Flight 19

Flight 19

Artist's depiction of the five Grumman TBM Avengers that disappeared
Occurrence summary
Date	December 5, 1945
Summary	Disappearance
Site	Unknown
Crew	14
Fatalities	14 (assumed)
Survivors	none known
Aircraft type	Grumman TBM Avenger
Operator	United States Navy
Destination	NAS Fort Lauderdale

PBM-5 Mariner

A Martin PBM-5 Mariner similar to BuNo 59225.
Occurrence summary
Date	December 5, 1945
Summary	Disappearance, Presumed mid-air explosion
Site	28°35′N 80°15′W / 28.59°N 80.25°W / 28.59; -80.25
Crew	13
Fatalities	13
Survivors	none
Aircraft type	Martin PBM-5 Mariner
Operator	United States Navy
Flight origin	NAS Banana River
Destination	NAS Banana River

Flight 19 was the designation of five Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle on December 5, 1945 after losing contact during a United States Navy overwater navigation training flight from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida. All 14 airmen on the flight were lost, as were all 13 crew members of a Martin PBM Mariner flying boat that subsequently launched from Naval Air Station Banana River to search for Flight 19. The PBM aircraft was known to collect flammable aviation gasoline vapors in its bilges and professional investigators have assumed that the PBM most likely exploded in mid-air while searching for the flight. Navy investigators could not determine the cause of the loss of Flight 19.

Flight 19 undertook a routine navigation and combat training exercise in TBM-type aircraft. The assignment was called "Navigation problem No. 1", a combination of bombing and navigation, which other flights had completed or were scheduled to undertake that day. The flight leader was United States Navy Lieutenant Charles Carroll Taylor, who had about 2,500 flying hours, mostly in aircraft of this type, while his trainee pilots each had 300 total, and 60 flight hours in the Avenger. Taylor had completed a combat tour in the Pacific theatre as torpedo bomber pilot on the aircraft carrier USS Hancock and had recently arrived from NAS Miami where he had also been a VTB instructor. The student pilots had recently completed other training missions in the area where the flight was to take place. They were US Marine Captains Edward Joseph Powers and George William Stivers, US Marine Second Lieutenant Forrest James Gerber and USN Ensign Joseph Tipton Bossi; their callsigns started with 'Fox Tare'.