South Atlantic Anomaly Also called Bermuda Triangle in Space. One of the most dangerous areas of radiation ever encountered. It is an area where the Earth's inner Van Allen radiation belt comes closest to the Earth's surface dipping down to an altitude of 200 km (124 mi). This place creates havoc with satellites and spacecrafts. Astronauts' on the space shuttle complained laptop computers would sometimes crash when they passed through the anomaly. NASA satellites that travel in this region are shut down, or go into SAFE mode to avoid damage while passing over the Atlantic between Brazil and Africa. Many are of the believe that it is the reason behind the crash of Air France flight 447 of June 2009, in which 228 people died.