2. The mystery of US Navy Flight 19
Flight 19 was a training mission of five US Navy TBM Avenger aircraft in December 1945, a type which was a veteran of World War II. The Navy was well-versed with the characteristics of the airframe. The pilots were two US Navy Reservists, and three US Marine Corps pilots, under the command of Lieutenant Charles Taylor, USNR. Taylor was a veteran pilot with over 2,500 flying hours. All of the trainees under his command had at least 300 hours flying time, and a minimum of 60 hours in the Avenger. The flight was to follow a predetermined fight path, conduct a simulated bombing run, and return to base at Naval Air Station Ft. Lauderdale, where the flight originated. The mission was routine, known as Naval Air Station Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Navigation Problem #1. Several other flights had flown the same mission that same day.
During the mission another Navy training mission flying the same route received a transmission from Lt. Taylor in which he stated both his compasses were out, that he was trying to find Ft. Lauderdale, and that, “I am sure I’m in the Keys but I don’t know how far down and I don’t know how to get to Ft. Lauderdale”. Other transmissions were heard from pilots in Taylor’s command urging their leader to fly west, standard doctrine at the time, since that course would put them over land if there was enough fuel. Deteriorating weather had an adverse effect on radio transmissions and reception, but enough were heard by other pilots to determine Taylor was not in the Keys, as he believed, and was instead east of the Florida peninsula. Later transmissions put the flight over the Bahamas, far from the coast of central Florida.