Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki is convinced: he’s solved the age-old mystery of the Bermuda triangle. And the answer is…there is no mystery!
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No mystery at all—only novel-worthy exaggerations all stemming from one particular event: the 1945 disappearance of a military aircraft that was surveilling the zone. “It didn’t vanish without a trace” explains the scientist, hugely popular in his home country of Australia, in an interview with Australian media outlet news.com.au last July 21st.
“According to Lloyds of London and the US coast guard, the number of planes that go missing in the Bermuda Triangle is the same as anywhere in the world on a percentage basis,” he continues.
According to him, the military engine that vanished in 1945 was simply the victim of bad weather or a piloting accident. Same for the other five that disappeared the same year, apparently due to a lack of fuel thanks to a miscalculation by the squadron’s leader, lieutenant Charles Taylor.
“Taylor arrived with a hangover, flew off without a watch, and had a history of getting lost and ditching his plane twice before,” Kruszelnicki describes.
The rest of the mystery is attributed to the author Charles Berlitz, a paranormal phenomena enthusiast whose most famous book, The Bermuda Triangle—which has sold over 20 million copies since its publication in 1974—introduced the world to the legend of this notorious region.
But the book was also criticised for its “partial presentation of facts, as well as a lack of scientific source material,” as its Wikipedia page states.
