looking at the time line of events that occurred, my opinion is that incidents occurred due to the combination of poor navigation tool, human error and bad weather.

due to the lack of navigation tools and gps at that period of time, sailors, pilots were taught to trust their own senses if they believe the information provided by the navigation tool of their time is inaccurate.

so, when there was anything abnormal such as something that resemble a island or shape of something that appears to be similar to some other location, sailors and pilot would probably think they were there even when they were not causing them to be lost.

then supply of fuel, food ran out and bad weather equals missing planes and ships.