What Became of Flight 19?
On December 5, 1945, a unit (i.e., a small squadron) of five torpedo bombers flew east
from Fort Lauderdale, FL, on a routine training exercise. As planned,
they dropped their mock ordinance at a location of small islands in the Atlantic Ocean
about 70 miles east of their departure site. Thereafter, the unit flew another
70 miles east to a point at which it was to turn left and proceed NNW a distance of
100 miles (over Big Bahama) and then turn sharp left and proceed SW 130 miles back
to Fort Lauderdale. Something went wrong. The squadron disappeared.
It is thought that the squadon commander mistook a small group of Bahama islands for
the Florida Keys and took a path northeast hoping to find mainland
Florida. Contributing to the confusion was a sudden storm which diminished visibility.
Apparently, the planes ran out of fuel north of the Bahamas and about 200 miles east of
Daytona Beach, and they ditched in the Atlantic Ocean. Interestingly, at sometime
in 1963, old wreckage of a Navy plane containing the remains of two crew members was
found in a swampy area near Sebastian, Florida. The rumour is that the plane was
from Flight 19. The Navy and Marines have never issued a definitive
statement as to the identity of the wreckage and its crew.
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