Flight 19 was the designation of a group of five General Motors TBM Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle on December 5, 1945, after losing contact during a United States Navy overwater navigation training flight from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida. All 14 airmen on the flight were lost, as were all 13 crew members of a Martin PBM Mariner flying boat that subsequently launched from Naval Air Station Banana River to search for Flight 19. A report by Navy investigators concluded that flight leader Lt. Charles C. Taylor mistook small islands offshore for the Florida Keys after his compasses stopped working, resulting in the flight heading over open sea and away from land. The report was later amended by the Navy to read “cause unknown” to avoid blaming Taylor for the loss of five aircraft and 14 men. The report attributed the loss of the PBM aircraft to an explosion in mid-air while searching for the flight.
Appearance List Article: “Great Hunt On For 27 Navy Fliers Missing In Five Planes Off Florida” in The New York Times (December 7, 1945), “Wide Hunt For 27 Men In Six Navy Planes” in The Washington Post (December 7, 1945), “Fire Signals Seen In Area Of Lost Men” in The Washington Post (December 9, 1945), “Same Big World, Sea’s Puzzles Still Baffle Men In Pushbutton Age” by Edward Van Winkle Jones in The Miami Herald (September 17, 1950), “The Mystery of the Lost Patrol: Five planes disappeared without trace on a peacetime flight” by Allan W. Eckert in American Legion magazine (April 1962), “Sea Mystery at Our Back Door” by George X. Sand in Fate Magazine (Oct 1952) [SMU Physics], “The Deadly Bermuda Triangle” by Vincent Gaddis in the pulp magazine Argosy (February 1964). Book: Invisible Horizons by Vincent Gaddis (1965), Limbo of the Lost by John Wallace Spencer (1969), The Bermuda Triangle by Charles Berlitz (1974), The Devil’s Triangle by Richard Winer (1974), The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved by Larry Kusche (1975). Podcast: Astonishing Legends: Episode 64 Electronic Fog, Astonishing Legends: Episode 65-67 Flight 19, Astonishing Legends: Episode 67B Bonus Flight 19 and Remote Viewing.
Description Flight 19 was the designation of a group of five General Motors TBM Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle on December 5, 1945, after losing contact during a United States Navy overwater navigation training flight from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida. All 14 airmen on the flight were lost, as were all 13 crew members of a Martin PBM Mariner flying boat that subsequently launched from Naval Air Station Banana River to search for Flight 19. A report by Navy investigators concluded that flight leader Lt. Charles C. Taylor mistook small islands offshore for the Florida Keys after his compasses stopped working, resulting in the flight heading over open sea and away from land. The report was later amended by the Navy to read “cause unknown” to avoid blaming Taylor for the loss of five aircraft and 14 men. The report attributed the loss of the PBM aircraft to an explosion in mid-air while searching for the flight.
