The Bermuda Triangle is an area of the Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under unknown circumstances. It covers over 1.5 million square miles off the coast of Florida. The origins of theories about strange disappearances in the area can be traced back to 1942 when Christopher Columbus reported his compass behaving strangely and seeing a fireball crash into the sea in the region. Later articles in the 1950s first suggested there was something supernatural about disappearances like that of Flight 19 and argued they were part of a pattern of strange events in the Bermuda Triangle.