Flight 19, 5 December 1945
Five Navy torpedo bombers, a training flight, and one of aviation’s most famous losses.
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Shortly after 2pm on 5 December 1945, five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers left Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on a routine navigation training flight. US Navy history (NHHC)
It is often called the “Lost Patrol”, but Flight 19 was a routine training mission. NHHC H-Gram
The five planes carried 14 men: six Navy and eight Marines. NHHC H-Gram
The plan
The exercise, Navigation Problem No. 1, was to fly east, make practice bombing runs at Hens and Chickens Shoals, turn north over Grand Bahama Island, then fly back to base. US Navy history (NHHC)
The legs were 56 miles east to the shoals, 67 more miles east, 73 miles on a heading of 346 degrees, then 120 miles on 241 degrees back to Fort Lauderdale. NHHC H-Gram
The whole route was about 316 miles and should have taken about 2 hours 40 minutes. National Archives
Before take-off
The instructor, Lt Charles Carroll Taylor, was a combat veteran with 2,509.3 flying hours, 606 of them in the Avenger. NHHC H-Gram
It was the first time Taylor would lead this particular navigation exercise; he had recently arrived from NAS Miami. NHHC H-Gram
The four other pilots were much less experienced, averaging about 300 flying hours each. NHHC H-Gram
The fuel tanks were full: enough for 5.5 hours of flying. NHHC H-Gram
All five planes were missing their 24-hour clocks, a commonly pilfered item; pilots were supposed to have wristwatches. NHHC H-Gram
Lost
At about 15:40 Taylor radioed that both his compasses were out and he was sure he was over the Florida Keys. NHHC H-Gram
In fact he was well northeast of Fort Lauderdale, not southwest as he thought. National Archives
Kusche, who flew the route himself, says parts of the small islands of the northern Bahamas do look like some of the Florida Keys. Skeptical Inquirer
Taylor called himself MT-28, a Miami call sign, rather than FT-28, which Kusche reads as a sign he thought he was flying from Miami. Skeptical Inquirer
Taylor was the instructor but not the most senior officer on the flight; that was Captain Edward Powers of the Marines. National Archives
Two students were heard on the radio saying that if they could just fly west they could get home. NHHC H-Gram
Radio direction-finding stations placed the flight north of the Bahamas and east of Florida, but no one thought to broadcast that position to the planes. NHHC H-Gram
Night
By 5:30pm the sun had set, the weather was getting worse and the planes were low on fuel. National Archives
The last message heard, from Taylor at 7:04pm, said they would have to ditch unless they found land: “when the first plane drops below ten gallons, we all go down together.” National Archives
A British tanker in the area, the Viscount Empire, reported “tremendous seas and winds of high velocity”. NHHC H-Gram
The Navy’s historian says the most likely explanation is that the planes ditched together off Florida’s east coast, north of the Bahamas, as a severe weather front moved in. NHHC H-Gram
Training 49
The search plane, a PBM Mariner flying boat called Training 49, took off from NAS Banana River with 13 men and made its last radio call at 19:30. NHHC H-Gram
At 19:50 the tanker Gaines Mills saw a burst of flames, apparently an explosion, with flames 100 feet high. NHHC H-Gram
The carrier USS Solomons was tracking the Mariner on radar when it suddenly vanished from the screen at the same position. NHHC H-Gram
Mariners were nicknamed “the flying gas tank”, because petrol fumes could collect inside them. NHHC H-Gram
A Mariner carried almost 2,000 gallons of fuel. Skeptical Inquirer
The Navy concluded that a faulty fuel system caused the Mariner to explode. National Archives
The search
For five days the Coast Guard and Navy searched more than 250,000 square miles of sea. They found no airmen, no wreckage, no life raft, not even an oil slick. US Navy history (NHHC)
On 6 December more than 200 planes and 17 ships joined the search. Skeptical Inquirer
It was one of the largest air and sea searches in history, and no confirmed trace has ever been found. NHHC H-Gram
Fourteen men were lost on Flight 19 and 13 more on the flying boat sent to search for them: 27 in all. US Navy history (NHHC)
Timeline of the day
- 14:10 The flight took off at 14:10 and was due back at 17:23. NHHC H-Gram
- About 15:40 At about 15:40 Taylor radioed that both his compasses were out and he was sure he was over the Florida Keys. NHHC H-Gram
- 17:30 By 5:30pm the sun had set, the weather was getting worse and the planes were low on fuel. National Archives
- 19:04 The last message heard, from Taylor at 7:04pm, said they would have to ditch unless they found land: “when the first plane drops below ten gallons, we all go down together.” National Archives
- 19:30 The search plane, a PBM Mariner flying boat called Training 49, took off from NAS Banana River with 13 men and made its last radio call at 19:30. NHHC H-Gram
- 19:50 At 19:50 the tanker Gaines Mills saw a burst of flames, apparently an explosion, with flames 100 feet high. NHHC H-Gram
- Next 5 days For five days the Coast Guard and Navy searched more than 250,000 square miles of sea. They found no airmen, no wreckage, no life raft, not even an oil slick. US Navy history (NHHC)
The verdict
The board of inquiry admitted: “We are not able to even make a good guess as to what happened.” NHHC H-Gram
Pilot error, or cause unknown?
The Navy’s investigation blamed pilot error, saying Taylor was “uncertain as to in what position lay the Peninsula of Florida”. National Archives
Taylor’s mother challenged that verdict. The Navy’s records board found an injustice, cleared him of blame and changed the cause to “unknown”. NHHC H-Gram
The last radio messages
Older retellings include dramatic radio messages such as “It looks like we are entering white water”; the Navy’s own overview page still repeats them. US Navy history (NHHC)
The Navy’s historian says numerous accounts have embellished the story, and sticks to the official record. NHHC H-Gram
Kusche traced fictionalised, dramatised radio messages back to a 1962 American Legion Magazine article by Allan W. Eckert; later writers attributed them to Flight 19. Skeptical Inquirer
The records
The National Archives says the loss of the five planes and 14 men is a fact and undisputed; that is where the conspiracy theories begin. National Archives
Some of the official records, including the Navy’s investigations at the time, are kept at the National Archives at Fort Worth. National Archives
In April 2017 a plaque to the crew of Training 49 was put up at the old NAS Banana River seaplane ramp. NHHC H-Gram
The Navy’s historian adds that it most certainly wasn’t due to aliens or the Bermuda Triangle. NHHC H-Gram
Our view: the true story, a lost instructor, a missing clock, a closing storm and a radio fix that never got sent, is sadder and more human than any legend.
Next: the Cyclops file →