The Bermuda Triangle has puzzled scientists and explorers for decades, but a rare phenomenon might finally explain its deadly secrets! From sudden rogue waves to powerful electromagnetic anomalies, new evidence is shedding light on why so many ships and planes have vanished without a trace. Could this phenomenon truly be the key to solving one of the world’s greatest mysteries? Join us as we dive deep into the Bermuda Triangle’s terrifying history and uncover the truth behind its mysterious disappearances! Animation is created by Bright Side.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en
Stock materials (photos, footages and other):
https://www.depositphotos.com
https://www.shutterstock.com
https://www.eastnews.ru
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en
Stock materials (photos, footages and other):
https://www.depositphotos.com
https://www.shutterstock.com
https://www.eastnews.ru
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00You probably saw a viral video where YouTubers hid a huge treasure in the Bermuda Triangle
00:06and a random guy dared to go after it.
00:09He scored $10,000, but let's be real, his biggest win was getting out of there alive.
00:15This dangerous stretch of water between Florida, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda is notorious for
00:21its chilling and unexplained events.
00:23They say that more than 50 ships and 20 airplanes have mysteriously disappeared in the Bermuda
00:29Triangle.
00:31This leads to many theories, suggesting that this area is somehow linked to mystical powers
00:36or vortices that pull objects into other dimensions.
00:40But an Australian scientist named Carl Krushelnicki might have actually cracked the code on the
00:45Bermuda Triangle mystery.
00:47According to him, most popular legends and eerie disappearances can be explained by two
00:52main factors.
00:56The first factor is human error.
00:58One theory debunked by Krushelnicki was about the doomed Flight 19.
01:03Back in 1945, a group of five planes from the U.S. Navy took off on a routine training
01:08mission from Florida.
01:10Everything was going well until, 90 minutes into the flight, the troop commander reported
01:15that they were lost.
01:17And then, poof, they just disappeared.
01:21One of the largest air and sea searches in history was conducted to find them.
01:26To this day, no one has found any trace of Flight 19 or the 14 men on board.
01:34What still makes people scratch their heads about this event is that the weather conditions
01:39when they took off were actually great.
01:41A relatively warm day, fluffy white clouds drifting across the sky, and a breezy wind
01:46coming from the southwest.
01:48Pretty standard for training flights, really, nothing out of the ordinary.
01:52So what happened?
01:56It turns out that despite the flight leader having over 2,000 flying hours, he was a bad
02:01pilot.
02:02Actually, a really bad pilot.
02:05According to Krushelnicki, the commander was such a poor navigator that he had gotten lost
02:09at sea on at least two previous occasions before the Flight 19 incident.
02:14On that doomed day, he even tried to get someone to cover his shift but was unsuccessful, to
02:20the misfortune of his entire team.
02:23After their training flight exercise was completed successfully, both compasses on board stopped
02:28working.
02:29On the patrol's radio, his anxious voice said they were over land, or precisely, he
02:34was sure they were flying above the Florida Keys.
02:37But that didn't make any sense.
02:40He had made his scheduled pass over hens and chicken shoals in the Bahamas less than an
02:45hour earlier, but now he believed his plane had somehow drifted hundreds of miles off
02:50course and ended up in the Florida Keys.
02:53He couldn't have been more wrong.
02:57According to the most plausible theories about this case, what he thought was the Florida
03:01Keys was actually some small islands in the Bahamas.
03:05And here's where the real mess happened.
03:08Instead of turning back to the west, toward Florida, he kept flying east, deeper into
03:12the Atlantic Ocean.
03:14His plane eventually ran out of fuel, and you already know the rest of the story.
03:21Some theorists might argue that a malevolent force somehow interfered with the two compasses,
03:27causing them to fail while they were flying this supposedly cursed stretch of water.
03:32But let's face it, even if that were true, human error was the main factor here.
03:37The pilot shouldn't have mistaken the Bahamas islands for the Keys.
03:41Now, let's talk about the second factor that, according to Krushalinsky, explains
03:49many of the strange disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle.
03:53And that's related to bad weather.
03:56A lot of Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes actually pass right through the Bermuda Triangle.
04:02So before we had advanced weather forecasting, these storms had caused a bunch of ships to
04:06go missing back in the day.
04:08On top of that, the Gulf Stream runs through the area too.
04:12That's a super strong ocean current that can make the weather change quickly and, sometimes,
04:17pretty dramatically.
04:18So when you think about it, natural factors like these could explain many, if not most,
04:23of the disappearances.
04:26Take the USS Cyclops, for example.
04:28Back in 1918, this massive 500-foot cargo ship carrying about 11,000 tons of manganese
04:36just disappeared without a trace.
04:38It was sailing from the West Indies to Baltimore with 309 people on board.
04:44What makes this event extra eerie is that not a single distress signal was sent.
04:49Over a hundred years later, we still have no idea what happened to it.
04:53No wreckage has ever been found.
04:56Of course, people have come up with all kinds of theories about the USS Cyclops.
05:01One popular idea is that it ran into a sudden violent storm.
05:05With all that heavy manganese on board, it might've capsized and sunk really fast.
05:10Others speculate about underwater events, like landslides, or even a rogue wave.
05:19This is not such a crazy theory if you think about it.
05:22According to Krushelnicki, the Bermuda Triangle isn't just a bad weather zone, it is about
05:27the raw power of the ocean itself.
05:30The ocean floor there is way deeper than most people realize, going down nearly 30,000
05:36feet.
05:37It's basically like Mount Everest in reverse.
05:40When the ocean water gets that deep, it tends to hide things, making it the perfect place
05:45for ships and planes to just disappear without a trace.
05:49The expert confirms that there is also a tiny chance that even stranger events could be
05:54happening beneath the waves of the Bermuda Triangle.
05:58That is related to methane clathrate.
06:01This is a fancy name for an ice-like compound that forms underwater or in really cold places
06:06with methane gas trapped inside.
06:09Sometimes these structures can break free, creating bubbles on the surface.
06:13And this bubble shower can be fatal, at least for ships.
06:18Some experiments done with model ships showed that if enough bubbles rise up, the water's
06:23density drops, and this can mess with the ship's ability to float.
06:28If a large number of bubbles come up and cover a large area quickly, the ship could lose
06:32enough buoyancy to sink or tip over.
06:35But to be fair, the chances of something like that happening are very remote.
06:41So human error and bad weather – those are the two factors that likely explain all the
06:46mysteries surrounding this so-called malevolent stretch of water.
06:50But the truth is, the Bermuda Triangle isn't all that special.
06:55Although this region is very popular, there are no official maps that clearly outline
07:00its exact boundaries and say, look, here precisely is the Bermuda Triangle.
07:06And that is part of the problem.
07:08Disappearances and unexplained events that happen far from the actual region end up being
07:13lumped into the Bermuda Triangle's list of unexplained mysteries.
07:17Like the Mary Celeste's fate.
07:19In 1872, this ship was found completely intact, but with no sign of the captain, his family,
07:25or the crew.
07:27People thought, okay, creepy fact, ghost ship, so it must be related to the Bermuda Triangle.
07:33But one thing doesn't add up.
07:35The Mary Celeste was abandoned about 400 miles east of the Azores, so we're talking about
07:41a completely different part of the Atlantic.
07:44By this time, the Triangle has morphed into a trapezoid to cover that huge chunk of the
07:49North Atlantic.
07:51What I'm trying to say here is that once people start believing in a danger zone, confirmation
07:56bias takes over.
07:58But the facts are that the Bermuda Triangle sees tons of daily traffic every single day,
08:03both by sea and air.
08:05And according to experts, the number of incidents that happen there is pretty much the same
08:09as anywhere else in the world, percentage-wise.
08:13Some years the number is a bit higher, some years lower, but it averages out the same.
08:18With that in mind, it seems like it's time for us to finally move on from wild theories
08:23involving the Bermuda Triangle.
08:25Well, at least until the next bizarre disappearance comes along.
08:36Can we estimate how many ships and airplanes were lost in the Bermuda Triangle?
08:40Have their disappearances resulted from human error or weather phenomena?
08:44Let's try to find out!
08:46We have a curious story of the SS Cotopaxi.
08:50This ship vanished in 1925, traveling from Charleston, South Carolina, to Havana, Cuba.
08:56It never reached its destination.
08:59Years later, in the 1980s, a wreck was found 40 miles off St. Augustine, Florida.
09:05Since specialists could not precisely determine what and where it came from, they nicknamed
09:10it Bear Wreck.
09:12It took many additional years of work, done mainly by marine biologists, to identify that
09:18this ship was indeed the missing SS Cotopaxi.
09:22This was confirmed in January 2020.
09:26How did the ship just reappear?
09:28And how did it get there, since this mysterious shipwreck isn't even in the Bermuda Triangle?
09:33Now, let's see who came up with this term, Bermuda Triangle.
09:38Can you actually pinpoint the triangle on a map?
09:41No, it's not an officially recognized location either.
09:45The Bermuda Triangle does not appear on any world map.
09:49Nobody has agreed on its exact boundaries.
09:52There are only assumptions with approximations of the entire area, ranging between 500,000
09:58and 1.5 million square miles.
10:01By all approximations, the region has a vaguely triangular shape.
10:06In 1964, an American author named Vincent Hayes Gaddis first came up with the idea when
10:13writing an article for Argosy magazine.
10:16He used the Bermuda Triangle to describe a triangular region that has destroyed hundreds
10:22of ships and planes without a trace.
10:25It is pretty hard to get the number of lost ships and planes because some ships and aircraft
10:30have gone missing without leaving a trace.
10:33Their wreckage in the region has not been recovered.
10:36The recorded story should help us.
10:39Legends about the Bermuda Triangle date back to the 15th century, like that of the Italian
10:44explorer Christopher Columbus.
10:47When sailing through the Atlantic waters, he passed by this location in the late 1400s.
10:52In what we now know as the Bermuda Triangle, he saw a huge flame that seemed to just crash
10:58into the ocean.
10:59Later, he saw an unusual light flashing in the distance at the exact location.
11:05Like many other sailors since then, his compass had severe malfunctions.
11:10Flight 19, a Navy plane on a routine schedule back in 1945, also started the Bermuda Triangle
11:17legend.
11:18It was commanded by Lieutenant Charles Taylor, and it's recorded that he just got lost
11:23in the triangle for no reason.
11:26Since pilots had no GPS back then, they had to trust their compasses and keep track of
11:31how long they'd been flying in a specific direction and their speed.
11:36Shortly after completing the task, both of the compasses on board stopped working correctly.
11:42Records found after the plane's disappearance also indicate that Taylor didn't have a watch
11:47on that particular day.
11:49The initial report stated that pilot error was to blame for this unfortunate event.
11:54However, because people weren't satisfied with this outcome, it was changed to causes
12:00or reasons unknown after several reviews.
12:04One surviving pilot named Bruce Guerin suggested he went through an electronic fog while passing
12:10above the triangle, making him travel through time.
12:14In 1970, when this incident happened, he was flying his aircraft when it was surrounded
12:20by two huge clouds that formed a whirlpool and spiraled.
12:24Like many others before him, he noticed that his navigation devices were malfunctioning.
12:30When he eventually made it out of those clouds, he discovered that his flight had only taken
12:3535 minutes.
12:36It should've taken 75 in total.
12:39Since he had no other reasonable explanation for what he went through, he believed he must
12:44have been pushed forward in time.
12:47It's not only strange-looking clouds that have been seen above the Bermuda Triangle.
12:52In 2014, a pilot recalled almost colliding with a flying object that he could not identify
12:58whatsoever.
13:00Some of these strange encounters were even caught on tape.
13:03It's the case of an early 2015 flight whose passengers noticed a curious object just floating
13:10over the ocean.
13:11The pilots have yet to figure out what they actually saw back there.
13:15Okay, not all of the possible explanations have been this unusual.
13:20Oceanographers, for example, have also tried to explain why ships disappear around here.
13:26So they recently came back to one of their old theories – rogue waves.
13:31These are immense walls of water that just pop up suddenly.
13:35If multiple such waves rise simultaneously, they overlap like a wave sandwich.
13:41If one single wave can reach over 30 feet tall and happen simultaneously, it can create
13:47a rogue wave that can surpass 100 feet high.
13:51These types of waves can quickly overtake even the biggest of ships.
13:55Meteorologists came up with their own explanation, too – hexagonal clouds.
14:01These unusual types of clouds can generate winds of up to 170 mph, and they're pretty
14:07significant too, some reaching 20 to 55 miles across.
14:12As such, waves inside these wind giants can go as high as 45 feet.
14:18The Earth's own magnetic force might also have something to do with it.
14:23In the Bermuda Triangle, compasses point to True North, the geographic North Pole,
14:28rather than Magnetic North, the shifting magnetic North Pole.
14:33Some have even explained that since these two perfectly overlap in the Bermuda Triangle,
14:38it can cause a magnetic phenomenon that could make navigational devices malfunction.
14:43It's called the agonic line.
14:46The problem is that scientists have discovered that this line moves each year.
14:51It might have passed through the Bermuda Triangle at one point, but it's now through
14:55the Gulf of Mexico.
14:57Other strange natural phenomenon found along the coast of Norway could help explain why
15:02the Bermuda Triangle has claimed so many ships.
15:06There are some deep craters there, measuring up to half a mile wide and are 150 feet deep.
15:13Scientists believe they were created by methane gas bubbles.
15:16This gas seems to be leaking from deposits hidden deep in the seabed.
15:21Once the gas reaches a certain quantity, it bursts to the surface and causes eruptions.
15:27So, do pilots and ship captains actually avoid this area today?
15:33Could this explain why there are fewer ships that get lost there nowadays?
15:37But if you've ever flown from Miami to San Juan, Puerto Rico, you probably know that's
15:42not true.
15:44As for ships, if people would avoid the Bermuda Triangle, nearly all Caribbean vacations would
15:50be spoiled.
15:51To this day, there are a lot of flights that go over the Bermuda Triangle, so it's clear
15:56nobody is avoiding it.
15:58This place is one of the most heavily traveled shipping lanes in the world.
16:02Nowadays, the Bermuda Triangle has heavy daily traffic, both by sea and air.
16:08But the Bermuda Triangle is indeed subject to tropical storms and hurricanes that happen
16:13very often.
16:15Let's also keep in mind that the Gulf Stream, a strong ocean current that causes sharp changes
16:20in local weather, passes through the Bermuda Triangle.
16:24Besides, the deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean, the Milwaukee Depth, is also located
16:30in the Bermuda Triangle.
16:31The Puerto Rico Trench reaches almost 27,500 feet at the Milwaukee Depth.
16:38So, if you think about it, the whole mystery is a perfect combination of human error, bad
16:44weather, and a lot of ship traffic.
16:47This was confirmed by data provided by the U.S. Coast Guard.
16:50If you look at percentages, the number of ships or planes that go missing in the Bermuda
16:55Triangle isn't different from anywhere else.
16:58Disappearances do not happen more often than in any comparable region of the Atlantic Ocean.
17:05Local statistics say around 50 ships and 20 airplanes have vanished while traveling
17:10through this region.
17:11So, that's another reason why the total number is so hard to pinpoint.
17:16Nobody could describe its rescue in official records if a boat was reported missing.
17:22There are also some events that, it turns out, didn't happen at all, adding to those
17:27false reports.
17:29Take that of a plane crash back in 1937 off Daytona Beach, Florida, that local papers
17:35surprisingly revealed nothing about.
17:40There's something really bizarre going on at these 12 points scattered across the Earth.
17:45The Vile Vortices, as they're called, are these creepy spots over the Tropic of Cancer,
17:50the Tropic of Capricorn, and the North and South Poles, where weird forces seem to take
17:56over.
17:58You've probably heard of the most famous one, the Bermuda Triangle.
18:03It's believed that more than 50 ships and 20 airplanes have mysteriously disappeared
18:08in this area, which is located between Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico.
18:13But what most people don't realize is that the Bermuda Triangle actually has 11 siblings,
18:19and these other spots can be even more terrifying.
18:24Let's start with Mohenjo-Daro.
18:28This was a thriving city, located in what is now Pakistan.
18:32Built around 2500 BC, this urban center was once home to about 40,000 people.
18:41But then, suddenly, people abandoned it by the year 1700 BCE.
18:48In the 1940s, an archaeologist discovered 39 human skeletons at the site, which fueled
18:53a theory that the city was invaded by some other civilization at some point.
18:59But honestly, it's hard to confirm that, since archaeology doesn't really explain the city's
19:04sudden destruction or the disappearance of its people.
19:08It's led to a bunch of bizarre theories.
19:11One of them talks about an ancient extraterrestrial race that might have lived there, and a malevolent
19:17wind that swept through the city.
19:22Another ancient city with a similar mystery is the Great Zimbabwe.
19:26Its construction began in the 11th century, and at its peak it housed up to 18,000 people.
19:33But for reasons we'll probably never fully understand, it was abandoned in the 15th century.
19:40Archaeologists were really interested in this place, and that's when things got even weirder.
19:45They found eight of these birds, now called the Zimbabwe birds.
19:49These soapstone sculptures were found sitting on stone columns that were over 90 centimeters
19:55tall.
19:57Nothing like them has ever been found anywhere else, and their meaning is still a total mystery.
20:03Some think each bird represents a new king, but other theories suggest they were ancient
20:08animals very dear to the people who lived there.
20:12Adding to the mystery, local legends talk about a strange, short man who's sometimes
20:17seen wandering around, but he always disappears before anyone can get close.
20:24Then there's Easter Island, another one of the 12 Vile Vortices.
20:29It's located in the eastern Pacific Ocean, and it's famous for its nearly 1,000 enormous
20:35statues called Moai.
20:38We still don't know what they mean, or how they were made.
20:42Some of them are almost 30 feet tall and weigh as much as 80 tons!
20:47Today, it wouldn't be that tough to move and carve these statues, but we're talking about
20:52a period between the years 1100 and 1680, so nobody really knows how they did it.
20:59Some specialists believe these statues were carried across the island, while others think
21:05they were pushed on log rollers.
21:08But the most bizarre theories suggest extraterrestrials were involved.
21:14Algeria is another land rich in ancient mysteries, and one of the most fascinating is something
21:20called the Jeddars.
21:22These are 13 monuments with square stone bases and angular mounds, built between the 4th
21:28and 7th centuries.
21:30But the weird part is, no one knows their purpose.
21:34One of them had an inscription in Latin, but it was so worn down that the message was
21:38nearly impossible to read.
21:41The best guess so far is that these monuments were probably tombs for royalty, although
21:46no one knows exactly who was supposed to be buried there.
21:50What we do know is that there are many myths related to strange disappearances in the region.
21:57The next mysterious spot is located south of Tokyo, in the Pacific Ocean, and it's called
22:03the Dragon's Triangle.
22:05Does that name ring a bell?
22:07Yep, just like the Bermuda Triangle, this area is known for strange disappearances of
22:12airplanes and ships.
22:14One of the most chilling stories dates back to 1945, when a plane allegedly vanished.
22:21The pilot supposedly sent a radio transmission right before the aircraft disappeared, claiming
22:26that something strange was happening in the sky, like it was opening up or something.
22:32While this story is definitely eerie, the truth behind it and many other Dragon's Triangle
22:37legends is still up for debate.
22:41If you type Hamakulia Volcano into Google Earth, you'll find it located in Hawaii's
22:46Ring of Fire.
22:47But this place is so shrouded in mystery that it's hard to find much information about it.
22:53Some legends speak of unusual electrical energy being detected in the area, and there's even
22:58a story about an eyewitness who claimed to see a plane flying over it totally disappear
23:03from the radar.
23:06Another eerie spot is the South Atlantic Anomaly, which is an area on Earth where natural radiation
23:11flows out of control.
23:14While this doesn't affect our daily lives on the surface, it has a pretty big impact
23:18on Earth's atmosphere.
23:20The radiation there is so intense that it can knock out the onboard computers of spacecraft
23:24and interfere with the data collected by satellites passing through the area.
23:29To deal with this, specialists had to add an additional shield to the International
23:33Space Station.
23:35The South Atlantic Anomaly is also linked to a weird event that astronauts experience
23:40called Cosmic Ray Visual Phenomena.
23:45They've reported seeing random flashes of light or shooting stars out there in space,
23:50but it's all just some kind of illusion.
23:54From wild radiation to strange seismic activity, the Wharton Basin in the Indian Ocean is a
24:00place known for unusual tectonic events.
24:04In April of 2012, a massive earthquake measuring magnitude 8.6 hit the region.
24:12This was considered the largest intraplate earthquake ever recorded, meaning it happened
24:16within a tectonic plate rather than at its boundary.
24:21This caught the attention of scientists, who now speculate that the region might be
24:25forming a new boundary between the Australian and Indian plates.
24:29But for now, this is all still one big mystery.
24:34Now let's head to the Pacific Ocean, more specifically, to the New Hebrides Trench.
24:41This submarine trench is about 750 miles long and 45 miles wide.
24:47It formed when the Australian plate slid under the New Hebrides plate.
24:52There's no doubt that this is one of the creepiest and deepest spots in the ocean.
24:57The danger isn't just down in the deep sea either, as this trench has been connected
25:01to several earthquakes that affected New Caledonia and Vanuatu.
25:06This area also has some strange features.
25:09For example, when scientists explored it, they didn't find a single grenadier fish down there.
25:16This type of fish is one of the most common deep sea creatures you would expect to see
25:19in trenches around the Pacific.
25:22So why aren't they around the New Hebrides Trench?
25:26Maybe they know something we don't.
25:29The two remaining vile vortices are the North and South Poles.
25:34These two are on the opposite ends of the planet, but they share one thing in common.
25:39Strange disappearances.
25:41One of the most famous stories from the North Pole happened in 1897.
25:46Three brave explorers set out on a journey to reach the North Pole using a hot air balloon.
25:52But they never completed their mission.
25:54Their mysterious disappearance remains one of the most intriguing unsolved mysteries
25:59in the history of Arctic exploration.
26:03The South Pole is also known for similar mysteries.
26:07It's believed that hundreds of people may be buried beneath the snow and ice of the
26:11coldest continent on Earth.
26:14Even with all the advancements in technology and knowledge, the South Pole can still be
26:18extremely dangerous for anyone who ventures there.
26:22The temperatures can drop to almost minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit, and the winds can
26:28get up to 200 miles per hour.
26:31And that's definitely enough reason to stay away.
26:35Now that you're familiar with the 12 vile vortices, let me tell you something even stranger.
26:40If you look at a map, you'll see that these places are arranged in a way that looks pretty
26:45similar across the globe.
26:48Here's the weird part.
26:49If you connect these spots where unexplained events have occurred, you actually form the
26:54geometric shape of an icosahedron.
26:57This could be just a huge coincidence, but the fact that these mystery spots align with
27:03this shape makes them even more intriguing.
27:08A college sophomore finished her shift at the cafeteria and decided to go for a hike.
27:13She got dressed, said goodbye to her roommate, and hitchhiked a ride to the start of a trail.
27:19The 18-year-old girl met some hikers who were coming back and asked them for directions.
27:24It was getting dark, but the student pressed on, and she was never seen again.
27:29Her name was Paula Jean Weldon, and she went missing in 1946.
27:35She was walking along a trail near Bennington, a town in southwestern Vermont.
27:40The next day, her roommate reported her missing.
27:43The authorities quickly organized a search party.
27:46Hundreds of people searched the woodlands around the trail for four weeks.
27:50Her college even shut down for a while so students and faculty staff could join the
27:55search.
27:56They came back empty.
27:57The girl had disappeared into thin air.
28:00Paula didn't pack a bag.
28:02She didn't take any extra clothes or money.
28:05All the evidence suggested she didn't expect to be out for more than a couple of hours.
28:11Her father was a well-known industrial engineer.
28:14He blamed the county sheriff for poorly conducting the investigation.
28:18Despite all the efforts, the poor girl was still nowhere to be found.
28:22Her case remains unsolved to this day.
28:25But this is not the first time someone went missing in Vermont's forests.
28:30A year earlier, Middy Rivers, a lively 74-year-old man, was the guide for a group of four hunters.
28:37He reached a fork in the road with his son-in-law.
28:40Middy said he would walk a short distance down one of the paths.
28:44After all, he didn't want to miss lunchtime back at the camp.
28:47But that was the last time anyone had saw him.
28:50The group he had accompanied searched for the man all afternoon before calling the police.
28:55A more extensive search followed but it didn't yield any results.
28:59The local man was an experienced hiker and he was well familiar with the trail.
29:04Still, he had gone missing.
29:06Firefighters, volunteers, and even servicemen couldn't find the missing person after a
29:11month of searching.
29:13All that they found was a cartridge he dropped in a nearby stream.
29:17The local authorities still haven't solved the case.
29:21Nobody knew at the time but Middy and Paula were just the beginning.
29:25In just half a decade, five people in total disappeared in this part of Vermont.
29:31Years went by but still nobody could explain their disappearances.
29:35And that's why the area got its name, the Bennington Triangle, after the famous Bermuda
29:40Triangle where ships and planes have been disappearing for centuries.
29:45In 1949, the most puzzling disappearance happened in the Bennington Triangle.
29:50A 68-year-old veteran boarded a local bus.
29:54He was going home after visiting his relatives in St. Albans.
29:59His family took him to the bus station and there were 14 witnesses who claimed he was
30:03still on it at the last stop before Bennington.
30:06But he never got off the bus there.
30:08His luggage was still on the rack and an open bus timetable sat on his empty seat.
30:14The man had apparently vanished into thin air while on a moving bus.
30:18And there's another weird thing.
30:20He disappeared on the exact same date the college student went missing three years ago.
30:25The youngest person to mysteriously vanish was an 8-year-old.
30:30He was with his mother while she worked on the family farm.
30:32She went to feed the pigs and left her son alone for an hour or so.
30:36When she came back, the woman couldn't find her son.
30:40The locals soon formed search parties and the local sheriff brought in tracking dogs.
30:45They picked up the scent but lost it suddenly at a nearby crossroads.
30:49The guy was never found.
30:51Again, there was a strange element to this story.
30:54The youngster was wearing a bright red jacket.
30:57This would have made him more visible to the rescuers.
31:00But more strikingly, Paula, the college sophomore who disappeared four years earlier, also had
31:06a red jacket.
31:08The final disappearance happened just 16 days after the little fella vanished from the farm.
31:13A 53-year-old woman was camping with her family in the Green Mountain National Forest.
31:19She went for a hike with her cousin.
31:21But there was a mishap.
31:22The woman fell into a stream.
31:25She decided to go back to the camp to change clothes.
31:28Her cousin thought she would join him later and continued along the path alone.
31:32But the woman never came back.
31:35In fact, she never reached their base camp.
31:37For two weeks, 300 searchers scouted the woods.
31:42They brought in helicopters but found no trace of the unfortunate woman.
31:46The last disappearance in the Bennington Triangle had an ending.
31:50Not a happy one though.
31:52In the spring of the following year, the searchers found the poor camper three and a half miles
31:56from the original campsite.
31:58They had previously covered that spot, which made it only more mysterious.
32:02It was impossible to determine why and what happened to her.
32:06The only thing these five disappearances have in common is the period of time and the
32:11geographic area.
32:1336 square miles of thick woods in the southwest of Vermont.
32:18This remote area of Green Mountains wasn't the happiest of places.
32:23Bennington and the nearby village of Glastonbury were founded as mining and logging towns.
32:28The living conditions were harsh.
32:31Near the end of the 19th century, the locals tried to rebrand the area as a tourist destination.
32:37But the mountain was unstable and a huge flood washed away their dreams of a happy life.
32:43Residents started moving out.
32:45In 2010, only eight people lived in Glastonbury.
32:49It became a ghost town.
32:51In the late 1940s, the area was back in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
32:57But how could these disappearances have remained a mystery for so long?
33:01Surely someone had a reasonable explanation.
33:04One theory suggests that it was a case of foul play.
33:08Maybe an unknown person was up to no good and harmed the unsuspecting people.
33:13But then there would have been a pattern.
33:15And there is none.
33:17Or maybe the elements were responsible.
33:20The college student went missing on a pleasant day at the very beginning of winter.
33:24She was lightly dressed because it was 50 degrees Fahrenheit outside.
33:28But in the evening, the air temperature plummeted.
33:31It was a freezing 9 degrees Fahrenheit the following morning.
33:35In this part of Vermont, the weather is quite unpredictable.
33:39It can get really windy, especially in winter.
33:43Perhaps the bad weather and the dense forest confused the missing people.
33:46Recently, a strikingly similar case of disappearance happened here.
33:50A college student got lost in heavy fog at the top of Glastonbury Mountain.
33:56When he didn't return home, his fiancée called the police.
33:59State troopers immediately went out to look for him.
34:02But it was too dark and foggy to see anything.
34:05Luckily, they found him the next morning.
34:07He got lost because of the thick fog.
34:10He managed to find his way back to the trail only after the weather conditions improved.
34:15This story had a happy ending.
34:17But could this incident explain what happened to the people who disappeared over 70 years
34:22ago?
34:23Mountains around Bennington are full of abandoned mineshafts, a reminder of the town's history.
34:30A hiker lost in fog could easily fall into one of these wells.
34:34They could have no way of getting out.
34:36The area is so remote that no one would ever find them.
34:40The second danger are wild animals.
34:43Black bears are native to New England.
34:45Local hiking clubs advise visitors to store their food in special boxes, not to attract
34:50bears.
34:51Green Mountain National Forest sits in the middle of the Bennington Triangle.
34:56Today, this popular recreation area is within a day's drive of 70 million people.
35:02People come here to camp, hike, and ride mountain bikes.
35:05But do all of them know about the five mysterious disappearances?
35:09I guess I wouldn't dare venture into this remote patch of Vermont's wilderness now.
35:17In 1945, five TBF Avenger aircraft took flight for a routine training exercise around the
35:24Bermuda Triangle.
35:26In the middle of the exercise, the planes were struck by intense rain and heavy winds
35:31despite the clear weather forecast.
35:33The pilots became extremely disoriented and radioed the base to report that their navigational
35:39equipment had stopped working.
35:41The last thing the base heard was, when the first plane drops below 10 gallons, we'll
35:46all go down together.
35:48And then, static.
35:50The five planes and their 14 crew members were never seen or heard from again.
35:56On his very first voyage to the New World in 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed through
36:02the Bermuda Triangle.
36:04Columbus reported that, one night, when he was on the deck of the ship, he noticed a
36:08giant light appear in the distance, unlike anything he'd ever seen before.
36:13Columbus looked at his compass for direction, and it gave off erratic readings.
36:18You might have noticed that the Bermuda Triangle doesn't appear on any world map.
36:23This is because official institutions refuse to acknowledge that the area actually exists.
36:30A popular theory suggests that rogue waves are responsible for the many disappearances.
36:36Rogue waves are called extreme storm waves by scientists.
36:39They occur when different weather patterns take place at the same time and cause large
36:44unexpected waves.
36:46Witnesses say that the waves look like giant walls of water.
36:50These waves could explain why ships go down fast and without leaving any trace.
36:55The Bermuda Triangle is home to some pretty intense and unexpected weather.
37:00Storms build up quickly and unexpectedly, then disappear soon after.
37:05If you blink, you might miss it.
37:07This could explain why few distress signals are issued.
37:11Pilots and sailors never saw the weather coming.
37:14No one knows exactly how many ships and planes have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle.
37:19The rough estimate is 50 ships and 20 planes.
37:23Most of the time, the disappearances had no explanation, and no wreckage has ever been
37:28left behind.
37:30Another bizarre theory trying to solve the Bermuda Triangle mystery comes from Charlie
37:35Berlitz.
37:36He insists that the area is home to the lost city of Atlantis.
37:40The missing ships and planes and malfunctioning equipment, according to him, were all caused
37:45by rays of energy let out by the special energy crystals that power Atlantis.
37:51While this sounds silly, Berlitz's theory was convincing enough that over 20 million
37:55people bought his book worldwide.
37:59In the year 1800, a large sailing vessel called the USS Pickering departed from the U.S. on
38:05its way to the West Indies.
38:07The ship sailed into the Bermuda Triangle along with its 90-man crew and was never heard
38:12from again.
38:13The USS Pickering was the first ever confirmed ship to vanish in the Bermuda Triangle.
38:19It's believed that the ship was taken out by a storm, but because no wreckage was ever
38:23found, we'll never know for sure.
38:27When the TBF Avenger planes went missing, a massive search operation was conducted.
38:32Ships and planes searched the Bermuda Triangle for any signs of the aircraft.
38:37One of the boats searching was a PBM-5 Mariner airboat.
38:41The airboat took flight at 7.27 p.m. and called in a routine radio message three minutes later.
38:47Then, it was never heard from again.
38:50No trace was ever found of the rescue airboat or the five Avenger aircraft.
38:55An enormous investigation was launched into the disappearance of all these vehicles, but
39:00nothing was ever discovered.
39:03This particular area of the ocean is one of the most heavily traveled shipping routes
39:06in the world.
39:08Some skeptics believe that this fact solves the mystery.
39:11Statistically, the busier the area, the higher the frequency of accidents and disappearances.
39:17While this makes sense, it's not the frequency of disappearances that's responsible for
39:21the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.
39:24It's the lack of explanation or wreckage found.
39:28On the ocean floor, decomposing organisms let off large concentrations of methane gas
39:34that gets trapped under the water.
39:36This gas can build up until, boom, it ruptures.
39:40The gas surges up to the surface and erupts.
39:43If a ship was in the area of one of these ruptures, the water would become much less
39:47dense and cause the ship to sink rapidly and without warning.
39:52Scientists believe this could be the cause of the many disappearances in the Bermuda
39:55Triangle.
39:57While this theory makes a lot of sense, it doesn't seem too likely.
40:01The U.S. Geological Survey has stated that no large releases of gas are believed to have
40:06occurred in this area for the past 15,000 years.
40:11The ocean floor is made of rocks containing a lot of magnetite.
40:15It's more like iron.
40:17Magnetic fields react to high concentrations of magnetite on the ocean floor, which may
40:22start a sort of conflict between the two.
40:25This can often lead to various weather anomalies and, as a result, navigation issues.
40:31And naturally, any changes in the ocean floor or the Earth's magnetic fields influence
40:36the Bermuda Triangle a lot.
40:39Since the magnetic field is constantly moving, it might be also taking the Bermuda Triangle
40:44with it.
40:45Now that people know where the Triangle is, it's easy to avoid it.
40:49It supposedly moves eastward together with the magnetic poles.
40:53But scientists still can't answer where exactly it will be in a couple of years.
40:59Some people blame all the disasters on the extraterrestrial paranormal activity.
41:03Others suppose it's all about raging natural phenomena.
41:07There's another triangle in Lake Michigan.
41:11Just like the one near Bermuda, the Michigan Triangle got its shady reputation for some
41:16disappearances.
41:17The first recorded one dates back to 1679.
41:21A large vessel, one of the largest of that time, set out on an expedition, yet once it
41:27got in the sinister triangle, it never came back.
41:31Much later, an aircraft disappeared in this triangle.
41:34The skies are usually very clear there, but back in 1883, some people witnessed abnormal
41:40things in the area.
41:42Some claim to have seen large blocks of ice falling from the skies, and the crew even
41:47managed to save one as hard proof.
41:50Meanwhile, the Pacific Ocean mystery area is another sinister triangle.
41:55Off the south coast of Japan, not far away from Tokyo, there's a sea where plenty of
42:00ships met their doom, disappearing without a trace in these waters.
42:04They call it the Devil's Triangle.
42:07Some scientists believe the cause of anomalies is the environmental changes.
42:12Also, there's a really high concentration of methane hydrates on the bottom of the ocean
42:17in the Pacific Triangle area.
42:20You're deviating from your original course and sailing in the wrong direction.
42:25There's the Caribbean Sea near the triangle, peppered with small islands.
42:29The seafloor here isn't deep, the ship can get in shallow waters, and now the ship is
42:34stuck on a shoal, and you have no idea where you are.
42:38If this were the 21st century, the ship's captain would be able to reach the shore using
42:43GPS and other modern navigation.
42:46But the most interesting thing is that the compass would work correctly this time, since
42:51the magnetic north pole hasn't already coincided with the true one for a long time in the territory
42:57of the Bermuda Triangle.
42:59The agonic line is somewhere far away from here.
43:02There are no problems with navigation now, but for some reason, this is where ships disappear.
43:08In fact, not just here.
43:10Throughout the Atlantic Ocean, there are places where many more ships were gone.
43:15The Bermuda Triangle is not even in the top 10 of such places.
43:19One of the main reasons why many ships are lost here is that one of the most popular
43:23shipping routes in the Atlantic passes through the Bermuda Triangle.
43:27And the more ships in one place, the more shipwrecks.
43:31Simple probability.
43:33Then it just starts getting weird.
43:35Other theories say that there's a space-time rift in this region.
43:39Ships and planes fall into this rift and end up in the past or the future.
43:44But for some reason, there's not a single proof of this myth.
43:47There's no reason to think that the rift is hidden somewhere here.
43:51The base of an extraterrestrial civilization is located in the Bermuda Triangle.
43:56Visitors from other galaxies steal sea vessels along with the crew, so no one finds the wreckage
44:02of the ships.
44:03This is also a popular myth that has no scientific justification.
44:08The Kraken lives somewhere in the Triangle.
44:11It's a huge squid that sinks ships and also is a legend that sailors tell each other.
44:16However, gigantic squids live in the depths of the ocean.
44:19They can grow to the size of half a train car, but no cases have ever been recorded
44:24where they sunk a large vessel.
44:26And in the area of the Bermuda Triangle, they have never ever been seen.
44:31People in the past didn't know about the existence of these creatures.
44:35So when they saw them for the first time, they described them as huge, terrible monsters.
44:41Kraken squids are some of the most elusive creatures on Earth, and scientists had to
44:45use sonar equipment to find them.
44:47They don't like to leave the dark depths and are likely to be afraid of the sound of
44:51any ship.
44:53So that should squash the squid as a suspect.
44:57That's it for today!
45:01So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
45:05friends!
45:06Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!