Hoax Hunters: What is the Bermuda Triangle

We've been to several cities so far and it has been so much fun.

“Our next two stops are Atlanta and for Lauderdale.”

That's at the end of March. And then we just announced that we added Lawrence Kansas in May and Columbus, Ohio in June. We're also heading to Chattanooga, Durham, Milwaukee, Portland, Buffalo and Ann Arbor, Michigan. We hope you'll be able to join us at one of those shows. We can't wait to see you to get tickets and get more information.

You can head to brainson.org/events. That's brainson.org/events. You're listening to brainson, where we're serious about being curious. Have you ever been somewhere that just gives you the HEBGB's like a dark drippy basement? Or a stretch of woods that's unexplainably chilly and full of creepy shadows?

Or that aisle in the pharmacy where the magazines are?

All those smiling faces just staring at you, never blinking.

Where it's me out? But a warm sunny tropical ocean seems like a strange place for a chilling mystery, but that's exactly what's going on off the coast of Florida in an area called the Burmuda Triangle. Today, Mark and Zandon are back as the hoax hunters and they're investigating this stretch of spooky sea. They'll share some stories and separate the myths from the facts.

Stay tuned. Hello, friends. Here's some exciting news. At the end of this month, at the end of March, we are doing a smarty party.

“That's what we invite everyone who's a part of smarty pass to come to a virtual hang with me, Mark and Zandon.”

We'll play some games.

Guess some mysteries sounds.

We'll answer any questions you have and I will do a live reading of the brains on our role. Featuring the names of everyone who comes to the party. If you would like to come to this party, you could just join [email protected]. If you're a part of smartypass, you will be invited to the party. And if you can't make it live to the party, you can watch it after the fact.

Joining smartypass is a great way to support our shows and have some fun too. Again, that's smartypass.org. Thank you for your support. I love you. Coming to you from the deepest depths of the brains on basement, which is in fact dark and drippy.

But also kind of cozy and homey. Surrounded by artifacts of intrigue and suspense, like this chunk of lava from the deadly volcano. And a poster of the man-beast known as Bigfoot. And wrapped in fluffy blankets with cocoa. But the more spells are shaped like bats.

It's hoax hunters, hoax hunters. We like this, but we hate getting tricks, yeah. We like this, but we hate getting tricks, no doubt. We like this, but we hate getting tricks. We hate getting tricks, no we don't like it.

Welcome back. I'm Sandin. And I'm Mark. And together, we look into claims to be giling to believe. To odd, to accept. To Narlite and Nar.

And with us is our trusty sidekick, The Mystery Moose. Wait, where did that moose come from? Look, it's not important how I want a full-grown moose and a high-stakes game of go-fish. Or how I got it to live in our basement. And where a t-shirt that says Mystery Moose.

What is important is now we have a zany sidekick. We don't need another zany sidekick. We've got you. What? No, no, I'm the host. You're the co-host and Mystery Moose is the sidekick.

Here to add fun and whimsy. Add some fun and whimsy, Mystery Moose.

“Uh, so is Mystery Moose supposed to be eating your Bigfoot poster?”

What? No, no Mystery Moose? No. That's a vintage black light render of the famous Patterson Gimlin Sasquatch photo. And now it's Moose, Chao. Uh, fine, fine, you know what? That's not important. You keep being fun and whimsy on Mystery Moose.

Today's episode was inspired by something a listener sent us. Aloha, my name is Kai. I live in Pondalu. My question is why do you ship something to disappear under the triangle?

What have you heard about the triangle?

“Stuff stops working when you're going through the area”

and it's very hard to escape and things disappear. I like thinking about mysteries like this. Us too, buddy. Us too. Zabermita triangles in area of water in the Atlantic Ocean. But it isn't an official place.

You won't find it on a map. If you drew a line connecting San Juan Puerto Rico to the island of Bermuda. Uh-huh. Then down to Miami, Florida.

Okay. And then back to San Juan. I'm listening. It makes a triangle. That's roughly the area people are talking about.

It's a spot where, according to legend, boats, planes, and people mysteriously disappear leaving no trace. And that part is true.

“Ships and planes have gone missing in the Bermuda triangle.”

Here's one of the most famous examples. It was December of 1945. Men dressed in fitted suits. Women in Mihai skirts pair with shoulder padded jackets. Radio was the hot ticket for home entertainment,

where people would listen to swing music and crunters like Bing Crosby and Andrew's sisters. World War II had just ended. And America and its allies came out on top. Over in Florida, a group of five Navy fighter planes

were about to take off for a routine training mission. They were called Flight 19. Flight 19 ready for take off.

Everything was normal for the first part of the flight.

But as they started the second leg, things got weird. One of the pilots radioed a nearby plane saying, "I don't know where we are. We must have gotten lost at that last turn." The pilot asked for more details.

Someone from Flight 19 replied, "Uh, both of my compasses are out.

“And I'm trying to find Fort Lauderdale, Florida.”

I'm over land, but the girl again." This was alarming. The pilots should have known exactly where to go. They tried a few different things to get back on track, but no luck.

They were confused. Lost. Eventually, people on land were notified. And bases and boats were asked to start looking for the planes. Where were they?

The weather got worse. The sun was setting. The radio signal was cutting in and out. And the pilots of Flight 19 were running low on fuel. A few land-based radio stations managed to pick up their location.

They were north of the Bahamas and well off the coast of Florida. Way off track. The planes changed course again. But no matter what they did, they couldn't find the shore. It was like they were trapped at sea.

Fuel and time were running out. Eventually, a final message came through. All planes closed up tight. We'll have to ditch and let's land fall. When the first plane dropped full of sand gallons,

it'd be all low down together.

The planes were never seen again.

Weirder still, another plane was sent out to look for the missing flight. It too disappeared. Ah, mystery moose. Don't sneak up on a guy like that. Also, you're very quiet for a moose.

How does he do it? It's a mystery. Or it's the little moose booties I knitted for him. They look great on your pal. Coming up, we'll talk about how this story helped create the lore of the permuda triangle.

Plus, we've got some pretty solid theories about what really happened. But first, it's Molly. Here with a different kind of mystery. Hey, Hulk's onters. Thanks for inviting me into your layer.

Cool moose. Anyway, it's time for the... Let's see if you two can figure this one out. Are you ready? Oh yeah, oh yeah, please.

Always ready for a mystery down here at Hulk's 10 or 10 quarters.

Here it is. What do you guys think? Hmm. It sounded outside. And it sounded like to me some sort of shoveling.

Yeah, I got digging gravel. I thought, I don't know if it's just because my head is in a marine mystery. But I thought it was like somebody cleaning out a fish tank and that little gravel. That's like really brightly colored and looks like candy. You can't be able to not put it in your mouth.

and they were scooping it out with a shovel.

“That would also explain there's kind of like a constant hum behind it.”

So like maybe like an aquarium motor. Hmm. But I didn't hear water. So it would have to be like an empty aquarium. Yeah, that's interesting.

Can we hear it again, Molly? Yeah. Can we hear it again, Molly? Yeah. All right.

Okay. Okay. I definitely think it's outdoors. It's not in an aquarium. Yeah.

Because I heard like also like insects or something like a cicada or something. Hmm. I don't know why, but I feel like it's corn kernels. Like shoveling corn kernels and does something. I like it.

That's where my mind goes.

“I think someone's filling up a pale with gravel.”

I haven't decided why yet. Yeah. I don't know why they're digging corn either, but hey, I dig corn. Okay. Excellent guesses, you too.

I'm not going to tell you what it is yet. I'll be back with the answer at the end of the show. Later, I can stand in. Bye. Do you have a question for the hoax honours?

Maybe there's a mystery on your mind. Like a lost city or a cryptic creature. Or do you have something that seems a little too hard to believe? Like if you keep making silly faces, your face is going to get stuck that way.

Or the dogs always poop along the north south axis.

“Whatever you're wondering, send it to us.”

We might investigate it in a future episode. And of course, we love fan art. Send us your drawings, too. Yeah. Draw us with mystery moves, writing majestically on his antlers.

Ooh, with blankets in hot cocoa. Just go to brainson.org/contact to get in touch. Thanks. We're back with hoax honours. We're back with hoax honours.

Get hoaxed. We're talking about the Bermuda Triangle, a large patch of ocean between Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and Florida. And flight 19, a group of military planes that mysteriously vanished without a trace. A few years after that fateful flight, a reporter from the newspaper called the Miami-Herald, wrote an article titled, "Seize Puzzles, don't everman in push but niche."

It collected a bunch of different stories of boats and planes disappearing in the waters around Florida, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.

Like passenger planes that never reached their destination,

and a freight ship that disappeared after loading up with cargo. It is the same world the agents knew, into which men and their machines and chips had disappeared, without a trace. This article was mostly grounded in fact. And it just simply pointed out that, despite improving technology, planes and boats could still get lost at sea.

But it sparked the imagination of other writers. Soon, a magazine called Fate wrote their own version of the story. Fate was known for writing about paranormal stuff like aliens and monsters and psychic abilities. It was more fun fiction than heart facts. But this story of a triangle-shaped mystery zone caught on.

Soon, more magazines and papers were talking about the Bermuda triangle. They began adding fake quotes from the pilots of Flight 19 to make the story even spook here. "We can't find West. Everything is wrong. We can't be sure of any direction. Everything looks strange. Even the ocean looks like we're entering the white water."

"Don't come after us. They look like they're for the outer space." After all that hullabaloo, it was only a matter of time before people came up with their own theories on why things kept disappearing. Some say the area is an interstellar gateway that there's a portal connecting Earth to distant galaxies. aliens use that to travel to and from our planet. Ships and planes disappear when they accidentally slip through. Others say that patch devotion sits above the lost city of Atlantis.

That's a mythical kingdom that had technology way beyond what we know. And some argue that special energy crystals from this sunken world mess with navigation equipment. Another idea is that the Bermuda triangle is home to a time vortex and that people can slip through time there.

Either way, the travelers leave those of us in the present with no trace of their whereabouts.

“These are all pretty cool stories, but we at Hokesunders headquarters have a motto, which goes a little like this.”

Shall we be a close? As we've mentioned in other episodes, we don't have any proof of aliens. Plus, there are lots of ships and planes and satellites that watch the Bermuda triangle. After all, there are a lot of hurricanes in that area. So if UFOs were popping in and out willy-milly, we probably wouldn't have spotted them.

We also have no proof of Atlantis. The Atlantic Ocean is really deep in some places, and there's lots of stuff down there that we haven't seen yet. But from everything we have seen, we've got no reason to think there's a lot of city. And the idea of time travel is super cool.

But seems super unlikely given everything we know about time and physics.

Plus, it turns out there are much more obvious explanations. We'll tell you about that in just a minute.

“But first, sand it, I think mystery moves is trying to get your attention.”

Oh, is that what keeps poking me insisting on the back? Yeah, what do you mean, pal? Oh, gosh, he wants to cuddle. Oh, he's curling up in your lap. I can't breathe.

Go to mailbag. Hello, Molly here with the mailbag. Today I'm going to put on my fancy barat and turtle neck because things are getting artsy. Fartsy up in here. Okay, I have a very awesome piece of fan art drawn by Aradana in Bangalore, India.

I'm going to describe it for you. This is very appropriate for an episode featuring the hoax hunters because Aradana has drawn a spaceship with an alien inside of it. The alien is saying today is Friday the 13th. And guess what, the alien is beaming me up so I am being sucked up into this spaceship.

I am holding a brains-on flag. I've got a very cool ponytail and I'm saying not my lucky day. And then below me on the ground, looking up is a sun singing solar eclipse. Next to the sun is a moon going moon eclipse. And then we have a cat, a mummified cat.

And the cat is saying, "I'm a mummified cat." And then next to the cat is an Egyptian tomb. And coming out of that is a word bubble that says, "My cat can talk." And then next to that is a dog who has a balloon.

But of course, this is an amazing drawing.

Thank you so much for sending it to us. If you have a drawing or a joke or a question to share with us, get in touch. Head to brainson.org/contact and send it in. We can't wait to hear from you.

“Want to hear brainson forever go and smash boom best without the ad breaks?”

Just head to brainson.org and sign up for SmartyPass. It helps support our show and gives you ad free versions of all of our stuff. Plus bonus episodes invites to our book club and smarty parties and more. Thank you so much. We're back with Hoax Hunters.

I'm Sandin and I'm Mark. And our zany sidekick mystery moves is over there sleeping on our inflated mattress. Excuse me, sleeping on our deflated mattress. We last left off talking about how the story of missing planes and boats in the Atlantic Ocean led to a myth called The Bermuda Triangle.

People came up with all kinds of theories as to what was happening from aliens to time travel. But it turns out there's a simpler explanation. Sometimes accidents happen. Let's take flight 19 as an example. Those pilots got lost on a simple mission.

But there are some clues as to what happened. Mainly, the lead pilot mentioned that he thought they were flying over the Florida Keys. But those islands are on the opposite side of Florida. Not in the Atlantic, but in the Gulf of Mexico. Flight 19 wasn't supposed to be flying anywhere near the Florida Keys.

So it doesn't really make sense that they'd be there. But the lead pilot had previously been stationed near the Keys and was used to flying there. So it's easy to imagine that he got confused and thought the Bahama Islands in the Atlantic Ocean

This also explains why the pilot flew east.

“If you're in the Gulf of Mexico, you'd fly east to get to Florida.”

But since the planes were in the Atlantic, flying east just took them further out to sea. There were other errors made by the pilots too. One of the pilots even suggested that they just fly west to find land. Which probably would have worked. But the lead pilot refused and the rest followed orders.

The Navy reviewed this and they thought it was probably just a tragic case of someone getting lost and choosing the wrong way to fly home. The plane that got lost searching for flight 19 was said to have some mechanical issues before it left. And there are reports, people saw flames in the sky shortly after takeoff. It likely exploded, which is terrible, but not paranormal.

And with pretty much every other example of a lost plane or ship, there are reasonable explanations from storms to running out of fuel.

And the Atlantic Ocean is deep, so it makes sense that the remains from the accidents were sunk and never found.

But we should stress. These accidents happen a long time ago. And traveling in planes and boats is actually very safe. And even though these accidents are rare, if you collected all of them in one story, it might look like a lot. But even if you did that, the Bremuda Triangle wouldn't even be the most dangerous part of the ocean.

And most of the accidents involve cargo ships, so it's not aliens. Sorry aliens. It's flying like... The US Navy and Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration have all stated the triangle isn't mysteriously dangerous. It's just a normal patch of ocean.

Part of what happened here is likely something called a confirmation bias.

That's where you look for examples that confirm or agree with your bias or your opinion.

Like only looking at cases where a craft went missing. And ignoring all the many, many, many, many, many cases where nothing weird happened at all. If you're just looking for examples that confirm your bias, you'll miss the truth. So the legend of the Bremuda Triangle doesn't add... Bremuda Triangle...

Okay. That's the scoop. And speaking of scoop, Sandin.

“I think mystery moose just left a mystery mess behind the furnace.”

Oh, oh, that is no mystery. Yeah, I'll scoop that up and take it out. Remind me to read up on how to potty train your basement moose later. Ooh. Oh, until next time, hunters.

Stay skeptical! The Bremuda Triangle is a stretch of water in the Atlantic Ocean. It was made famous after an article listed off a bunch of planes and ships that disappeared there. magazines took this idea and ran with it, adding fake quotes and supernatural explanations. But in reality, it's just an ordinary patch of water that's no more dangerous than the rest.

That's it for this episode of Brainson. This episode was produced by me, Molly Blue, Mark Sanchez and Sandin Totten. It was sound-designed by Mark Sanchez, who also wrote our theme music. Special thanks to Andy to set and Ken to Borske at Coda the North for all of their website help. Mark and Sandin. Are you ready for that mystery sound again?

Oh, bring it on. I've been waiting the whole episode. Wonderful. Okay, fellas. Here.

It is. Let me refresh your memories last time you thought it was outside. Mark thought corn, Sandin thought gravel.

“Okay, so have you ever been to a playground that has those kind of digger toys?”

Like they're like small versions. Like you said, you sit on it and you kind of like put that digger into the sand or whatever. So it sounds like that is what's happening to me. I'm getting, that's the picture that I'm that's unfolding before my ear eyes. All right. Yeah, I still think it's somebody shoveling gravel into a cup.

And I think they're by an AC unit. I think the humming, the mechanical humming is like a red herring because it's just thrown you off. But they're just outdoors by the side of the house where there's like an AC unit, but they're shoveling. They're picking up gravel from like the side of their yard. You know, maybe where they have like walking stones or something and a nice little like tea table set up for gardening.

And they're just putting gravel in a cup because they wanted a gravel cup. Sure. Of course. That said, I still hear corn. I don't know what. I've got corn on the brain.

It's a pretty corny guy. So he is a corny guy. You guys ready for the answer?

Yeah. Okay. Here's the answer.

“Hi. My name is Rosemary and my name is Noah.”

And that was the sound of cutting bird seed in the fetus.

Oh, oh. Yeah. The bird seed there might be corn in the bird seed. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Of course. Obviously.

So what birds don't like corn? You are correct with your corn. I'm going to say. Mm-hmm. And you weren't.

But you still have a couple of things.

Yeah. They were scooping. So I think like you're.

“And I was right about the mechanical sound being a red herring being a totally unrelated to the sound.”

Excellent. Guess is you two, hoax owners. Thank you, Molly. Thanks, Molly. It's so fun being the guesser.

It is. Yeah. Now it's time for the brains honor role.

These are the incredible kids who keep the show going with their questions.

Ideas mystery sounds, drawings and high fives.

“Justin from Orlando, Florida, Joseph Jesse and Josie from Toledo,”

his lead in Connor from Framingham, Massachusetts, Adrian and Trillion from Portland, Oregon, Ruby from Handwell, New Friendswick, Everley from Carnegie Missouri, Trent from Del Martin, New York, Bihon from Mountain View, California, Illinois from Highland Park, New Jersey, and I love from Indonesia, Connor and Celine from Boston. Both from Tampa, Florida, Iowa from Melbourne, Australia,

Hannah from Mount Burgess, Ontario, Eli from RSC, Bo Puerto Rico, Ollie from Cool and Beach, Australia, Sofia from Susay, Murray, Ontario. Conrad and Shay from Awutana, Minnesota, Phillip Hudson and Rowan from Tucson, Arizona, Sydney from Tacoma Park, Maryland, Moses from Princeton, New Jersey, Esther and Benny from Baltimore, Greta from Maryland and Maryland.

Jack and William from Richmond, Virginia. Sierra and Si from Baleena, Killa, Lowe, Ireland, Ethan from Temecula, California, Katie from Ada, Ohio, Ruby and Evelyn from Johnson, Rhode Island, Gordon from Seattle. Jonah from Los Angeles, Celine from Houston, Texas, Abby from Albany, Oregon, Elvara from Philips for Pennsylvania, Rosie, and Lyra from Houston, Texas,

Emma from West Lebanon, New Hampshire. Cole from Ellicott City, Maryland, Hope from Boston, Beta and Lucy from Cambridge, Ontario. Lucy from Boulder, Colorado, Levi from Texas, Thomas, Ivy and Willough from Eastern Massachusetts. Emily from Roswell, Georgia, Taylor from Berlin to Iowa, Alice from San Diego. Esther from Chicago, Lucy on a from SilverSpring, Maryland, Florence and Clifford from Montreal.

Could be her from White Bear Lake, Minnesota, Patrick from New York, Finn and Berkeley from Hastings, Nebraska, Angelica from New Carlyle, Ohio. Eva from Madison, Wisconsin, Rubin from Peterborough, New Hampshire, Seater from Rene on St. Cry Minnesota, Jack from Santa Barbara, California, Violet from St. Claude, Minnesota, William from Roswell, New York, Lucy, and Angelias from Brooklyn, New York,

and Shai from Cal and the Zoo, Michigan. We'll be back next week with an episode all about raspberries. Thanks for listening.