The Bermuda Triangle: Flight 19

On December 5, 1945, five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger torpedo bombers departed Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on a routine training exercise. None of the fourteen airmen aboard those five aircraft ever returned. The search and rescue operation that followed added to the tragedy when a PBM Mariner search plane also vanished. The incident became the foundation stone of the Bermuda Triangle legend.

The Mission

Flight 19 consisted of five Avengers carrying a total of fourteen men. The flight leader was Lieutenant Charles C. Taylor, an experienced combat pilot with over 2,500 flight hours. The other four aircraft were piloted by qualified aviators, some with combat experience from the recently ended war.

Their mission was a routine navigational training exercise: fly east to the Hen and Chickens Shoals, conduct practice bombing runs, then continue the triangular course back to Fort Lauderdale. The weather was clear, and the flight departed at 2:10 PM.

The Disorientation

Approximately ninety minutes into the flight, something went wrong. Radio transmissions from Flight 19 indicated confusion about their position. Lieutenant Taylor reported that both of his compasses had malfunctioned and that he believed the flight was over the Florida Keys, having somehow ended up far south of their intended position.

Based on this belief, Taylor turned the flight north and east, assuming this heading would bring them back to the Florida mainland. However, subsequent analysis suggests that Flight 19 was actually over the Bahamas, east of their intended position. Taylor’s northeasterly course may have taken them further into the Atlantic rather than toward land.

Radio communications became increasingly fragmented as the aircraft flew further from shore. At approximately 7:00 PM, Lieutenant Taylor was heard ordering his pilots to close formation and prepare to ditch when fuel ran out.

No further confirmed communications were received. Flight 19 had vanished.

The Search

The Navy launched an immediate search and rescue operation. Multiple aircraft and surface vessels were dispatched to locate the missing flight.

Among the search aircraft was a PBM Mariner seaplane carrying a crew of thirteen. At approximately 7:50 PM, this aircraft also disappeared. A ship in the area, the SS Gaines Mills, reported seeing a fireball and finding an oil slick on the water. The Mariner was presumed to have exploded in flight—PBMs had a reputation for fuel leaks that earned them the nickname “flying gas tanks.”

The search continued for days. No trace of Flight 19 or the Mariner was ever found. Twenty-seven men had vanished without a trace.

Investigations

The Navy convened a board of inquiry to investigate the disappearance. The board concluded that Lieutenant Taylor had become disoriented and led his flight in the wrong direction, eventually running out of fuel over the open Atlantic. The aircraft would have sunk rapidly upon ditching.

Taylor’s mother protested the finding, arguing that her son was being blamed unfairly. The Navy eventually amended the record to state that the cause of the disappearance was “unknown.”

The Legend

The Flight 19 disappearance became central to the Bermuda Triangle mythology that developed in the 1960s and 1970s. Writers like Vincent Gaddis and Charles Berlitz presented the incident as evidence of mysterious forces operating in the Atlantic between Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico.

The Bermuda Triangle legend incorporated Flight 19 alongside other disappearances, real and embellished, to create a narrative of supernatural danger. Proposed explanations ranged from magnetic anomalies to underwater methane releases to extraterrestrial intervention.

Skeptical Analysis

Coast Guard and Navy investigations, along with subsequent research, have proposed mundane explanations for most Bermuda Triangle incidents, including Flight 19.

The area sees heavy traffic from shipping and aircraft, making some accidents statistically inevitable. The Gulf Stream can rapidly disperse wreckage. Tropical weather patterns can create sudden, violent storms. Navigation errors, equipment failures, and human mistakes account for most incidents attributed to the “triangle.”

In Flight 19’s case, the evidence suggests a sequence of unfortunate decisions: Taylor’s belief that his compasses had failed (they may have been correct), his misidentification of their position, and his decision to fly northeast rather than west. By the time the error became apparent, the flight was too far out to reach land on remaining fuel.

Legacy

Flight 19 remains one of aviation’s genuine mysteries—not because supernatural forces were involved, but because no physical evidence was ever recovered. The aircraft and their crews rest somewhere on the Atlantic floor, their exact location unknown.

The incident’s incorporation into Bermuda Triangle mythology has sometimes obscured the human tragedy at its core: fourteen young men lost on a routine training flight, and thirteen more lost searching for them. Whatever the explanation, Flight 19’s disappearance remains a sobering reminder of the ocean’s unforgiving nature.