Flight 19 was the designation of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers which disappeared on December 5, 1945 during a United States Navy-authorized overwater navigation training flight from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The assignment was called "Navigation problem No. 1", a combination of bombing and navigation, which other flights had or were scheduled to undertake that day.
Trouble of an unknown nature plagued the senior aviator designated to observe Flight 19 during this assignment; firstly with a late arrival requesting to be relieved, then later with complete confusion and irrational fears which further worsened the students' situation by mistakenly leading them away from land. All 14 airmen on the flight were lost, as well as 13 crew members of a PBM Mariner flying boat, which exploded in midair while searching for the flight. Navy investigators concluded that Flight 19 became disoriented and ditched in rough seas when the aircraft ran out of fuel, while the PBM was a victim of mechanical failure. Some have questioned the Navy's version in the years since Flight 19 disappeared. Argosy magazine, Charles Berlitz, and Richard Winer among others used elements first described in American Legion Magazine as well as their own research to publish accounts discussing the Bermuda Triangle.
A fictionalized version of Flight 19 is featured in the 1977 science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Authorized Overwater Navigation Training Flight
Flight 19 undertook a routine exercise to evaluate the men's navigation and combat operations training in VTB-type aircraft. The flight leader, Lieutenant Charles Carroll Taylor, had about 2,500 flying hours, most in aircraft of this type, while his trainee students had 300 total, and 60 flight hours in the Avenger. Taylor had recently transferred in from NAS Miami where he had also been a VTB instructor. The students had recently completed other training missions in the area which the flight was to take place. Each aircraft was fully fueled, and in the process of being pre-flighted, when it was discovered they were all missing clocks. Navigation of the route was intended to teach dead reckoning principles, which involved calculating among other things elapsed time. The apparent lack of timekeeping equipment was not a cause for concern as it was assumed each man had his own watch. Takeoff was scheduled for 13:45 local time, but the late arrival of Taylor delayed actual departure until 14:10. Weather at NAS Fort Lauderdale was described as "... favorable, sea state moderate to rough." On this assignment Taylor was supervising, rather than leading the students in the conduct of the mission unless he believed they had made an error.
With a trainee pilot in the role of leader out front, the exercise was called “Naval Air Station, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, navigation problem No. 1," and it involved the Avengers negotiating a triangular course from and returning to Fort Lauderdale. After take off they would fly almost due east for 56 miles (90 km) until reaching Hens and Chickens Shoals where bombing practice was planned. The flight was then supposed to continue east another 67 miles (108 km) before turning onto a course of 346 for 73 miles (117 km), in the process over-flying Grand Bahama Island. Finally, Flight 19's last turn was a course of 241 degrees for 120 miles (193 km), bringing it back to NAS Ft. Lauderdale.
Radio conversations between the pilots were detectable by base and other aircraft in the area. It is known that the practice bombing operation was completed successfully; around 15:00, an exchange where a pilot requested and was given permission to drop his last bomb indicated they were proceeding on to their first turn. Forty minutes later another flight instructor, Lieutenant Robert F. Fox in FT-74, forming up with his group of students for the same mission received an unidentified transmission. A male voice had asked Powers [one of the students] what his compass read, the recorded reply being "I don't know where we are. We must have got lost after that last turn." Fox then transmitted; "This is FT-74, plane or boat calling 'Powers' please identify yourself so someone can help you." The response after a few moments was a request from the others in the flight for suggestions. FT-74 tried again and a man identified as FT-28 (Taylor) came on. "FT-28, this is FT-74, what is your trouble?" "Both of my compasses are out", Taylor replied, "and I am trying to find Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I am over land but it's broken. I am sure I'm in the Keys but I don't know how far down and I don't know how to get to Fort Lauderdale."
FT-74 informed the NAS that aircraft were lost, then advised Taylor to put the sun on his port wing and fly north up the coast to Fort Lauderdale. Base operations then asked if the flight leader's aircraft was equipped with a standard YG (IFF transmitter), which could be used to triangulate the flight's position, but the message was not acknowledged by FT-28. (Later he would indicate that his transmitter was activated.) Instead, at 16:45, FT-28 radioed: "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 bearings could be made on the flight, and IFF could not be picked up. Taylor was told to broadcast on 4805 kilocycles. This order was not acknowledged so he was asked to switch to 3,000 kilocycles, the search and rescue frequency. Taylor replied – "I cannot switch frequencies. I must keep my planes intact."
At 16:56, Taylor was sent another request to turn on his transmitter for YG if he had one, with no acknowledgment. A few minutes later he was heard calling to his flight "Change course to 090 degrees (due east) for 10 minutes." At about the same time, two others in the flight were heard to say "Dammit, if we could just fly west we would get home; head west, dammit." Later this difference of opinion would lead to questions about why the students didn't simply head west on their own. It has been explained that this can be attributed to military discipline.
As the weather worsened, radio contact became intermittent, and it was believed that the five aircraft were actually by that time more than 200 miles (322 km) out to sea east of the Florida peninsula. Taylor radioed "We'll fly 270 degrees west until landfall or running out of gas" and requested a weather check at 17:24. By 17:50 several land based radio stations had triangulated Flight 19's position as being within an electronic 100 miles (161 km) radius of 29°N 79°W29, -79; Flight 19 was north of the Bahamas and well off the coast of central Florida, but nobody thought to transmit this information on an open, repetitive basis. At 18:04 Taylor radioed to his flight "Holding 270, we didn't fly far enough east, we may as well just turn around and fly east again". By that time, the weather had deteriorated even more and the sun had since set. Around 18:20, Taylor's last message was received. He was heard saying "All planes close up tight ... we'll have to ditch unless landfall ... when the first plane drops below 10 gallons, we all go down together." At the same time, in the same area, SS Viscount Empire, a merchant ship, radioed that she was in heavy seas and high winds northeast of the Bahamas, where Flight 19 was about to ditch.