Two life preservers and a foghorn with the name "S.S. Marine Sulphur Queen" painted on them are examined by Coast Guardsmen
The US Navy immediately opened an investigation into the missing Avengers, as well as the PBM-Mariner sent to search for them. This latter plane was widely held to have exploded in mid-air – a hypothesis reinforced by the testimony of Captain Shonna Stanley of the SS Gaines Mills: he saw a ball of fire in the sky at exactly the time when the search plane went missing.
As for the Avengers, it was concluded that human error and compass malfunction caused the tragedy. Lieutenant Taylor had wrongly believed himself to be over the Florida Keys; each change of course took his formation further out to sea. And although he had clocked up many flying hours, he had previously been based in Miami and was unfamiliar with the Fort Lauderdale topography.
One by one, the Bermuda Triangle’s supposed mysteries have been solved. The Connemara IV’s crew was not abducted by aliens. The ship was washed out to sea (without its crew) during a hurricane. And the two missing Stratotankers collided and crashed in the Atlantic.
When Lloyds of London was asked to investigate losses in the Bermuda Triangle, they found no evidence to suggest that they were higher than in any other area of ocean. The United States Coast Guard concurred: it said that losses over the years have been negligible when compared to the number of vessels and airplanes that regularly traverse the area.
Such prosaic explanations were never going to satisfy the conspiracy theorists. Vincent Gaddis refused to accept the investigation’s findings into Flight 19 and set to work on his supposition that supernatural forces were responsible. “Whatever this menace that lurks within a triangle of tragedy so close to home, it was responsible for the most incredible mystery in the history of aviation.”
The fact that Flight 19’s compasses were faulty, that Lieutenant Taylor was lost and that the planes had run out of fuel, was of little matter. The planes had disappeared. And the Bermuda Triangle was born.