Flight 19

And if you look at, like, all, all the conspiracy theories, you see 19 more than you see 33.

You know, you got, like, uh, 19 hijackers, uh, Flight 19, Flight 91, uh, COVID-19.

And, and it, and it's always, like, 19 people were shot, uh, you know, at, at 8:19 blah, blah, blah happened.

Like, you see 19 in the realm of conspiracy even more than you see, uh, 33.

Lt. Taylor was an experienced naval aviator who had flown extensively during World War II.

The group of planes, known as Flight 19, had been assigned Navigation Problem Number 1, which involved flying east from the Florida coast, conducting bombing runs at Hens and Chickens Shoals, turning north, flying over Grand Bahama Island, and then returning to NAS Fort Lauderdale.

The weather was expected to be normal, with just a few scattered showers.

During the initial part of the flight, the team successfully released practice bombs without any issues.

However, as they turned north for the second leg of the journey, Flight 19 encountered problems.

At around 3.45 p.m., the flight tower in Fort Lauderdale received a message from Taylor, who sounded anxious and disoriented.

He reported, I cannot see land.

The new leader's voice finally broke the radio silence after 20 minutes, but it was shaky and bordering on hysteria.

Next up, let's have a look at the Lost Patrol.

Flight 19, which has been mistakenly called the Lost Patrol, wasn't really a patrol at all, but a naval training flight.

It was December 5th, 1945, several months after the end of World War II.

The weather was a warm 67 degrees with billowing clouds and a southwest wind.

The flight was to be their last practice run before graduation and these guys had done this before.

The five bombers took off without incident and made their way to the Bahamas.

Those aboard Flight 19 completed their exercise and were heading back to base.

Then, about 90 minutes after takeoff, Lt. Charles C. Taylor reported that he was somehow lost and the weather and sea conditions were worsening.

And I think that's where the Bermuda Triangle gets fun.

My favorite one, and this was mentioned by Jones in his article, was Flight 19, a routine training flight on December the 5th, 1945, a squadron of airplanes, and they'd tackled this three-hour exercise known as the navigation problem number one.

And their triangular flight plan had them head out off the Florida coast, do this bombing run on a place called Hens and Chickens Shoals, and then come back home.

But during the course of it, they get immensely lost.

None of the aircraft returned to Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale.

No confirmed wreckage from Flight 19 has ever been recovered.

The loss later became one of the best-known stories connected with the Bermuda Triangle.

But that label did not exist on the day the aircraft disappeared.

The documented record describes something more immediate.

An over-water training flight that began normally became lost after a bombing exercise and remained in fragmented radio contact for hours while men ashore tried to determine where it was.

To understand how Flight 19 vanished, it is necessary to return to the beginning of that day.

The United States had emerged from World War II only months earlier.

Now, this was supposed to be a milk run.

Flight 19.

A routine navigation exercise over the Bahamas.

A little target practice on some old shipwrecks, and back in time for evening chow.

I'm sure I'm in the Keys, but I don't know how far down.

Now, stop and think about that for a moment.

Flight 19 had flown directly east, out over the Bahamas.

But Taylor, staring down at the scattered islands below him, had somehow convinced himself he was hundreds of miles off course, down over the Florida Keys.

And this area is rumored to be the home of a disproportionately high number of ships and airplanes going missing.

Now, the biggest jewel in the crown, so to speak, of these reported collections of disappearances in the triangle is Flight 19.

On the afternoon of December 5th, 1945, a squadron of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers take off from Fort Lauderdale on a routine training mission.

Their task is to complete navigation problem number one, which is a fairly simple navigation and bombing exercise that will take them out east from the coast to a place called Hen and Chicken's Shoals, where they would drop their bombs, then north for a little bit before returning back to Fort Lauderdale.

A merchant ship off the coast of Fort Lauderdale radios in that they just witnessed a burst of flame in the sky in the same area that the Mariner is supposed to be.

She and her 13 rescuers are never heard from again.

and neither are the 14 members of Flight 19.

The Navy lost 27 servicemen in an eight-hour period.

Lt. Taylor was an experienced naval aviator who had flown extensively during World War II.

The group of planes, known as Flight 19, had been assigned Navigation Problem Number 1, which involved flying east from the Florida coast, conducting bombing runs at Hens and Chickens Shoals, turning north, flying over Grand Bahama Island, and then returning to NAS Fort Lauderdale.

The weather was expected to be normal, with just a few scattered showers.

During the initial part of the flight, the team successfully released practice bombs without any issues.

However, as they turned north for the second leg of the journey, Flight 19 encountered problems.

At around 3.45 p.m., the flight tower in Fort Lauderdale received a message from Taylor, who sounded anxious and disoriented.

He reported, I cannot see land.

The new leader's voice finally broke the radio silence after 20 minutes, but it was shaky and bordering on hysteria.