The Disappearance of Flight 19 — Five Planes Lost in the Bermuda Triangle (1945)

On December 5, 1945, five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger torpedo bombers — collectively designated Flight 19 — departed from Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station on a routine training exercise over the Atlantic. The flight, led by experienced instructor Lieutenant Charles Carroll Taylor, was expected to fly east, north, and then return west to base. Approximately 90 minutes into the flight, Taylor radioed that his compasses had malfunctioned and that he believed the squadron was over the Florida Keys, when in fact they were likely over the Bahamas. Increasingly confused and unable to determine their position, the five aircraft flew further into the Atlantic. Radio contact became intermittent as the aircraft moved out of range. The last transmission was received at approximately 7:04 PM. All 14 airmen aboard the five Avengers were lost. A PBM-5 Mariner flying boat, dispatched with a 13-man crew to search for Flight 19, also vanished — a merchant ship in the area reported observing an explosion in the sky and finding an oil slick, suggesting the Mariner's fuel tanks may have ignited. The total loss: 27 men, six aircraft, in a single evening. The Navy's official investigation attributed the disaster to Taylor becoming disoriented and leading the flight over open ocean until fuel was exhausted.