Close Encounters Of The Third Kind

(WaltBJ) wrote:
One of Flight 19's Avengers was caught in a
shrimper's net about
halfway between Key West and Marco Island about
15 years ago. look on
a map and see how lost that guy was. As for
the Bermuda Triangle, I
flew 102s and 104s all over the southern part
of it and am still here.
I think. Wooo - woo.
Walt BJ
Walt, you may be wrong. Every few years, TBMs are found off of Florida,
and there is the usual announcement that "Flight 19 has been found". Problem
is that none of the side numbers or BuNos match the missing aircraft. What
happened to Flight 19 is in dispute. Nobody disputes the loss of Training
49 (the PBM) at 7:30 PM that night. A passing tanker noted a plane that caught
fire in the air, spiraled in and exploded on impact. The ship changed course
to provide assistance, but only found a burning pool of oil. The CVE USS
Solomons noted two radar contacts taking off from NAS Banana River (Now Patrick
AFB) and one of these dropped off the scope at 7:30: at the time and place
the tanker saw the plane crash. Two PBMs took off, but only one (Training
32) returned the next morning. 13 aircrew lost on the PBM. Now, what happened
to Flight 19 may never be known.

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