The mystery is just one of many to occur in a stretch of Atlantic Ocean reaching from the Florida Coast southeast to Puerto Rico and north to Bermuda, known colloquially as the Bermuda Triangle.
Here's what we do know about the Lost Patrol:
'I Don't Know Where We Are'
However, things didn't go as planned after that. The flight leader, Lt. Charles C. Taylor, reported that his compass wasn't working, and he erroneously believed he was over the Florida Keys, a group of islands over 150 miles to the southwest of where the rock targets were located.
"I don't know where we are. We must have got lost after that last turn," Taylor told air traffic control at Fort Lauderdale."
Both of my compasses are out", he said, "and I am trying to find Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I am over land but it's broken. I am sure I'm in the Keys but I don't know how far down and I don't know how to get to Fort Lauderdale."
"We are heading 030 degrees for 45 minutes, then we will fly north to make sure we are not over the Gulf of Mexico," Taylor said. He later ordered his fellow pilots to assume a course heading 090 degrees, or due east.
Over the next two hours, the aircraft went back and forth, east, then west, then east again. Taylor's last message, transmitted five hours after takeoff, was this: "All planes close up tight ... we'll have to ditch unless landfall ... when the first plane drops below 10 gallons [of fuel in the tank], we all go down together."
Second Disaster
As it became apparent the planes were lost, the Navy organized search patrols from nearby bases, and called in merchant marine ships to help.
However, during the search, a second tragedy struck: one of the PBM Mariner flying boats mysteriously exploded in mid-air just three minutes after takeoff from what was at the time called NAS Banana River, now known as Patrick Space Force Base, due north of Fort Lauderdale.
Unlike the Avengers of Flight 19, the wreckage of the Mariner flying boat was found, in the form of an oil slick. However, like the lost patrol, the crew were all lost, meaning a total of 27 men died in the incident: 14 on board the five Avengers, and 13 on the Mariner flying boat.
US Navy investigations failed to find the cause of the crashes or their wreckage, but concluded that faulty equipment was to blame and not mistakes by Lt. Taylor. Its official reason for being lost is "cause unknown."
Mysterious Waterway
However, to add to the mystery, the wreckage of several other Avenger bombers have been found off the Florida coast since that time, but none of them bore the tail numbers of the five Flight 19 aircraft.
Many other ships and aircraft have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle over the years as well, as has evidence of their wrecking, leading to the waterway developing a reputation as a site of paranormal activity.
However, there are a couple of explanations suggested for the disappearances, stemming from perfectly normal causes here on Planet Earth, including that it is common for hurricanes and other storms to traverse the Bermuda Triangle; the Gulf Stream passes through the area; and the western part of the Sargasso Sea, a gyre choked with sargassum seaweed, extends across part of the Triangle, which may have whisked away any wreckage from crashes.
Critics have also pointed out that the number of mysterious losses in the Bermuda Triangle is no higher than any other comparably-sized stretch of sea, and have accused some writers of sensationalizing or even making up stories about disappearances there in an effort to cultivate an unjustified aura of mystery.
Reader Comments
So leave it alone.
Take heed, take warning.
Another one is buried under the ice in the south Pole, totally encased in hard ice, it is safe there until it needs to be opened. Is it a book (so to speak)? read somewhere in the 90s attempts to find another one (perhaps the alpha and omega) buried inside a hill in Ireland. Total confusion offered to people who want to seriously find out (willing to part with income and travel often) What people won't acknowledge is that ANYONE that tries to get close to it will get I'll, seriously ill, if they touch it anywhere they will die. Because it is written.
It's all there to know and the knowledge is there for the taking, ie the fact it proves higher intelligences exist dispels all theory in the opposite direction, gone, totally evaporated from trus to and brings exposure to the light of inquiry. People will still not believe angels share this realm with us, for some reason unknown to either perspective is why the difference in thought, and I believe it's very likely it can be seen and evidenced the reason behind that question, enmity! Both sides are convinced in their own minds and the side who has the truth knows what that truth is, Yeshua knew he could point successfully to it, without him you won't know where the WAY begins.