Flight 19 Disappearance (1945)

CASE FILE: Flight 19 Disappearance

Case Identification

Field	Detail
Case designation	Flight 19
Date of incident	December 5, 1945
Time of departure	2:10 PM EST
Departure point	Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Aircraft type	Five Grumman TBF/TBM Avenger torpedo bombers
Personnel aboard	14 naval aviators
Commanding officer	Lieutenant Charles Carroll Taylor
Mission type	Overwater navigation and combat training exercise ("Navigation Problem No. 1")
Last known position	Bahamas (disputed); Taylor believed Gulf of Mexico
Last radio contact	Approximately 7:04 PM EST
Search result	No confirmed wreckage or remains recovered
Official finding	Cause unknown (amended from pilot error)
Lives lost	14 (Flight 19) + 13 (PBM Mariner search aircraft) = 27 total

Personnel

• Lt. Charles Carroll Taylor — Flight leader; 2,500 total flying hours; combat tour in Pacific on USS Hancock; arrived 25 minutes late to briefing
• Marine Capt. Edward Joseph Powers — Student pilot
• Marine Capt. George William Stivers — Student pilot
• Additional student pilots (11 total across the five aircraft)

The Mission

Flight 19 was assigned Navigation Problem No. 1 — a combination bombing and navigation exercise that other flights had completed routinely. The planned route involved flying east from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas, dropping practice bombs, then navigating north and returning west to the base. The total planned duration was approximately three hours.

Notably, Lieutenant Taylor arrived 25 minutes late to the briefing and reportedly attempted to have someone take his place, though he ultimately led the flight. He did not bring a watch or a plotting board to the mission.

The Crisis Unfolds

At approximately 3:40 PM, a radio operator at Fort Lauderdale overheard Taylor communicating with another pilot. Taylor reported that both his compasses had stopped working and that he believed they were somewhere over the Florida Keys — though in fact the flight had tracked correctly over the Bahamas. Taylor insisted the flight was over the Gulf of Mexico and headed northeast when he should have directed the flight west.

Radio transmissions recorded during the incident included the following fragments:

• Taylor: "We cannot be sure of any direction — everything is wrong — strange — the ocean doesn't look as it should."
• Taylor: "I don't know where we are. We must have gotten lost after that last turn."
• Another pilot (to Taylor): "If we could just fly west, we would get home."
• Taylor (to another instructor by radio): "I know where I am now. I'm over the Keys. I'm going northeast to get out of the Gulf of Mexico."

The weather deteriorated significantly during the afternoon, with winds increasing and visibility declining. As fuel ran low, transmissions became fragmentary. By 7:04 PM, no further contact was made.

The Search Aircraft

Two Martin PBM Mariner flying boats were launched from NAS Banana River to search for Flight 19. At approximately 7:50 PM — within 20 minutes of takeoff — one of the Mariners disappeared from radar. No distress call was received. A tanker in the area, the SS Gaines Mills, reported witnessing a mid-air explosion and finding an oil slick. The escort carrier USS Solomons independently reported losing radar contact with an aircraft at the same position and time.

The PBM Mariner had a documented history of fuel line leaks; its flexible fuel lines were known to loosen in rough conditions, potentially leading to catastrophic explosions when fully loaded.

Navy Investigation

A 500-page Navy board of investigation concluded:

• Taylor had mistakenly believed the Bahamas were the Florida Keys
• He then directed the flight northeast over the open Atlantic rather than west toward Florida
• The loss of the PBM was attributed to a mid-air explosion
• The report was subsequently amended to "cause unknown" at the request of Taylor's mother, to avoid posthumous blame

Why the Explanation Is Unsatisfying

While the Navy's conclusion is internally consistent, several aspects of the case have never been fully resolved:

• No wreckage from any of the five aircraft has been positively confirmed
• Several TBF Avengers have been found in the area over the decades, but none matched Flight 19's tail numbers
• The exact final position of the flight remains unknown
• Taylor's specific statements about the ocean "not looking as it should" and "everything is wrong, strange" remain evocative and unresolved

Cultural Impact

Flight 19 became the cornerstone of the Bermuda Triangle legend and has appeared in:

• Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) — the aircraft are found intact in the Sonoran Desert, returned by aliens
• Multiple History Channel and Discovery Channel documentary programs
• Numerous books, including Charles Berlitz's The Bermuda Triangle (1974)