Flight 19 was the name given to a group of five Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle on December 5, 1945. The aircraft were on a United States Navy training mission over water, departing from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida. All 14 pilots and crew members on the flight were lost, as were all 13 crew members of a Martin PBM Mariner plane that later took off from Naval Air Station Banana River to search for Flight 19.
A Navy investigation report stated that the flight leader, Lt. Charles C. Taylor, incorrectly believed small islands near the coast were the Florida Keys after his compasses stopped working. This mistake caused the flight to head toward open ocean instead of returning to land. The report was later changed by the Navy to say "cause unknown" to avoid placing blame on Lt. Taylor for the loss of the five planes and 14 people. The report also stated that the PBM plane was lost due to an explosion in the air while searching for Flight 19.
Navigation training flight
Flight 19 participated in a regular training mission that involved flying and navigation. The mission was called "Navigation Problem No. 1," which combined bombing practice with navigation exercises that other groups had completed or were planning to complete that day. The flight leader, Lieutenant Charles Carroll Taylor, had about 2,500 hours of flying experience, mostly in similar aircraft. His trainee pilots had 300 total hours and 60 hours flying the Avenger. Taylor had previously served in the Pacific as a torpedo bomber pilot on the USS Hancock and had recently arrived from NAS Miami, where he taught torpedo-bomber pilots. The trainee pilots had recently completed other training missions in the area where this flight was taking place. The trainees included U.S. Marine Captains Edward Joseph Powers and George William Stivers, U.S. Marine Second Lieutenant Forrest James Gerber, and U.S. Navy Ensign Joseph Tipton Bossi.
The aircraft involved were five Grumman TBF Avenger planes, built by General Motors under a wartime license. During World War II, the U.S. Navy used different names for planes based on the manufacturer: Grumman-built Avengers were called TBF, and General Motors-built Avengers were called TBM. The planes were fully fueled, and during pre-flight checks, it was discovered that none had clocks. Navigation required calculating time, and it was assumed that each pilot had a personal watch. Takeoff was scheduled for 1:45 p.m., but delays caused departure to begin at 2:10 p.m. Weather at NAS Fort Lauderdale was described as "favorable, with moderate to rough seas."
The exercise had three planned legs, with the flight completing four legs, the fourth being a return to NAS Fort Lauderdale after reaching the Florida coast. After takeoff, the group flew east for 56 nautical miles (64 miles or 104 kilometers) to Hens and Chickens Shoals, where low-level bombing practice occurred. The next leg was another 67 nautical miles (77 miles or 124 kilometers) on a heading of 346°, which would take them over Grand Bahama Island. The final leg was a 120-nautical-mile (140-mile or 220-kilometer) flight on a heading of 241°, after which the group would turn left to return to NAS Fort Lauderdale.
Radio communications between the pilots were monitored by the base and other nearby aircraft. Bombing practice was confirmed when a pilot requested permission to drop his last bomb at around 3:00 p.m. Forty minutes later, another instructor, Lieutenant Robert F. Cox, received an unclear radio transmission. A crew member asked Powers, one of the trainees, for his compass reading. Powers replied, "I don’t know where we are. We must have gotten lost after that last turn." Cox asked for help locating the group. Eventually, Taylor, the flight leader, responded, explaining that both of his compasses were not working and that he believed he was over land but was unsure of his location. He said he thought he was near the Florida Keys but did not know how far or how to return to Fort Lauderdale.
Cox informed the base that the aircraft were lost and advised Taylor to fly north along the coast with the sun on his left wing to reach Fort Lauderdale. The base then asked if Taylor’s plane had a standard YG (IFF) transmitter, which could help locate the group, but Taylor did not respond. Instead, at 4:45 p.m., Taylor reported, "We are heading 030 degrees for 45 minutes, then we will fly north to make sure we are not over the Gulf of Mexico." During this time, no location data could be obtained, and the IFF device could not be detected. Taylor was ordered to broadcast on 4805 kHz, but he did not respond. He was then asked to switch to 3000 kHz, a search and rescue frequency. Taylor replied, "I cannot switch frequencies. I must keep my planes intact."
At 4:56 p.m., Taylor was again asked to activate his YG transmitter, but he did not respond. Shortly after, he instructed his group, "Change course to 090 degrees (due east) for 10 minutes." Around the same time, someone in the group said, "If we could just fly west, we would get home; head west." This disagreement later raised questions about why the trainees did not fly west independently. It was explained that military discipline required following the leader’s orders. As weather worsened, radio contact became unreliable, and it was believed the group was more than 200 nautical miles (230 miles or 370 kilometers) out to sea, east of the Florida peninsula. Taylor requested a weather update at 5:24 p.m. By 5:50 p.m., land-based radio stations triangulated Flight 19’s position as being within a 100-nautical-mile (120-mile or 190-kilometer) radius of 29°N 79°W, north of the Bahamas and far from the Florida coast.
At 6:04 p.m., Taylor radioed, "Holding 270. We didn’t fly far enough east; we may as well just turn around and fly east again." By this time, the weather had worsened further, and the sun had set. Around 6:20 p.m., Taylor’s final message was received. (Some sources say this message was received at 7:04 p.m.) He said, "All planes close up tight… we’ll have to ditch unless landfall… when the first plane drops below 10 gallons [38 liters], we all go down together."
PBM-5 (Bureau Number 59225)
As it became clear the flight was lost, air bases, aircraft, and merchant ships were notified. A Consolidated PBY Catalina took off after 18:00 to search for Flight 19 and help guide them back if found. After dark, two Martin PBM Mariner flying boats that were originally planned for training flights were redirected to search in a square pattern near 29°N 79°W. US Navy Squadron Training No. 49 PBM-5 BuNo 59225 departed at 19:27 from Naval Air Station Banana River, sent a routine radio message at 19:30, and was never heard from again.
At 21:15, the tanker SS Gaines Mills reported seeing flames from an explosion that rose 100 ft (30 m) high and burned for 10 minutes at position 28°35′N 80°15′W. Captain Shonna Stanley searched unsuccessfully for survivors in an area covered with oil and aviation gasoline. The escort carrier USS Solomons also reported losing radar contact with an aircraft at the same location and time.
The PBM could carry 9.83 tonnes of aviation gasoline. Its flexible fuel lines were known to become loose in rough conditions, leading to gasoline leaks. The most likely cause was a mid-air explosion.
Investigation
A 500-page Navy investigation report published a few months later included several findings.
Later, the Navy changed the report "cause unknown" after Taylor’s mother argued that the Navy unfairly blamed her son for the loss of 5 aircraft and 14 men. The Navy did not have the bodies or planes as proof.
If Flight 19 had been in the location Taylor believed it was, the flight would have reached the Florida coastline within 20 minutes, depending on how far they were from land. However, a later analysis showed that the islands Taylor saw were likely the Bahamas, which are far northeast of the Florida Keys. The investigation concluded that Taylor’s belief he was heading toward Florida caused him to steer the flight farther northeast and out to sea. At NAS Fort Lauderdale, it was commonly known that pilots who became lost in the area should fly west at 270°. Another rule was that pilots lost while flying south should turn their planes around with the sun on their left side and follow the Florida coast north. By the time the flight turned west, they were likely too far from land to reach it before their fuel ran out. This, along with bad weather and the way the Avenger plane behaves when landing in water, made rescue unlikely even if they had stayed afloat.
It is possible that Taylor passed Gorda Cay and reached another landmass in the southern Abaco Islands. He then continued northwest as planned, expecting to see Grand Bahama Island ahead. Instead, he saw a landmass to his right, the northern part of Abaco Island. Thinking this was Grand Bahama and believing his compass was broken, Taylor set a course southwest to return to Fort Lauderdale. However, this actually sent the flight farther northwest, toward open ocean.
Adding to the confusion, Taylor encountered islands north of Abaco that resemble the Key West Islands. The control tower advised Taylor’s team to fly west, which would eventually lead to Florida. Taylor headed west, but this was actually northwest, nearly parallel to Florida.
After flying this direction without seeing land, Taylor believed they could not have flown so far west without reaching Florida. He thought they might be near the Key West Islands. He and his crew debated with the control tower about whether they were near the Bahamas or Key West and which direction they faced, as the compass was malfunctioning. The control tower said they could not be near Key West because the wind direction that day did not match. Some crew members thought the compass was working. Taylor then flew northeast based on the compass, which would have led to Florida if they were near Key West. When this failed, he flew west based on the compass, which would have led to Florida if they were near the Bahamas. If Taylor had stayed on this course, he might have reached land before running out of fuel. However, he eventually decided to fly northeast again, thinking they were near Key West. Finally, the flight ran out of fuel and likely crashed into the ocean somewhere north of Abaco Island and east of Florida.
Avenger wreckage mistaken for Flight 19 and other searches
In 1986, the remains of an Avenger aircraft were discovered near the Florida coast during a search for the wreckage of the Space Shuttle Challenger. In 1990, aviation archaeologist Jon Myhre removed this wreckage from the ocean floor. He believed it was one of the missing planes from Flight 19, but this was later proven incorrect.
In 1991, an expedition led by Graham Hawkes announced the discovery of five Avengers off the Florida coast. However, the tail numbers on these planes showed they were not part of Flight 19. In 2004, a BBC documentary featured Hawkes returning with a new submersible 12 years later. He identified one plane by its bureau number (23990) as a flight lost at sea on October 9, 1943, over two years before Flight 19. The crew of this plane survived. Hawkes could not confirm the identities of the other planes. The documentary concluded that the planes were likely unrelated accidents that ended up in the same location 12 miles from shore.
In March 2012, Hawkes stated that it was in the best interest of himself, his investors, and the Pentagon to let the story fade because it was costly and time-consuming. He admitted no conclusive evidence was found, but a statistician he consulted suggested the wreckage might belong to Flight 19.
Records show that training accidents between 1942 and 1945 caused the loss of 95 aviation personnel from NAS Fort Lauderdale. In 1992, another expedition found scattered debris on the ocean floor but could not identify it. In the 2000s, searchers expanded their search area farther east into the Atlantic Ocean, but the remains of Flight 19 have not been confirmed.
A 2015 newspaper report claimed that a World War II-era warplane with Navy markings and two bodies inside was retrieved by the Navy in the mid-1960s after being found by a hunter near Sebastian, Florida. The Navy initially said it was from Flight 19 but later changed its statement. Freedom of Information Act requests in 2013 did not reveal the names of the individuals because the Navy lacked enough information to identify the bodies.
A plane found in the Everglades in Broward County was incorrectly thought to be from Flight 19. It was later confirmed to be a TBM-3E that crashed on March 16, 1947, due to the pilot’s vertigo. The pilot, Ensign Ralph N. Wachob, died in the crash.
As of the 2020s, no trace of the five TBM Avengers or the PBM Mariner and the 27 missing aviators has been found. The most likely explanation is that the Avengers ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean, while the PBM experienced a mid-air explosion.
In fiction
Flight 19 is shown in the 1977 science-fiction movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. At the beginning of the movie, the aircraft are found in the Sonoran Desert, in perfect condition with full fuel tanks. This is one of several strange events that suggest alien activity. In the final scene of the movie, several men wearing World War II-era U.S. naval aviator uniforms are among the people who return to Earth from an alien spaceship. It is thought that these men are the crews of the planes from Flight 19 that appeared in the Sonoran Desert at the start of the movie. The planes look the same age as they were when they disappeared. However, the names these men give are not the same as the names of the real Flight 19 crews.
Flight 19 also appears in the 2006 direct-to-DVD movie Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy!.