The Fate of Flight 19
On December 5, 1945, Flight 19, a group of five avenger jets took off from Ft. Lauderdale for a routine training mission. The flight was to drop dummy bombs near Bimini, just 56 miles from base, then proceed east for 67 miles following a heading of 91 degrees, then turn north-northwest 346 degrees for 73 miles, and then southwest back to the base to finish the triangle. (This is how the Bermuda Triangle found its name as well!) (Quasar, 2005)Tragically, the fourteen members of flight 19 never made it home. Though some blame this tragedy on the paranormal phenomena that surrounds the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, there is a purely scientific account for all that went wrong. The flight began normal enough, with Charles Taylor heading up as the flight leader. Each craft carried one pilot, two crew, one gunner, and a radio man (one plane was short a radio man). Each of the men were seasoned servicemen and all had at least 350 hours of flight under their belt The planes were topped off with enough fuel to allow them 1,000 miles of flight.They successfully carried out the fake bombing over Chicken & Hen Shoal, then headed farther east, then north-west, as was their plan. The weather seemed normal enough though there were reports of high wind gusts’, there was nothing that was out of the ordinary. But, later, this may play a big role in why flight 19 did not make it back. (Quasar, 2005) Somewhere along the line two of the pilots, presumably Taylor and Powers began talking. Taylor stated that his compass was behaving erratically. All of the pilots compared compasses and this ignitedan argument. Two of the five pilots were sure they needed to head west, but no one fully agreed. (Quasar, 2005)Taylor then thinks that he has spotted the keys. Though no one can explain how exactly they had been turned around. Another pilot from a separate training mission hears the commotion and tries to help the crew find their way back. (Graham)He tells Taylor that if it is the Florida
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