[pensive music]

[narrator] It's been called
the Devil's Triangle,

Limbo of the Lost,
the Hoodoo Sea,

but to most, it's simply
the Bermuda Triangle,

a fearsome and mythical span
of the Atlantic Ocean

bounded by Miami, Bermuda,
and Puerto Rico,

where countless ships
and planes have gone missing.

Are extraordinary forces
behind these disappearances,

or could the answers
be in plain sight?

In London, archaeologist and
data scientist Mark Altaweel,

examines the evidence.

Now, given that this place
doesn't necessarily have

more disappearances
than other regions,

there are some
notable exceptions that

have really caught
the public's imagination.

There have been some
notable planes and boats

that have disappeared.

One of this was
the USS Cyclops.

[narrator] The Cyclops was one
of the biggest and fastest ships

in the US Navy.

It was steel-hulled and immense,

sitting at nearly
550 feet long

and 65 feet wide.

It was also home
to 309 crew members.

The USS Cyclops was carrying

a large load of manganese
coming from Brazil,

going to Barbados,
and then eventually

it was to make its
way into Baltimore.

Now, on March 18th, 1919,
the ship disappears.

It sends its last message saying
that the weather is fair,

all was well, but then all
of a sudden, the boat's gone.

[narrator] The US Navy's
official statement

said that the
disappearance of the ship

had been one of the most

baffling mysteries
in its history.

All attempts to locate it

had proved unsuccessful.

Now, usually, when
a large ship sinks,

or even a small ship sinks,

you would expect to find
some debris

or some remnants
of the ship itself.

In the case of the USS Cyclops,

not a single thing
has been found.

This was not a small ship.

This was actually
perhaps the largest,

or among the largest ships that
the US Navy had at this time.

[narrator] In the decades after,

a flurry of theories abound,
from the outrageous,

that the ship was eaten
by a sea creature

or carried off by aliens,
to the more plausible,

that it succumbed to mutiny,
was sunk by German torpedoes,

or encountered a freak storm.

Now, there have been
some hypotheses

as to what happened
to the USS Cyclops.

One is that perhaps
mutiny on board,

that the crew may have
revolted for some reason.

[narrator] Perhaps
even more intriguing,

the captain of the
ship, Johann Wichmann,

was a German immigrant to the US

and was subject to reports

of an overbearing and
violent character.

The consul for
Bermuda at the time

sent a telegram
to the US Secretary of State

with suspicions that he may
have commandeered the ship,

dispatched the crew on board,

and placed it in service
to the German state.

A second possibility
is that the US

began to fight Germany.

This is the beginning
of World War I

in terms of the American
involvement in World War I.

Possibly, this ship
was actually sunk

in a hostile engagement.

However, during any sinking,
in a U-boat incident,

you'd expect some debris
to be found or some records.

The Germans were very
adept at keeping records

where their submarines were,

and no wartime records indicates

any U-boats were
in action

against US vessels
in this area.

[narrator] Further
analysis of the records

has shown there are no
indications this ship

was ever in civil or military
service for Germany.

My expectation is
that eventually,

you'll find a huge vessel like
that somewhere on the earth,

but we've not made
this discovery,

for now, more than
a hundred years.

Now, one possibility is the
ship's cargo specifically.

The vessel was
repurposed to carry coal.

However, in this case, it was
actually carrying manganese,

which is a much denser material.

So, one possibility
is that the manganese

may have somehow
breached the hull.

Another possibility is, perhaps,

the manganese ignited,

leading to a catastrophic explosion.

[somber music]

[narrator] But as with
lots of events

associated with
the Bermuda Triangle,

people tend to look
for the fanciful first,

when the truth can be
found far closer to home.

[Mark] Now, let's
try to find reasons

as to what may
have happened

to the USS Cyclops.

We could look at
the logs of the ship.

Prior to the vessel
going through Barbados,

there's an indication
in the logs that

there's a cracked
cylinder on board,

and in fact,
that's why the vessel

was sailing
towards Baltimore.

[narrator] So, maybe it was
classic mechanical

or structural failure.

Others have
suggested bad weather

may have blindsided the Cyclops.

Called extreme storm
waves by scientists,

a rogue wave is two
to three times taller

than the average wave.

They are formed when
storms coincide

from several directions.

The Bermuda Triangle is prone

to these weather conditions
blowing in

from Mexico, the equator,

and farther east
in the Atlantic.

The scientist Tim Jenson
has purported another idea,

which is that
perhaps rogue waves,

these sort of large waves that
are formed in the oceans,

may have potentially
overtaken the vessel,

that it may have led to the
structural and catastrophic

failures experienced
on the vessel.

[narrator] As part
of an investigation

into the Bermuda Triangle,

British researchers used
lab and computer models

to simulate the
effects of rogue waves

more than 100 feet
tall on ships.

They found that long vessels
could easily get caught

between two large wave peaks.

With nothing supporting
them from below,

the ships would snap in half.

It is possible that
rogue waves can occur.

This vessel could have been
capsized by these rogue waves.

However, we have to keep in
mind that finding evidence

for the sinking of this vessel
is going to be difficult.

The vessel sank into the
Puerto Rico trenches,

which are actually among
the deepest trenches

in the Atlantic ocean.

So, the likelihood
of finding evidence

as to what caused this vessel
to sink, is very minimal.

[narrator] Over 100
years later,

the fate of the ship
is still unknown,

and the case remains one of
the most perplexing mysteries

in naval history.

[aircraft whirring]

[Mark] Now, the USS Cyclops,

this was the largest
naval disaster

in the history of the US Navy.

There's also another
major incident,

this time affecting
aviation history

in the Bermuda Triangle,

and that includes
this incident

of Flight 19.

[narrator]
Flight 19 brought

the mystery of
the Bermuda Triangle

from the seas to the air,

and brought disaster and death
to all those on board.

Flight 19 was a group
of training aircraft,

five aircraft that went into
the Bermuda Triangle

and that disappeared
in one single day.

On top of that,
the search plane

that was sent to look for
Flight 19 also disappeared.

So, you had six total aircraft
disappearing in one single day.

[tense music]

[narrator] On
December 5th, 1945,

five avenger torpedo bombers,
dubbed Flight 19,

left Fort Lauderdale, Florida,

on a routine
navigational exercise.

Flight 19 was on a routine
training mission in 1945.

They were going to an area
called Hen and Chickens Shoals,

then they were to turn and go
towards the Grand Bahamas,

and then, eventually, make their
way back to their air base.

[narrator] The planes dropped
their practice bombs

without incident,

but shortly after
they turned north

for the second leg
of their journey,

the lead pilot, Lieutenant
Charles Taylor,

became disoriented.

[Mark] Now, as Flight
19 is heading towards

their second leg of their
journey, Charles Taylor,

who was the leader of
this training mission,

he's a seasoned veteran,

flew multiple combat missions,
really knew his stuff,

but he begins to report
that he's disoriented,

he's lost, his compass
was not working,

that the directions it was
showing were not true.

He basically didn't
believe his instruments.

[pensive music]

[narrator] Radio communications
show that Taylor sounded anxious

and indicated he was trying
to find Fort Lauderdale.

[Mark] Charles Taylor
was disoriented.

His group was lost
at this point,

so he begins to
take land sighting,

he tries to fixate on a point
on land to see where he was.

He becomes convinced that he's
actually over the Florida Keys,

an area that was hundreds of
miles away from the Bahamas

where he was supposed to be.

[narrator] Taylor
made a dire decision

to steer Flight 19 northeast,

a course that took them
farther out to sea.

[Mark] Charles Taylor at
this point was convinced

that he was over
the Florida Keys,

so to get back
towards the Bahamas,

he needs to fly
effectively northeast,

so he begins to go into that
direction and continues onwards.

Now, in this radio transmission,

there's a voice that says,
"We should turn west."

This disagreement with
Charles Taylor's decision.

Unfortunately, since Charles
Taylor is a senior commander

in this mission, they take
the advice to go northeast.

[narrator] Two hours later,
radio communications

turned to static.

After the disappearance
of Flight 19,

the US Military dispatches
two search planes,

two flying boats.

These PB mariners at the time.

So, these two planes go
searching for Flight 19.

However, only one
of them comes back.

One of the flying boats
effectively disappears as well.

[pensive music]

[narrator] The one that
returned from its flight

to the last known
location of Flight 19

reported no sightings, no
debris, no smoke, no plane.

The navy dispatched more
than 300 boats and aircraft

to look for Flight 19
and the missing mariner.

They spent five days combing

more than
300,000 square miles,

and came up empty-handed.

The planes and the
mariner were lost

to what the Navy Board of
Investigation attributed to

causes or reasons unknown.

These sort of mysterious aspects
of the Bermuda Triangle,

its ability to just take things
and make them disappear from the

earth may have been the
reasons as to why Flight 19

and the PB mariner disappeared.

However, if we begin to search,

we might find
more practical reasons,

perhaps more mundane reasons

as to why
these aircraft disappeared.

[narrator] Mark Altaweel
has reviewed the case file,

looked behind the data to
uncover the truth of events

on that fateful
day, and yet again,

it could be down to the magnetic
influence of the earth.

Now, some of the reasons
as to why perhaps

Flight 19 became lost

could include the fact
that Charles Taylor,

the commanding officer, was
actually normally stationed

in Fort Lauderdale in Florida,

and then he was transferred
to this region.

Perhaps he mistook some of
the islands for islands that

he was more typically aware of
or knew about.

[narrator] Before modern
navigation systems,

pilots often relied
on sight to navigate,

and even today, the Federal
Aviation Administration

estimates that each
year in the USA,

10 planes land at
the wrong airport

due to mistaken land sightings.

[Mark] Additionally,
it was reported that

a meteorological
front had moved in.

These conditions may have
created a kind of situation

where there could
have been confusion.

High clouds would have formed,

and these may have confused
the situation to Charles Taylor.

He would have had
less ability perhaps

to navigate through
this situation,

through the high cloud coverage.

[narrator] Although
evidence confirms

that a storm was moving in,

that same evidence does
not appear to account

for the missing mariner.

[Mark] In terms of the incident
with the PB mariner,

there may be an even
more basic explanation

as to why that
aircraft disappeared.

We know there was
a boat that was passing nearby,

and it did report an
explosion in the sky.

We know that PB mariners were
actually structurally deficient,

there were problems
with the aircraft.

They were even nicknamed
flying gas tanks, because of

structural failures that led
to sometimes explosions

to occur on the aircraft.

So, this could be
an explanation as to why

that particular
aircraft disappeared.

[narrator] Because there's
no conclusive evidence

of the planes' disappearances,

the events of that December day

have become fodder for
paranormal theories.

[Mark] True north
and magnetic north

align differently in
the Bermuda Triangle.

That may actually
contribute to the story

and the mythology of
the Bermuda Triangle,

that perhaps
there is something

paranormal in the
Bermuda Triangle that leads

to vessels and aircraft
to disappear.

[narrator] Although, for some,
science can get in the way.

The Bermuda Triangle is a
story consistently reinforced

by a willing press ready to
break the next big news story.

Articles abound on
the Bermuda Triangle

and its seemingly
never-ending list of victims.

It doesn't take a big leap
to assign greater significance

to these seemingly
regular events.

Now, all these stories,
these reports,

can maybe lead one to believe
something paranormal

may have led
to the disappearance

of both the USS Cyclops
and Flight 19,

or perhaps there's
a more simple explanation,

that Flight 19 may have
simply ran out of gas

or the airplane that was sent
to find them just blew up.

So, very simple explanations
may actually be more true.

[narrator] These wild theories

would be bolstered
in the coming decades

by numerous articles
and even more books.

Up until now, theories were
largely based on terrestrial,

physical causes,
but all that was to change

by the testimony of a man

who claimed
to have entered a vortex

where time and space
were altered.

[soft, dramatic music]

[music fades]

[dramatic music]

[narrator] The Bermuda Triangle.

For centuries, it has been

an enigmatic source
of intrigue.

A place where uncanny events

seem to happen outside
the normal bounds

of physical reality,

but is there any truth to
these mysterious tales?

Combing through
countless articles

and books on the
subject is Tony McMahon.

As mysteries go,
the Bermuda Triangle

is actually pretty recent.

It's very much
a post-war conspiracy theory,

and that coincides
with the massive growth

in transportation of
people and of cargo.

So, it really is a conspiracy
theory for our time.

[tense music]

[narrator] In the post-war era,
particularly after Flight 19,

there is a renewed interest
in the Bermuda Triangle

in popular culture.

There's a flurry of
newspaper articles about

incidents within the
Bermuda Triangle,

and they really tap into
growing cold war paranoia

in the United States in
particular in the 1950s,

a realization that there
were forces on planet earth

operating against the US and
possibly forces in outer space.

[narrator] In 1950, an article
by Miami Press writer EVW Jones

is published in several
American newspapers

that highlights more vanishing
acts in the same region

after 1945.

[Tony] The fascinating thing
about this 1950 article

is that it first describes
the Bermuda Triangle.

It doesn't use that term,

but it tells us that between
Miami, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda,

there is an area where
things are disappearing.

[pensive music]

[narrator] The article
adds more intrigue

by pointing to the
case of the Sandra,

a missing cargo ship
from June of 1950

that set sail in good weather
from Savannah, Georgia,

bound for Venezuela,

charting a course
directly through

the Bermuda Triangle.

Only days out to
sea, it was lost.

And most fascinatingly,

the payoff at the end of
the article is worth noting

because it says that even though
we have a modernizing society,

and remember that this
was the post-war boom,

that even though our
society is modern,

there are ancient forces that we
still do not fully understand

operating below the surface.

[pensive music]

[narrator] These ancient forces
and articles like Jones'

served to stoke the
fires of mystery

and played into the growing
fears of the unknown.

The truth, and what Jones
left out of his article,

is that Sandra left port

and sailed directly
into a major storm,

that other boats were
lost in that same storm,

and that insurers confidently
reported the ship was sunk.

[pensive music]

All inconvenient truths

for the growing
Bermuda Triangle mystery,

a mystery that was only just
beginning to take hold.

Think about it. What's going
to be more attractive

to a news organization
or a journalist?

Plane crashes or plane crashes
in the Bermuda Triangle?

Bermuda Triangle gives
you that extra spice.

It opens up the story
to all sorts of aspects.

It's always going to be
compelling copy.

[narrator] Two years later,
at the height

of McCarthy's witch hunts

brought about by
Cold War paranoia

between the Soviets
and the West,

these same disappearances

were the subject of a
new spin on the mystery.

A journalist called
George X Sand

writes an article for
Fate Magazine in 1952,

which is headlined, 'Sea
Mystery at Our Back Door,'

really playing on
American paranoia.

And now, Sand is describing,
in much more granular detail,

what is going on in
the Bermuda Triangle,

and he's listing off one
instant after another,

including the
notorious Flight 19,

where multiple planes
simply disappear,

and he's also making the point
that the rescue missions

that go to find those who've
disappeared also disappear.

[narrator] The
sensationalism continued

in an article
by Vincent Gaddis.

It appeared inArgosy,
one of the largest

pulp fiction magazines
ever published.

[Tony] Vincent
Gaddis was described

in one review as
a thorough writer.

He was regarded as a
mainstream journalist,

he'd worked for the
UPI News Agency,

he'd been a corporate copywriter,

and worked in public relations.

So, his CV certainly pointed

to somebody you could trust.

[dramatic music]

[narrator] And in 1964,

with John F Kennedy only
recently assassinated,

the nuclear standoff in Cuba
still fresh in everyone's minds,

and spaceships now a reality,

Gaddis committed
to print the term

that we all know and use today.

In 1964, Gaddis
publishes an article

on the Bermuda Triangle.

It's on the front page,
and there is the term,

for millions of people to see:

Bermuda Triangle.

[narrator] It wasn't
the only article

Gaddis wrote at this time,

but it was his most memorable.

He was a writer
looking for a cause.

He had an uncanny ability

to play into the
psychology of the age,

and in the Bermuda Triangle,

he'd identified a
profitable muse.

Gaddis covered a lot
of topics in the 1950s,

and he really tapped into
the anxieties of the time,

including fear of nuclear war.

He wrote about people
and communities

that were thinking
about leaving the cities

to try and flee to safety.

[pensive music]

[narrator] The legend
was further stoked

by an international best-selling
book in 1974 entitled,

'The Bermuda Triangle'
by Charles Berlitz.

[Tony] Charles Berlitz
was part of the family

that owned the famous
Publishing House.

He worked for US
Army intelligence,

and then became a kind of
purveyor of paranormal theories.

[narrator] One of his
more outlandish theories

took in an ancient mystery that
predated almost all others:

Atlantis.

Berlitz takes
the Bermuda Triangle theory

to a whole new level.

What he has is the ancient
City of Atlantis submerged

at the bottom of the
sea in this region,

and what's happening
is that these crystals

that once powered Atlantis

are now taking potshots at
passing ships and planes.

[pensive music]

[narrator] That
wasn't the only theory

that looked at
otherworldly explanations.

Other supernatural theories
include the idea

that extraterrestrials are
using the Bermuda Triangle

as a kind of portal
to enter planet earth

or that there is an
extraterrestrial base

of some kind on the ocean bed

and that human beings
are being abducted

from passing planes and
ships for experimentation.

[narrator] The book sold
nearly 20 million copies

in 30 languages.

It was so successful
Berlitz followed up

with a sequel
only three years later

called "Without a Trace."

It featured
a little-known story

about a pilot
named Bruce Gernon,

who claimed to have
flown through a portal

over the Bermuda
Triangle and survived.

[Tony] Gernon claims that
he was flying through

the Bermuda Triangle when his
small plane became enveloped

in what he describes
as an electronic fog.

For several seconds, he had a
sense of his own weightlessness,

and he was frantically radioing
to Miami to get a position.

He thought he was 45
miles south of Bimini,

but that wasn't the case.

[indistinct radio chatter]

[narrator] About
three minutes later,

a radio controller identified

an airplane headed
toward Miami.

[Tony] As the clouds parted,
Gernon could see Miami Beach,

which completely
took him by surprise,

and the plane landed at Palm
Beach International Airport.

Now, that was at 35 minutes
sooner than it should have been,

and there were ten gallons
of fuel on the plane

that shouldn't have been there.

[narrator] Even accounting
for the jet stream,

which has proven to give
planes flying east to west

a boost in speed,

this was still highly unusual.

Although nobody doubted
Gernon's qualifications

as a pilot, his experience
only added to the legend

as the public latched onto a
new dimension to this mystery.

He claimed to have
entered a portal

where time and
space were altered.

Many began to speculate this
is what happened to Flight 19.

It was perfect fodder for
the ever-growing interest

in the paranormal.

Gernon wrote his own book

about what happened.

And he spent nearly 40 years

researching this incident

before he made it public
and came out with his book,

which has sold considerably,

but mainstream science
is not as yet convinced

by the account of
what he says happened.

[alarm blaring]

[narrator] The
Bermuda Triangle myth

was further popularized
in film and TV,

either by being the
background for the plot

or just by references to some
of its most notorious cases.

[Tony] Blockbuster movie,

"Close Encounters
of the Third Kind,"

you may recall a reference,

a visual reference to a ship
called the SS Cotopaxi,

which disappeared in 1925
with all crew on board.

You'll see it in that
movie in the Gobi Desert.

You know, it's been
mysteriously dropped

thousands of miles away.

The only problem with that,
is that in 2020,

the ship was discovered
at the bottom of the sea,

just off the coast of Florida.

So, it hadn't been
miraculously or mysteriously

transported thousands of miles.

It pretty much was
where it sank.

And it has to be said,

it wasn't within the
Bermuda Triangle after all.

[narrator] So, is the
Bermuda Triangle recognized

as a definite
geographic location?

And if so,
is that location

recognized as being
unusually dangerous?

Lloyds of London is
the world's leading insurer

of maritime risk,

and it doesn't charge higher
premiums for vessels,

for planes going through
the Bermuda Triangle.

Neither does it insist
that vessels

do not go through
the Bermuda Triangle.

There are no restrictions
on that journey.

So, if Lloyds of London doesn't
feel that there's a risk there,

then there more than
likely isn't one.

[engines whirring]

[narrator] Although logical
explanations are available

for many of the recorded disappearances,

most still prefer
to cling to the mysteries

that lurk in the depths
of Bermuda's warm waters.

[thunder rumbles]

It doesn't matter how much
crash investigation techniques

or science disproves
the Bermuda Triangle

because in the end of the day,

it has huge appeal as a story.

It plays to our phobias,
but for journalists,

it's always going
to be great copy.

If anything crashes

or disappears in that
part of the world,

it's a Bermuda Triangle story.

[narrator] For journalist
and historian Tony,

the Bermuda Triangle isn't
a product of our fears,

but of our
imagination and desire

to give meaning to the events
that happen around us.

As human beings, we are
hardwired to love a good yarn.

We love mystery.

Remember, our ancestors
gathered around the fire

telling each other's stories.

We like a good story.

You know,
the facts are boring,

and that's why we believe
in the Bermuda Triangle.

[narrator] And one such mystery

expanded beyond
the Bermuda Triangle,

one that connected it
to various other anomalies

around the world.

[pensive music]

[narrator] The Bermuda Triangle
has been the site

of numerous high-profile
and ever-mysterious

naval and aviation vanishings.

Are these disappearances due
to out-of-the-ordinary causes

or simply a logical concurrence
of environment and statistics?

This bewildering span of ocean
is still a hot media topic

with an eagerly
receptive audience.

But how has the legend
managed to sustain itself?

For me, the Bermuda
Triangle is that story

that still scares
the child inside us.

We can't explain it.
Things disappear.

[narrator] Connecting
the dots of the Triangle

is historian Dr. Fern Riddell.

[Fern] Although there are
lots of crazy theories

about the Bermuda Triangle,
there have also been people

who've tried to explain it
through the natural world.

[narrator] Bizarre aberrations
and mysterious vanishings

aren't specific to the
Bermuda Triangle alone.

Similar accounts have been
reported in the Devil's Sea

off the coast of Japan.

[Fern] Although in the West,
we're obsessed

with the Bermuda Triangle,

in Asia, they have
the Devil's Sea,

and it's a site where planes
go missing, boats go missing,

of mysterious unknown activity.

[narrator] From the invading
fleet of the Kublai Khan,

to Japanese World
War II naval boats,

through to more modern
research vessels,

the Devil's Sea has a
similarly worrying reputation.

This is the same
all over the world,

but there's no evidence that
disappearances or accidents

happen more frequently
in the Bermuda Triangle

to any other well-traveled,
well-navigated

place in the world.

From the ancient Greek sirens

to the biblical Leviathan

and the dragon kings of China,

every culture has
tried to explain

the dangers that can
happen to you at sea.

The Bermuda Triangle is just
the next on the list.

[narrator] The connection
between these seemingly

unrelated locations can
be traced to a theory

by Scottish biologist,
Ivan T Sanderson.

One of the ways people
have tried to explain the

Bermuda Triangle through science
comes from Ivan Sanderson's

Theory of Vile Vortices,
or the Devil's Graveyard.

These are twelve
places across the globe

where electromagnetic
disturbances can be noticed.

[narrator] Sanderson
theorized that

hot and cold air,
along with sea currents,

might create the
electromagnetic anomalies

responsible for the
disappearances and instrument

malfunctions in these areas.

[Fern] The difference between
magnetic north and true north

is that true north is a
fixed point on the globe,

whereas magnetic north relies
on the earth's magnetic fields.

So, if there is any
disruption, it can move.

[narrator] Sanderson noticed
that the Bermuda Triangle

fell within the range
of the agonic line,

where true and magnetic
north perfectly aligned.

It was claimed that this was
the reason for the mysterious

disappearances of
boats and planes.

Sanderson claimed
there were 12 vortices,

five along the
Tropic of Capricorn,

five along the Tropic of Cancer,

and one at the north
and south poles.

The vortices not only had a
pattern across the globe,

they were evenly spread out.

Throughout history,
the Vile Vortices

have been places
of disappearances,

from ships to airplanes.

[tense music]

[narrator] He further claimed
that standard physics

did not apply in these areas,

and that the intersecting
points made for an earth

that was not
spherical in origin.

In 1973, an article was
published in Chemistry and Life

by three Russian scientists,
and it asked the question,

is the earth a large crystal?

[narrator] The
scientists postulated

that earth's formation
began as a large crystal

with the angular dimensions
of a pentadodecahedron.

Eventually, the planet wore
down into a spherical ball.

Their report goes on to say

that the earth projects
from within itself

matrix of cosmic energy

made up of 12 pentagonal plates.

Sanderson's Vile Vortices.

Much like the tectonic plates,

these plates sit over the
earth made of cosmic energy,

and there are 62 junctions.

The Bermuda Triangle sits at
the heart of one of those.

Their article claims that
each of these junction

gives us sites of
prehistoric fauna,

incredible civilizations,

or mysterious sites of
paranormal activity.

[somber music]

[narrator] Easter island,

Mohenjo-Daro, the Devil's Sea,

the Kilauea Volcano,
and the Bermuda Triangle

are all situated
within these locations,

which for Sanderson, was
proof for his theory.

Not everyone was as convinced.

The idea of a crystal
grid has been difficult

for the mainstream scientific
community to accept.

Researchers have instead
continued to search

for other natural causes.

One of which also hangs
in scientific limbo.

Fern has been looking into it.

In 2016, researchers at the
Arctic University in Norway

theorized that the huge craters
they could find on the seabed

were the product of
explosions of methane gas.

These craters and
the explosions that made them

were absolutely gigantic,

and it was theorized
that if they were found

in the Bermuda Triangle,

they could be responsible
for the disappearances.

So, while the methane explosions
might explain

what happens to ships,
how would it affect a plane?

Well, it was theorized that
these massive gas bubbles,

once they came to the surface
and into the atmosphere,

might cause extreme turbulence
and cause planes to crash.

[narrator] This was
a wild theory indeed,

but even until recently,

major scientific institutions

were still thinking about
the Bermuda Triangle

as a problem for
science to solve.

After being thoroughly researched,

the methane theory
was also found

to have serious and
fundamental flaws.

[Fern] What evidence
is there for

the methane gas bubbles
explosion theory?

Absolutely none.

They looked at the seabed
in the Bermuda Triangle.

It doesn't have the same
massive craters.

[narrator] While the earth
indisputably contains powerful

geology beyond our
current understanding,

the true explanation
for the Bermuda Triangle

may ultimately reside not in the
ocean, the weather, vortices,

or in methane gas
bubbles, but in our minds.

Another theory about how
we make sense of these

disappearances is actually
to do with the human mind

and how we make sense
of the world around us.

[narrator] Humans have
always required

a framework
for our imagination,

and our mind can frequently
play tricks on us,

called the frequency illusion.

The frequency illusion
is the theory that,

we as humans, that once we see
something or hear about it,

we then start to
recognize it everywhere.

[narrator] It's a form
of cognitive bias.

When we hear
something frequently,

we begin to assign events to
that thing, less discriminately,

making it appear more
often and seem more likely.

Combine this with something
like sea and air travel,

and you have a
powerful combination.

[Fern] The sea is an
incredibly dangerous place,

but as humans,
we're often on it.

Everything that we do
connects to waves,

and when something
terrible happens there,

we really try to find
a way to explain it.

The Bermuda Triangle is just
a psychological way for us

to explain terrible
accidents at sea

and kind of absolve us
of responsibility.

We've done it with
myths and legends,

and now we're doing it
with the Bermuda Triangle.

[narrator] So, is
the case closed

on the infamous
Bermuda Triangle?

[Fern]
Our cultural imagination

has always needed sites
like the Bermuda Triangle

to be the repository
for our fears

and also take responsibility
for the things we cannot blame.

If we didn't have
the Bermuda Triangle,

we would have invented
something else.

[soft music]

[narrator] The team have
looked in the skies,

the seas, the seabed,

and perhaps more importantly,

they've looked into
our collective

and individual mindset

for an answer
to this very modern mystery.

I am skeptical of
the Bermuda Triangle.

I think it's a place
that's not really

necessarily different
from other places.

[Karen] Faced with an event
that's ascribed

to the action
of the Bermuda Triangle,

I'm going to ask,
is it human error?

Is it weather?

And only if it's
neither of those

am I going to resort
to the question of,

well, what else could it be?

I mean, what's more
exciting-sounding?

A portal to another dimension
or a plane that crashed

because it ran out of gas
over the ocean?

[Tony] The US Coast Guard
also doesn't tell people

that they can't enter
the Bermuda Triangle.

It doesn't say, you know,
"Don't go there. You might die."

So, if the Coast Guard doesn't
feel there's a problem,

well, I think it's a good
chance there isn't one.

[Karen] I do think
humans are hardwired

to appreciate tales
of magic and mystery,

and a sense of wonder
about the world around us.

So, I think that
the Bermuda Triangle

feeds that elemental
human hunger.

[dramatic music continues]

[closing credits music]

[music ends]