What happened to Flight 19: The five torpedo bombers that mysteriously disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle

It was supposed to be a routine flight. Shortly after 2:00 p.m. on December 5, 1945, five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers roared to life and took off from the U.S. Naval Air Station in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The mission was a standard navigational training flight, designated Navigation Problem No. 1. The flight plan was simple: head east from the Florida coast, conduct practice bombing runs over a site known as Hens and Chickens Shoals, turn north, then proceed over Grand Bahama Island before returning to base. It was a route flown many times before without incident.

The flight leader that day was Lt. Charles C. Taylor, a seasoned pilot with thousands of flight hours logged—though it’s worth noting that he was relatively unfamiliar with the area around Florida. At first, everything proceeded as expected. The pilots successfully completed the first leg of the journey.

Then, the Bermuda Triangle awoke.

‘Everything is wrong... everything looks strange, even the ocean’

At around 3:45 p.m., a garbled message crackled over the radio at the Fort Lauderdale control tower. It was from Taylor, and it carried a note of concern: “Cannot see land,” he reported. “We seem to be off course.”

The tower requested his position. Silence followed.

The weather was clear, and the distances involved were modest. So modest, in fact, that two tower operators stood up and peered out toward the sea, over the area now infamously known as the Bermuda Triangle. But there was no sign of the 5 bombers.

Eventually, another message came through: “We cannot be sure where we are,” Taylor said, audibly worried. “Repeat: cannot see land.”

Ten long minutes of radio silence followed. Then, a chilling update: “We can’t find west. Everything is wrong. We can’t be sure of any direction. Everything looks strange, even the ocean.”

Twenty more minutes passed before contact was reestablished. The message was even more disoriented: “We can’t tell where we are… everything is… can’t make out anything. We think we may be about 225 miles northeast of base.”

Then came the final transmission from Lt. Charles C. Taylor: “It looks like we are entering white water… We’re completely lost.”

A massive search and rescue mission was launched, covering over 250,000 square miles of ocean. But no trace of the aircraft was ever found—no debris, no oil slicks, no bodies.

Fourteen men, flying in five Navy bombers, disappeared without a trace in the Bermuda Triangle.

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