Flight 19: An Enigma That Made Aviation History – The Last Transmission in the Triangle

On December 5, 1945, only a few months after the end of World War II, five powerful TBM Avenger torpedo bombers took off from the Naval Air Station in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This patrol, known as Flight 19, was made up of 14 airmen, most of whom were student pilots with around 300 flying hours, engaged in the routine training exercise "Navigation Problem No. 1." Little did they know they were about to become the unfortunate protagonists of one of aviation's greatest and most unsettling disappearances, giving birth to a myth that endures to this day: the Bermuda Triangle.

The Protagonists and the Onset of Chaos

The patrol was led by Lieutenant Charles C. Taylor, an experienced instructor with 2,500 flying hours. However, Taylor was relatively new to the Fort Lauderdale base and unfamiliar with the complex geography of the Bahama Islands and the Florida Keys.

The exercise called for an eastbound flight, a bombing run over the Hens and Chickens Shoals, a turn north, and finally a return west toward the base. After completing the bombing practice, the unforeseen occurred:

At 3:40 PM, the control tower received Taylor's first alarming message: "Cannot see land... We seem to be off course."

The Fatal Error and the Desperate Voices

Chaos ensued when Taylor's compasses (and perhaps those of the other planes, influenced by a magnetic anomaly or a general fault) failed. Taylor, based on what he could see, became convinced he was over the Gulf of Mexico (west of Florida) when he was actually to the east, over the Atlantic Ocean. This crucial error led him to direct the patrol further and further away from the mainland.

• The Wrong Turn: Believing he was west of Florida, he ordered the patrol to turn Northeast, a course that, in his actual position, took him progressively farther out into the Atlantic.

• The Students' Suspicions: Radio transcripts picked up by other pilots revealed that some of the trainees realized the mistake. Intercepted messages included: "Dammit, if we would just fly west, we would get home." These pilots, however, were constrained by military protocol to follow their leader.

• The Last Transmission: Around 6:04 PM, the sun had set and weather conditions deteriorated drastically, bringing strong winds and high waves. The last faint transmission attributed to Taylor was: "We're turning west... we didn't fly far enough east... we'll turn around and go east again." A confused and contradictory message, followed, according to some witnesses, by a final, chilling statement: "It looks like we are entering white water. We're completely lost."

Tragedy Within Tragedy: The Missing "Mariner"

When it became clear that Flight 19 was in serious trouble, the Navy immediately scrambled search aircraft. At 7:27 PM, two PBM Mariner flying boats (nicknamed "Flying Gas Tanks" for their known tendency to accumulate gasoline vapors) took off.

Only 20 minutes after takeoff, one of the Mariners, carrying 13 crew members, vanished as well. A merchant ship in the area reported seeing a flash of fire in the sky and later finding a large oil slick at sea. The most likely explanation for this second aircraft is an in-flight explosion due to a technical failure, but the sheer coincidence further fueled the dread.

The Legacy and the Myth

Despite one of the largest air and sea search operations in history, no wreckage, debris, or bodies from Flight 19 were ever conclusively found.

• The Official Inquiry: The Navy's initial board of investigation concluded that the planes were lost due to Taylor's navigational error and that they ditched at sea after running out of fuel. The later decision to label the loss as "cause unknown" in the final report (to avoid blaming the lieutenant) only amplified the public suspicion.

• The Birth of the Myth: The media coverage of the double disappearance in peacetime prompted authors like Vincent Gaddis and, most notably, Charles Berlitz to use Flight 19 as the primary evidence for a "cursed" zone governed by anomalous physical and magnetic laws: the Bermuda Triangle.

For aviation and history enthusiasts, Flight 19 remains a stark reminder of human fallibility against the elements and the critical importance of navigation.