The Bermuda Triangle entered popular imagination in the 1960s and 1970s. Writers compiled lists of ships and aircraft that had vanished in the region - some dating back to the 19th century. The losses were attributed to everything from magnetic anomalies to alien abduction to portals in time.

The most famous incident was Flight 19, a group of five U.S. Navy torpedo bombers that disappeared during a training mission on December 5, 1945. All 14 crew members were lost, along with 13 more aboard a search plane that exploded. The compasses had allegedly malfunctioned. Radio communications were confused. The planes simply vanished.

Writers catalogued dozens of mysterious disappearances. The USS Cyclops, a Navy cargo ship, vanished in 1918 with 306 aboard - the largest non-combat loss of life in Navy history. The SS Marine Sulphur Queen, a tanker, disappeared in 1963 with 39 crew. The yacht Witchcraft vanished in 1967 just a mile from Miami.

Each incident was presented as inexplicable. Ships vanished without distress calls. No wreckage was found. The waters seemed to swallow vessels whole. The cumulative effect was terrifying - an area of ocean where normal rules didn't apply.

Skeptical investigators found the mystery far less mysterious. Many 'vanished' ships were later found sunk in storms. The Triangle includes some of the most heavily traveled shipping and air routes in the world - more traffic means more accidents. The area is prone to sudden, violent storms. The Gulf Stream can disperse wreckage far from the site of an incident.

Flight 19's loss is explicable: the flight leader became disoriented in bad weather over featureless ocean, rejected his students' correct navigational suggestions, and led the flight further out to sea until they ran out of fuel. The search plane exploded - a known hazard for that aircraft type.

Insurance companies don't charge higher rates for ships transiting the Triangle. Lloyd's of London found no evidence of unusual losses. The U.S. Coast Guard stated that 'the majority of disappearances can be attributed to the unique features of the area's environment.'

Many incidents attributed to the Triangle actually occurred outside its loosely defined borders. Some 'mysterious disappearances' never happened at all - researchers couldn't verify the existence of ships that supposedly vanished. The Triangle's fearsome reputation rests on selective reporting and exaggeration.

Despite debunking, the Bermuda Triangle myth endures. Books, documentaries, and films continue to promote the mystery. The Triangle has become embedded in popular culture - a shorthand for unexplained disappearance, a modern Atlantis where the rules of nature don't apply.

The persistence of the myth says more about human psychology than about the ocean. We want to believe in mysteries. We resist mundane explanations. The idea that a patch of ocean can swallow ships is more compelling than the reality that storms and human error cause maritime accidents everywhere. The Bermuda Triangle is a legend we choose to keep believing.