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N0KFQ > TODAY 05.12.14 20:01l 54 Lines 2460 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 41587_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Dec 5
Path: IZ3LSV<IR1UAW<IQ5KG<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 141205/1900Z 41587@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.62
Dec 5, 1945:
Aircraft squadron lost in the Bermuda Triangle
At 2:10 p.m., five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers comprising
Flight 19 take off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in
Florida on a routine three-hour training mission. Flight 19 was
scheduled to take them due east for 120 miles, north for 73
miles, and then back over a final 120-mile leg that would return
them to the naval base. They never returned.
Two hours after the flight began, the leader of the squadron, who
had been flying in the area for more than six months, reported
that his compass and back-up compass had failed and that his
position was unknown. The other planes experienced similar
instrument malfunctions. Radio facilities on land were contacted
to find the location of the lost squadron, but none were
successful. After two more hours of confused messages from the
fliers, a distorted radio transmission from the squadron leader
was heard at 6:20 p.m., apparently calling for his men to prepare
to ditch their aircraft simultaneously because of lack of fuel.
By this time, several land radar stations finally determined that
Flight 19 was somewhere north of the Bahamas and east of the
Florida coast, and at 7:27 p.m. a search and rescue Mariner
aircraft took off with a 13-man crew. Three minutes later, the
Mariner aircraft radioed to its home base that its mission was
underway. The Mariner was never heard from again. Later, there
was a report from a tanker cruising off the coast of Florida of a
visible explosion seen at 7:50 p.m.
The disappearance of the 14 men of Flight 19 and the 13 men of
the Mariner led to one of the largest air and seas searches to
that date, and hundreds of ships and aircraft combed thousands of
square miles of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and
remote locations within the interior of Florida. No trace of the
bodies or aircraft was ever found.
Although naval officials maintained that the remains of the six
aircraft and 27 men were not found because stormy weather
destroyed the evidence, the story of the "Lost Squadron" helped
cement the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, an area of the
Atlantic Ocean where ships and aircraft are said to disappear
without a trace. The Bermuda Triangle is said to stretch from the
southern U.S. coast across to Bermuda and down to the Atlantic
coast of Cuba and Santo Domingo.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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