BLOG: Whatever Happened to the Bermuda Triangle? 10 Mysteries from the Bermuda Triangle—and Why You Might Not Hear About It Anymore
For decades, the Bermuda Triangle gripped the public's imagination. Ships, planes, and people were said to vanish without a trace in the area bounded by Miami, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico—a vast stretch of ocean where mystery reigned and logic often failed. But in recent years, it seems the legend has drifted quietly into the fog.
So what really happened to the Bermuda Triangle? Here are 10 strange cases that helped build its eerie reputation—followed by a closer look at why the mystery has gone quiet.
Image from Wikimedia Commons.
1. Flight 19 (1945) - On December 5, 1945, five U.S. Navy torpedo bombers took off from Fort Lauderdale for a routine training mission. But the exercise went off-course. Radio messages revealed the flight leader, Lt. Charles Taylor, was disoriented and believed they were flying over the Florida Keys—when they weren’t. As darkness set in, all five planes vanished. Even more baffling, a rescue plane sent to find them also disappeared. Altogether, 27 men were lost without a trace. No wreckage has ever been conclusively found, and Flight 19 remains the Bermuda Triangle’s most iconic mystery.
2. USS Cyclops – The Navy’s Greatest Non-Combat Loss (1918). In March 1918, the USS Cyclops, a massive Navy cargo ship, disappeared somewhere between Barbados and Baltimore. It carried over 300 people and 10,000 tons of manganese ore. There was no SOS. No wreckage. No survivors. Despite extensive searches, not a single piece of the ship was found. President Woodrow Wilson later said, “Only God and the sea know what happened to the great ship.”
3. The Star Tiger and Star Ariel – Twin Air Disasters (1948 & 1949). In January 1948, British South American Airways’ Star Tiger vanished during a flight from the Azores to Bermuda. Less than a year later, in January 1949, its sister aircraft, Star Ariel, vanished while flying from Bermuda to Jamaica. Neither sent distress signals. Neither left behind wreckage. These two near-identical incidents raised serious questions about unexplained factors over the Triangle.
4. The Ellen Austin – Ghost Ship Encounter (1881). The American schooner Ellen Austin was sailing through the Bermuda Triangle when it came across a derelict vessel drifting aimlessly. The ship was in good condition but abandoned. A salvage crew from the Ellen Austin boarded to sail it back—but after a storm, the two ships were separated. When Ellen Austin located the vessel again, it was once more empty. The salvage crew had disappeared. The mystery of the "ghost ship" remains unsolved.
Witchcraft image from Bermuda Attractions.
5. The Witchcraft – A Yacht That Vanished Close to Shore (1967). On December 22, 1967, experienced sailor Dan Burack and his friend, Father Patrick Horgan, took their cabin cruiser Witchcraft out from Miami. Less than a mile offshore, Burack called the Coast Guard saying they’d hit something—but weren’t sinking. A rescue team arrived just 20 minutes later. Nothing. No boat. No wreckage. Not even a life vest. It was as if the sea had swallowed them whole—just yards from the city’s skyline.
6. The Carroll A. Deering – The Crew That Disappeared (1921). The five-masted schooner Carroll A. Deering ran aground on Diamond Shoals, just off Cape Hatteras, in January 1921. The ship was abandoned, sails set, meals prepared. But the crew was missing. The ship had recently sailed through the Bermuda Triangle. Theories ranged from piracy to mutiny—but no official conclusion was ever reached.
7. The Douglas DC-3 Flight NC16002 – A Silent Disappearance (1948). On December 28, 1948, a Douglas DC-3 with 32 people aboard disappeared while flying from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Miami. Last contact was made just 50 miles from destination. No SOS was issued. Although small maintenance issues were later cited, they didn’t explain the total disappearance. Despite a massive search, no trace was ever found.
Sulphur Queen image from Wikipedia.
8. The SS Marine Sulphur Queen – A Tanker Lost to the Deep (1963). The Marine Sulphur Queen, a 524-foot tanker carrying molten sulfur, vanished in February 1963 near the southern edge of the Bermuda Triangle. All 39 crew were lost. A few fragments of wreckage were found, but no sign of the ship’s main hull or crew. Structural instability may have played a role, but the ship’s final fate remains unknown.
9. Bruce Gernon’s Time Tunnel – A Survivor’s Account (1970). Pilot Bruce Gernon claims to have survived a bizarre atmospheric phenomenon over the Triangle in December 1970. While flying from Andros Island to Florida, he encountered an odd tunnel-shaped cloud. As he passed through it, his plane’s instruments malfunctioned, and time seemed to distort. He arrived in Miami 30 minutes earlier than physics should have allowed. Gernon believes he passed through an “electronic fog,” possibly explaining other disappearances. His story remains controversial—but he’s alive to tell it.
10. The Rubicon – Crewless but Intact (1944). In October 1944, the 200-foot Cuban merchant ship Rubicon was found drifting off the coast of Florida. It had food laid out, personal belongings untouched, and everything in working order—except its crew. No distress call had been made. Oddly, the ship’s only passenger was a dog—alive and unharmed. The Rubicon had last been seen passing through the Bermuda Triangle. The fate of its crew remains a mystery to this day.
So Why Don’t We Hear About the Bermuda Triangle Anymore?
The legend of the Bermuda Triangle hasn't exactly vanished—but it has quieted. Here's why:
1. Advances in Navigation and Communication. Modern aircraft and ships are equipped with GPS, satellite tracking, emergency beacons, and instant communication systems. Situations that once left crews helpless and untraceable can now often be resolved or tracked in real time.
2. Rational Explanations for Past Events. Many famous Triangle incidents have been reexamined with modern science. Rogue waves, sudden weather shifts, methane hydrates, and magnetic anomalies are now seen as likely explanations for many vanishings once attributed to the supernatural. Human error, especially in pre-GPS eras, played a major role. Flight 19, for example, likely went down after a navigation error led the pilots far off course.
3. It’s Not an Official “Place”. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names doesn’t recognize the Bermuda Triangle as a real geographical area. There's no boundary, no official coordinates—just folklore. That makes it difficult to treat it as a region with meaningful statistics or trends, especially compared to other busy ocean routes that also see disappearances.
4. Media Attention Has Moved On. From the 1950s through the 1980s, the Bermuda Triangle was a hot topic in books, documentaries, and tabloids. But by the 1990s, focus shifted to other mysteries: aliens, Bigfoot, ancient aliens, conspiracies, and true crime. As scientific scrutiny grew and the mystery lost some of its punch, the Triangle simply faded from headlines.
Despite the decline in coverage, the Bermuda Triangle hasn't given up all its secrets. Hundreds of lives were lost in baffling circumstances. Some wrecks have never been found. And strange accounts—like Bruce Gernon’s—still surface from time to time.
With new underwater drones, sonar mapping, and AI-powered search tools, future generations may yet uncover hidden wrecks or forgotten stories deep beneath the surface. But for now, the Bermuda Triangle remains what it always was: a vast, mysterious expanse of ocean—still watching, still waiting.
