And what about the other missing search plane too? Just
coincidence?


The search plane took off out of the Banana River NAS and blew up shortly
afterward. Martin PBM Mariners were famous for leaking gas into the fuselage
and blowing up as a result. Again there was no mystery to the Navy over the
loss of the PBM which was seen to crash by a number of vessels at sea at the
time. The popular books distort the timeline and make it seem that the PBM
disappeared at the same time as Flight 19 was declaring itself lost. In fact
the PBM was dispatched hours later to begin searching for Flight 19 when it
was clear they would end up ditching.

John Dupre'