This Day in History: ‘Bermuda Triangle’ mystery revisited

On this day in 1945, a mysterious disappearance an US aircraft squadron helps cement the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, an area of the Atlantic Ocean where ships and aircraft are said to disappear without a trace. The Triangle is said to stretch from the southern US coast across to Bermuda and down to the Atlantic coast of Cuba and Santo Domingo.
The squadron of five US Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 had taken off on a routine three-hour training mission in broad daylight from Florida’s Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station. Flight 19 was scheduled to take them due east for 120 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 120-mile leg that would return them to the naval base. The 14 men never returned as well as another 13 crew of the rescue Mariner aircraft sent in a search and rescue mission after the squadron.
Two hours after the squadron flight began, their leader, who had been flying in the area for more than six months, reported that his compass and back-up compass had failed and that his position was unknown. The other planes experienced similar instrument malfunctions. Radio facilities on land were contacted to find the location of the lost squadron, but none were successful. After two more hours of confused messages from the fliers, a distorted radio transmission from the squadron leader was heard at 6:20 pm, apparently calling for his men to prepare to ditch their aircraft simultaneously because of lack of fuel.
By this time, several land radar stations finally determined that Flight 19 was somewhere north of the Bahamas and east of the Florida coast, and at 7:27 p.m. a search and rescue Mariner aircraft took off with a 13-man crew. Three minutes later, the Mariner aircraft radioed to its home base that its mission was underway. The Mariner was never heard from again. Later, there was a report from a tanker cruising off the coast of Florida of a visible explosion seen at 7:50 p.m.
The hundreds of ships and aircraft combed thousands of square miles of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and remote locations within the interior of Florida. No trace of the bodies or aircraft was ever found.