Welcome everyone to the third and final part of this three-part blog post on the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle. Please read Part 1 and Part 2 before reading this post, now let’s get into the last story involving the disappearance of 5 US Navy aircraft, Flight 19.

The story of Flight 19 is perhaps the most famous among the Bermuda Triangle stories. It began on December 5, 1945. Five TBM Avenger Torpedo Bombers took off from Ft Lauderdale, Florida on a navigation training exercise. The five bombers carried 14 crew and the weather that day was clear and calm. Furthermore, the Avengers were legendary for their reliability and ruggedness so all seemed well when the planes departed. Unfortunately, the planes would never return to Ft. Lauderdale.

Sometime after the completion of the exercise the five planes became lost somewhere in the Triangle. The planes were relying solely on the two compasses they had brought for navigation. Unfortunately, both stopped working. The situation became worse when ATC picked up an emergency message from one of the planes on Flight 19 saying “We can’t find west. Everything is wrong. We can’t be sure of any direction. Everything looks strange, even the ocean.” Twenty minutes later another and the last known transmission from Flight 19 was also picked up. This transmission came from what is believed to be the flight commander Charles Taylor. His voice was distressed and he said “We can’t make out anything. We think we may be about 225 miles northeast of the base. It looks like we’re entering white water. We’re completely lost.” Flight 19 would never be seen or heard from again.

Strangely it’s what happened next that makes this story so infamous. Shortly after receiving this last transmission from Flight 19, the naval base organized a search and rescue. A PBM Mariner Flying Boat with a crew of 13 took off in search of the squadron. However, the Mariner and her crew would also disappear along with Flight 19. After a long search for Flight 19 and the Mariner the navy ultimately concluded in their report “We are not even able to make a good guess as to what happened.” Though there are several theories, what truly happened to Flight 19 and the Mariner will remain a Triangle mystery until the wreckage is found.

Thanks for reading this three-part post! I hope you enjoyed and as always if you have any comments about this post or the last two posts feel free to leave them below. A big thanks to BuzzFeed Unsolved and National Geographic for the information and inspiration needed to create these posts, definitely check out their channels if you like this type of content. Have a great week everyone!