Maybe Paul Allen's team will look for these planes some day.

The Mysterious Disappearance of Flight 19:
Take a look back at one of the most perplexing mysteries in aviation history.

by EVAN ANDREWS

UPDATED:SEP 1, 2018ORIGINALEC 4, 2015

It began as nothing more than a routine training flight. At 2:10 p.m. on December 5, 1945, five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers took off from a Naval Air Station in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The planes—collectively known as “Flight 19”—were scheduled to tackle a three-hour exercise known as “Navigation Problem Number One.” Their triangular flight plan called for them to head east from the Florida coast and conduct bombing runs at a place called Hens and Chickens Shoals. They would then turn north and proceed over Grand Bahama Island before changing course a third time and flying southwest back to base. Save for one plane that only carried two men, each of the Avengers was crewed by three Navy men or Marines, most of whom had logged around 300 hours in the air. The flight’s leader was Lieutenant Charles C. Taylor, an experienced pilot and veteran of several combat missions in World War II’s Pacific Theater.

At first, Flight 19’s hop proceeded just as smoothly as the previous 18 that day. Taylor and his pilots buzzed over Hens and Chickens Shoals around 2:30 p.m. and dropped their practice bombs without incident. But shortly after the patrol turned north for the second leg of its journey, something very strange happened. For reasons that are still unclear, Taylor became convinced that his Avenger’s compass was malfunctioning and that his planes had been flying in the wrong direction. The troubles only mounted after a front blew in and brought rain, gusting winds and heavy cloud cover. Flight 19 became hopelessly disoriented. “I don’t know where we are,” one of the pilots said over the radio. “We must have got lost after that last turn...”

Complete article:

https://www.history.com/news/t...earance-of-flight-19

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sigmund,

1945, not 1946

Even Paul Allen's group needed a reasonable start point for the search. "Somewhere off Florida or maybe in the Everglades" is not nearly precise enough.

I've been fascinated with that story ever since I heard about it as a child. It sparked the world's largest search and rescue effort, and even a search plane (a float plane with 13 crew) disappeared while looking. Not a scrap of wreckage was ever found. It's truly one of the great mysteries of the 20th century, and it's easy to see why it's been blamed on UFOs and/or the Bermuda Triangle. . .

Oh, and the plane that only had 2 out of 3 crewmen onboard - the third crewman REFUSED to fly that day, and no amount of threats could persuade him. He evidently had some kind of premonition.

I guess on the face of it I'm confused at all the supposed "mystery."

In 1945, only 43 years from the first flight and without the benefit of modern technology, some rookie pilots got lost and ditched in a very big ocean.

Heck, within the same article they talk about another flight of 5 Avengers whose wrecks were found only with different serial #s...makes it a not unheard of occurrence at that time and place yes? But since this flight "may" have gone in an area someone decades later called "The Bermuda Triangle" it's a big mystery whereas the others was just an accident and nobody cares...

From some of the stuff I have read recently, there are a few people believe the flight made landfall in either Florida or even in the Okefenokee Swamp, before crashing.
My money is on the ditch in the ocean scenario.

The Bermuda Triangle may soon be coming to a town near you! Claims are being made currently that as the magnetic poles are shifting more north, the Bermuda Triangle along with Bermudas large magnetic ocean deposits are shifting north along with it...This northern trend may have the triangle along the eastern seaboard near Georgia, South/North Carolina and Virginia. So, if things previously have been weird or strange in those areas, hold on to your hats, the Triangle may be coming to a town near you.

Bye, bye, triangle, will miss the stories down here in South Florida

I hope it keeps moving East and hopefully New Jersey and New York will be the next things to disappear into it.

It is very odd the circumstances regarding this flight. The flight leader seems to have not known geography of Florida and the Bahamas at all. He saw a group of islands and thought they were over the Florida keys, but the problem is that the entire Florida keys were connected by a highway and bridges in 1938 which would've easily been seen from the air. This is where they made the most fatal error. Florida is over 100 miles wide except South of Key Largo at the tip, so thinking they were in the Gulf of Mexico is really strange. My Guess is they were over the Abacos, just East of Grand Bahamas and they kept flying NE towards Bermuda and ended up in the ocean when they ran out of fuel. Why they didn't turn West is beyond me.

quote:

Originally posted by sigspecops:
I hope it keeps moving East and hopefully New Jersey and New York will be the next things to disappear into it.

Or DC.