Overview
- Five training bombers known as Flight 19 vanished after departing Florida on December 5, 1945, with 14 Marines and Navy aviators aboard.
- A PBM patrol aircraft sent to search also disappeared with 13 crew members, while a second search plane returned.
- The declassified records detail navigational errors, failed radio communication, dwindling fuel, and the limits of 1940s equipment.
- Investigators revised their reports over time and ultimately recorded the cause of the losses as unknown.
- The incident helped seed the Bermuda Triangle legend, yet statistical reviews show no unusual rate of disappearances in the region.