How dangerous is The Bermuda Triangle?

You can't argue with statistics.

Despite the popular notion of The Bermuda Triangle being extremely treacherous for ships and aircraft, it turns out to be no more or less so than any other similarly sized areas. In fact, it's not even among the top 10 most dangerous places for ships and aircraft.

Livescience has crunched the numbers.

Until 5 planes disappeared in 1945, it was not considered a special region at all, and it was only coined "The Bermuda Triangle" in 1964 by Vincent Gaddis. It seems this name is the clue to it's infamy, because once it stuck, the rumours just grew and grew.

Storms

It's also called the Devil's Triangle and Hurricane Alley. It's situated amongst the busiest shipping lanes on the planet, yet all most people know it for is the unexplained disappearance of many ships and aircraft.

The paranormal theories mainly focus on UFO's. There's a famous report of Christoper Columbus encountering one in the region when in 1492 when he first sailed across the Atlantic, and although some historians now believe this was a light on an island, other are not so sure.

They sailed that day and night 27 leagues and a few more on their route west. And on this night, at the beginning of it, they saw a marvelous branch of fire fall from the sky into the sea, distant from them four or five leagues.

-- Diario of Christopher Columbus, Sunday, September 15, 1492

The region does have the average number of tropical storms and hurricanes, but one thing to consider is that in the past the radar, communications and guidance systems they employed were significantly inferior to those we see today. Many of the disappearances over time can now be linked to storm activity in the area, but that won't stop those who truly believe ...