00:00You may have seen this viral video where YouTubers have hidden a treasure in the Bermuda Triangle
00:06and where a stranger had the audacity to go in search of it.
00:09He left with $10,000 in his pocket.
00:11But let's be realistic, his greatest triumph was probably to get out of it unscathed.
00:16This perilous maritime zone, located between Florida, Puerto Rico and the Bermudas,
00:22is sadly famous for its mysterious and unexplained events.
00:26It is said that more than 50 ships and about 20 planes have gone volatilized without a trace.
00:31This gave birth to many theories, according to which this region would be connected to mystical forces
00:37or to vortexes capable of dragging objects to other dimensions.
00:41However, an Australian scientist named Karl Krusselnicki
00:44could well have elucidated the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.
00:48According to him, most of the legends and these disturbing disappearances
00:52can be attributed to two main causes.
00:56The first factor put forward is human error.
00:58One of the theories refuted by Krusselnicki concerns the tragic flight of squadron 19.
01:03In 1945, 5 American Navy aircraft took off for a routine training mission in Florida.
01:10Everything seemed to be going smoothly, until after 90 minutes,
01:14the squadron commander reported that they had been lost.
01:17Then, suddenly, poof, they just disappeared.
01:22Despite one of the largest air and maritime research operations in history,
01:26no trace of squadron 19 or its 14 crew members has been found to date.
01:34What continues to amaze about this incident
01:37is that the weather conditions at the start were particularly favorable.
01:42A relatively hot day, light and cotton clouds scattering the sky,
01:47and a breeze coming from the southwest.
01:49Nothing out of the ordinary for a training mission.
01:52So, what really happened?
01:55It turns out that, although the squadron commander had accumulated more than 2,000 hours of flight,
02:00he was a rather poor pilot.
02:02To tell the truth, a really mediocre pilot.
02:05According to Krusselnicki, the commander was so bad at navigation
02:09that he had already got lost at sea at least twice before the episode of squadron 19.
02:14On this fateful day, he even tried to find someone to replace him.
02:18Without success, which unfortunately proved tragic for his entire squadron.
02:23After having conducted their flight exercise well,
02:26the two on-board compasses suddenly stopped working.
02:29On the radio frequency of the patrol, his anxious voice claimed that they were flying over land.
02:34More precisely, he was convinced that he was above the Florida Keys.
02:38Yet, this defied all logic.
02:40Less than an hour before, he had flown over, as planned, the bottom of Henson Chicken in the Bahamas.
02:46But he was now convinced that his plane had inexplicably drifted
02:50over several hundred kilometers to reach the Florida Keys.
02:54A monumental mistake.
02:57According to the most credible hypotheses,
02:59what he thought were the Florida Keys were actually just a group of small islands in the Bahamas.
03:05This is where things took a dramatic turn.
03:08Instead of correcting his trajectory and returning west towards Florida,
03:12he continued to fly east, venturing further into the Atlantic Ocean.
03:17Out of fuel, his plane crashed, and you already know the rest.
03:21Some supporters of alternative theories claim that an evil force had disturbed the two compasses,
03:27causing their malfunction above this allegedly cursed region.
03:32However, it must be admitted.
03:35Even if such a hypothesis turned out to be accurate,
03:37human error remains the determining factor in this tragedy.
03:43The pilot should never have confused the islands of the Bahamas with the Florida Keys.
03:48End of story.
03:49Now let's move on to the second factor, which, according to Kruzelnicki,
03:52explains a large part of the mysterious disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle.
03:56The unfavorable weather conditions.
03:59Many tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic directly cross the Bermuda Triangle.
04:05Before the era of advanced weather forecasts,
04:08these natural phenomena were responsible for the loss of many ships.
04:12In addition, the Gulf Stream, a powerful ocean current, also crosses the region.
04:18This current can cause sudden and sometimes spectacular weather changes.
04:23When thinking about it, these natural factors suffice to explain a large part,
04:28if not the majority, of the disappearances reported.
04:32Let's take the example of the USS Cyclops.
04:34In 1918, this cargo weighing 150 meters and carrying about 11,000 tons of manganese
04:41disappeared without a trace.
04:43It made a crossing between the Antilles and Baltimore with 309 people on board.
04:49What makes this disappearance even more disturbing
04:52is that no sign of distress has been issued.
04:54More than 100 years after the events, the mystery remains intact.
04:58No wreck has ever been found.
05:00Of course, this disappearance has led to all kinds of theories.
05:04One of the most common hypotheses
05:06is that it was caught in a sudden and violent storm.
05:09With its heavy load of manganese, the ship could have capsized and sank in record time.
05:14Others speculate on underwater phenomena, such as landslides or an accelerated wave.
05:23When you think about it, this hypothesis is not so far-fetched.
05:26According to Kruselnicki, the Bermuda Triangle is not only an area subject to storms.
05:31It also illustrates the raw power of the ocean.
05:34The seabed reaches impressive depths of nearly 9,000 meters,
05:38the inverse equivalent of Mount Everest.
05:40Such a depth makes the ocean particularly suitable for hiding objects,
05:45turning this region into an ideal place for mysterious ship and plane disappearances.
05:51Our expert indicates that there is a very low probability
05:54that even more unusual phenomena occur under the waves of the Bermuda Triangle,
05:59in connection with methane hydrate.
06:01This term refers to a compound similar to ice,
06:04which forms under water or in very cold environments,
06:07with methane trapped inside.
06:09Sometimes, these structures can disintegrate, releasing bubbles to the surface.
06:14And this rise in bubbles can be fatal, at least for ships.
06:19Experiments conducted on reduced-model ships
06:22have shown that when a large volume of bubbles rises to the surface,
06:26the density of the water decreases, which compromises the ability of a ship to float.
06:30If these bubbles quickly cover a large area,
06:33the ship can lose its floatability, making it capsize or sink.
06:37That said, the probability that such a scenario occurs remains extremely low.
06:42In the end, human error and unfavorable weather conditions
06:46are probably the two main factors behind the mysteries attributed to this allegedly evil sea.
06:52But in reality, the Bermuda Triangle is nothing extraordinary.
06:56Although this region is a considerable renown,
06:59there is no official map clearly delimiting its borders
07:03and affirming, here, precisely, where the Bermuda Triangle is located.
07:09This is also one of the reasons for the problem.
07:12Disappearances or unexplained events occurring well beyond this area
07:16are often wrongly associated with the Triangle, as was the case for the Mary Celeste.
07:21In 1872, this ship was found perfectly intact,
07:26but without a trace of its captain, its family, or its crew.
07:31Faced with this mystery, many have evoked the idea of a ghost ship
07:35linked to the Bermuda Triangle.
07:37However, one detail does not agree.
07:39The Mary Celeste had been abandoned about 650 km east of the Azores,
07:44in a completely different area from the Atlantic.
07:48At this stage, the famous triangle turned into a trapezium
07:52to include a huge portion of the North Atlantic.
07:55What we mean is that once people begin to believe in the existence of a dangerous area,
08:01the confirmation bias settles.
08:04However, the reality is that the Bermuda Triangle
08:07is daily crossed by considerable maritime and air traffic.
08:11And according to experts, the percentage of incidents that occur there
08:15would be globally similar to those observed elsewhere in the world.
08:19In some years, this figure may be slightly higher,
08:22sometimes lower, but on average it remains constant.
08:25With this perspective, it seems that it is time to leave behind us
08:29these extravagant theories about the Bermuda Triangle.
08:32At least, until the next strange disappearance occurs.
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