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Aircraft squadron disappears in the Bermuda Triangle (1945)
History.com ^ | 11/24/2009 | History.com Editors

Posted on 12/05/2021 8:23:23 AM PST by DFG

At 2:10 p.m., five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 take off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-hour training mission. 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. They never returned.

Two hours after the flight began, the leader of the squadron, 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 p.m., apparently calling for his men to prepare to ditch their aircraft simultaneously because of lack of fuel.

(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: avenger; bermuda; flight19; mariner
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecDaMOFLxT4&t=6s


1 posted on 12/05/2021 8:23:23 AM PST by DFG
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To: DFG

I’m not saying it was Martians.


2 posted on 12/05/2021 8:25:05 AM PST by OKSooner ("AFTER THE FAIR TRIAL!" Always say "After the Fair Trial.". )
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To: DFG

Most likely caught in a hurricane.


3 posted on 12/05/2021 8:26:16 AM PST by ealgeone
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To: ealgeone

Possibly. We did not have weather radar back in those days. Very easy for a hurricane to develop in the ocean and peter out without anybody really knowing it ever existed.


4 posted on 12/05/2021 8:32:12 AM PST by SamAdams76 (I am 80 days away from outliving John Hughes)
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To: DFG

It’s okay, they were returned in 1977 on top of Devil’s Tower.


5 posted on 12/05/2021 8:33:04 AM PST by real saxophonist (Chuck Todd claps on 1 and 3.)
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To: SamAdams76

Or even a very strong tropical storm. Or they just fouled up navigation somehow.


6 posted on 12/05/2021 8:35:10 AM PST by ealgeone
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To: SamAdams76

We don’t get hurricanes in winter.


7 posted on 12/05/2021 8:35:21 AM PST by Keyhopper (Indians had bad immigration laws)
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To: Keyhopper
One hit New England during February 6-7 of 1978.

I was there for it.

8 posted on 12/05/2021 8:36:01 AM PST by SamAdams76 (I am 80 days away from outliving John Hughes)
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To: DFG

There is no Bermuda Triangle. It’s a myth made to sell a grocery store paper. any similarly trafficked piece of coast has just as many “mysterious” disappearances. Oceans eat things. Just how it goes.


9 posted on 12/05/2021 8:36:10 AM PST by discostu (Like a dog being shown a card trick )
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To: discostu

So some oceans are just more voracious than others...? ;-)


10 posted on 12/05/2021 8:38:36 AM PST by mewzilla (Those aren't masks. They're muzzles. )
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To: mewzilla

No. Like I said, the disappearance rate is the same in the Bermuda triangle as any other same sized same trafficked spot of ocean. Only this spot happened to be near a half assed “journalist” trying to sell papers.


11 posted on 12/05/2021 8:41:30 AM PST by discostu (Like a dog being shown a card trick )
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To: real saxophonist

Actually, I believe it was the desert in Mexico.

Ironically, watching that movie right now (haven’t gotten to that scene yet).


12 posted on 12/05/2021 8:43:06 AM PST by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: SamAdams76

Oh how I remember that one. It was a Doozie.


13 posted on 12/05/2021 8:45:36 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Imagine, if you will, a vaccine so safe you have to be threatened to take it. )
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To: DFG

Between having no weather radar and flying in the waters east of Florida (notorious for highly changeable weather), no wonder that squadron was lost.


14 posted on 12/05/2021 8:46:12 AM PST by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's Economic Cure)
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To: ealgeone

Not likely on December 5th.


15 posted on 12/05/2021 8:49:03 AM PST by Rebelbase ( State Dept. Havana Syndrome victims: Guinea pigs of 5G/graphene oxide vax experiments?)
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To: Rebelbase

But possible. it’s either weather or navigational error.


16 posted on 12/05/2021 8:50:44 AM PST by ealgeone
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To: DFG

They trusted the force rather than their instruments.


17 posted on 12/05/2021 8:57:00 AM PST by fso301
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To: DFG
Dead reckoning..every aviator knows/should know how.


18 posted on 12/05/2021 9:02:35 AM PST by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: DFG

I would guess spatial disorientation.

The compasses were probably all correct but the lead pilot somehow didn’t believe his.

He flew by seat of his pants instead of sound aviation techniques.


19 posted on 12/05/2021 9:06:46 AM PST by Bartholomew Roberts
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To: discostu

> any similarly trafficked piece of coast has just as many “mysterious” disappearances <

Bingo. But that doesn’t explain how my ex-wife made my money disappear.


20 posted on 12/05/2021 9:10:00 AM PST by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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