By Muhammed Huzaifa, Student at BCP Potohar, E1
We all have heard these absurd stories about this mysterious place—the Bermuda Triangle—where boats, planes, and what else not goes missing.. And the explanations range from “It might be aliens”, or ‘it’s a portal to another universe thing’ to the sciency ones like ‘there are distortions in its magnetic field’ or ‘huge methane blowout create a suction area that eats up anything around it.
But well.. That’s not it.
The answer is pretty simple (and disappointing, lol). This triangle is not much different from any other spot on the ocean. Let me explain.. First, let’s zoom out and look at the casualties that occur at sea. Below is a map showing navigational accidents. (the Bermuda triangle is from Florida to Bermuda to Puerto Rico)
20 years of data of sea casualties has shown that there is absolutely nothing out of the ordinary about this region. In fact, it’s not even up on the list of the top most dangerous sea regions! Perhaps this is because this supposedly dangerous place is a no go to zone for ships and planes? Well, that’s not true either! Thousands of vessels pass through it on a regular basis.
Those green lines show maritime traffic, while the black triangle is the bermuda triangle. If it was as dangerous as they want you to believe then these vessels wouldn’t dare to move through!
It’s not as tantalizing as the stories that we have heard.
Over 8000 boats have recently passed through the Bermuda triangle; there were only two casualties, i.e. 0.02% of the boats that pass through here had an accident. In retrospect, the global average for sea casualties is about 2% (in 2021). Yes, the incidents did in fact occur but they are nothing unusual; we are in essence taking a handful of events over a long period of time and then presenting it as proof and then making up eccentric stories about it. This is one of those things that go on to show how we love making stuff up and how the narrow image is often portrayed as very misleading but it is in reality the bigger picture where the answer lies.