There are many tales involving the mysterious Bermuda Triangle, including stories of missing ships, people and airplanes. One of the more well-known tales deals with the disappearance of Flight 19, where plenty of evidence can be found supporting both those who believe in the Bermuda mystique, as well as those who deny its power.
The story of Flight 19 begins with the people that were involved with the departure. On December 5th, 1945, 14 flight students left around 2 in the afternoon for the Bahamas area. Leaving the Naval Air Station located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, five Avenger torpedoes departed for a trip going east. The five pilots who were flying the bombers had been recently transferred from another air station and were not familiar with the area. The only one who knew the area was a pilot by the name of Lt. Charles Taylor.
The flight was to serve as an exercise in bombing a certain area that was located more than 50 miles away from the air station. Once, the bombing was complete, the Avengers were to continue traveling east, then finish a triangular flight path about the Bermuda Triangle. Things were running smoothly until at 3:40pm, a pilot and flight instructor, Lt. Robert Cox overheard a disturbing radio transmission. The man on the other end was speaking to someone by the name of Powers.
Powers: “I don’t know where we are. We must have got lost after that last turn.”
It was at that time the air station in Fort Lauderdale attempted contact, but was unable to reach anyone. Minutes later, Cox was able to speak to the pilot who was communicating with Powers, who turned out to be Charles Taylor. Cox said that Taylor claimed that his compasses were not functioning and that he was unsure of where he was. Cox told Taylor to fly north toward Miami. This advice was given with the idea that he was in the Florida Keys area, when in fact he was located in the Bahamas. Flying north would only take him further and further away from his destination.
As time passed, transmission went in and out as the students argued about which direction they should travel in, as well as whether or not they would be running out of fuel. Not only were these concerns surrounding the pilots, but also bad weather was coming in from the north. Flight 19 could not be located as radio transmission was interrupted by the interference. The weather affected any attempts to locate the crew and by 7:04pm, the last transmission was heard from Taylor. The next day, hundreds of ships and planes were sent out to look for the Avengers. To this day, they were never found. Another twist is that another aircraft, the Martin Mariner, was lost while searching for the Avengers.
So what happened to the Avengers? Some say the planes were quite heavy so when they ran out of fuel, they just quickly fell to the bottom of the waters. Others like to believe that they were affected and sucked into the mysterious power of the Bermuda Triangle.