Bermuda Triangle: A fact or a myth?

The Bermuda Triangle is a triangular region between the state of Florida and the islands of Bermuda and Puerto Rico. 

Hundreds of ships and aircrafts have disappeared in the triangle over the last century. It is also known as the Devil's Triangle. 
It is one of the biggest existing mysteries in the world. 

However, the whole thing is perhaps a hoax.

Of the numerous planes and ships that vanished in this region, the mentionable incidents are the disappearance of Flight 19, Star Tiger incident, strange sightings by Christopher Columbus and finally, the ship Deering. 

In the 1930s, several aircrafts and ships suddenly lost in the aforementioned region. 

Several big newspapers published articles on the Devil's Triangle to showcase the mystery. 

Argosy, a science fiction magazine mentioned some interviews of the locals, who claimed that many ships disappeared there mysteriously and mentioned supernatural causes. 

The author arbitrarily mentioned it to be a triangle, though he could not justify it. 

But that is the point of fiction. And the reader should not believe without a grain of salt (a sack, in this case). But who could be blamed? 
Argosy's target audience was the people who liked mysteries but did not like to solve them.

The biggest incident regarding the Bermuda Triangle is probably the disappearance of Flight 19. 

It was a routine training exercise of the air force and included five planes. 

It was led by a flight instructor and the rest were students, all of them were well trained. 

They took off from the Patrick Air Force Base in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. 

One hour into the flight, the instructor said that both of his compasses, and the navigation equipment were malfunctioning and he did not know where he was. 

But he was pretty sure he was flying over the Florida Keys, a chain of islands to the east. 

The squadron was to turn left at Bermuda, but they continued flying north, where they suddenly disappeared. 

A search and rescue plane, ST-49 was sent too, but it also disappeared after a short time. 

It was considered the most baffling mystery of the time, but it had a pretty reasonable natural explanation, which is far better than something like an alien invasion.

The instructor Charles Taylor was actually unfamiliar with the Bahamas and he previously operated in the Keys. He was stationed in Key West. 

He actually referred to himself as MT24, his previous call sign instead of FT24. This meant he was not used to it. 

Also, he mistook his location. He thought he was over the Keys though he was over the Bahamas. 

As he saw land below him and it seemed familiar, he did this mistake. So, he turned north and then west, hoping for land. But that actually took them further out into the sea. 

His instruments were perfectly functional but why he disbelieved them was unknown. 

Anyway, they ran out of fuel soon after and crashed into the ocean, where debris was found later.

As for the SAR plane ST-49, it was reported to be poorly maintained and was inspected for a potential engine malfunction the day before. 
To add to this, a ship saw the plane crashing into the sea and catching fire, while at the same time, another ship equipped with Radar saw the plane disappear. 

It is highly likely that the plane had a combustion problem and exploded. 

But all the incidents did not have such explanations.

Take the example of the missing of the Star Flight which took off from Bermuda towards the mainland. But it was reported missing midway into the flight. 

Star Tiger, the name of the plane, had favourable flight conditions and had no reported faults in maintenance checks. But a sister plane of the same make had a fault regarding a poorly designed heater in the cabin. 

During the investigation of Star Tiger, one pilot of the model said that the heater most likely led to an explosion.

Enough about planes, let us look at some mysterious disappearances on water. 

The first of these is the disappearance of the ship Deering. It was a four-mast ship that sailed towards Florida. 

A lightship saw it off the coast and hailed it. One of the crew replied through a megaphone that they had lost both anchors. 

The lightship also saw another black steamship sailing in the wake of Deering. 

When they came in sight, the crew reportedly unfolded a canvas over its name. 

As for the Deering, it was found later with no one on board and anchors, crucial navigational equipment, captain's log and other documents were missing. 

Also, the masts and the wheel were broken with a sledgehammer (personally, I think aliens would have better technology than hammers). 
After a few days, Christopher Columbus Gray, (not the voyager) a local resident, found a bottle with an SOS message inside on the coast. 

It said that the ship came upon pirates. 

But the funny thing is that handwriting analysts later found that Gray was the writer of the message. It was fake. Ironically, Gray might have been right. 

The captain of the Deering was not on good terms with his crew, a mutiny was very much possible. Also, the crew member who talked with the Deering had a Scandinavian accent. 

Fourteen of the crew members were Danes, so, a mutiny might have taken place. Also, the steamship chasing it might have been pirates, which was also probable. 

The ocean did not have much to do with it.And to wrap things up, let's look at a historical example by Christopher Columbus (the real one).
On his voyage to America, he witnessed three unusual events. 

The first was a fireball falling from the sky. The second was that the compass had moved away from pointing at the North Star. 

The last was a light, described as a candle wick by Columbus, which was seen on the horizon. 

Although they might seem unnatural, all of them are pretty common. Below are the explanations:

-The fireball fits the description of a meteor, which were common in September. The event was on September 15.

-The second is known as magnetic declination. The compass points at magnetic north while the North Star points at true north, or North Pole. The two are a few hundred kilometres apart.

-Lastly, the light is very likely to be a torch or bonfire of the indigenous population. 

After all, one of the crew saw land soon after. Columbus also described it as such.

The last argument is this one – where exactly is the triangle? 

Flight 19 went over the triangle with no trouble. It crashed further north. ST-49 was very far away. 

The Deering had no problem passing over it. Its hocus-pocus took place much, much later. 

Also, none of the three events in Columbus's voyage took place over the triangle. 

Where does it end? Some may argue about adjacent areas

But in that case, the entire Atlantic Ocean may be considered part of the triangle, not to mention the Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay and the Caribbean Sea for good measure.

Also, in what kind of scenario did the events occur? 

The sea is sometimes crazy, sometimes calm. The sky may be clear or stormy. 

Debris may or may not be found. The planes and ships include every make and model. 

Probable causes include human error, lack of maintenance, equipment malfunction etc. 

Why does it have to be a triangle? It could easily be a circle, square, or even a cube, sphere or dodecahedron. 

After all, altitude did not seem to matter. Put simply, the picking is fully random.

Here is the most reasonable theory. It is completely natural. 

Sadly, ships and planes lost without any trace is very common. The 'triangle' is situated in one of the most meteorologically active places in the world. 

A considerable number of hurricanes hit it every year. Heavy rain and big storms are also pretty common. 

The jet stream passes over the area. And above all, it is one of the most travelled places in the world. Thousands of planes fly over it every day. More traffic is bound to result in more crashes. 

And if it was such a dangerous place, why are not ships even warned before they charter it? No maps include it as dangerous. 

The Coast Guard says that it is as dangerous as other places.

The truth is, humans like unsolved mysteries. We like to be scared. 

And let us face it, travelling over a large mass of water in a floating or flying hunk of metal is not exactly the safest thing in the world. 
As long as we step out of our houses, accidents are bound to happen.