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Home Donate Memorial Bricks About NASFL History NASFL Timeline The Avenger Exhibits Online-Only Exhibits Veterans History Project Merchandise Directions / Contact Blog Home Donate Memorial Bricks About NASFL History NASFL Timeline The Avenger Exhibits Online-Only Exhibits Veterans History Project Merchandise Directions / Contact Blog The Mystery of Flight 19 On exhibit 'The Lost Squadron' by Bob Jenny © NASFL Museum Flight 19 Disappearance: 5 December 1945, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.At about 2:10pm Eastern Standard Time. A warm day with billowing clouds soaring overhead in the current of a gusting southwest trade wind. The temperature was 67 degrees. The general weather conditions were considered average for training flights of this nature, except within showers.Flight 19 is mistakenly called "The Lost Patrol." It was not a patrol flight, it was a training flight. It was supposed to be a routine navigation exercise and mock bombing run: a squadron of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers carrying 14 men were to fly to the Hen and Chickens shoals in the Bahamas, to practice dropping their torpedoes and then return to the Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station. It was their last practice before graduation, and they had done this before (it was simply called Flight 19 as there were Flight 17, Flight 18, etc, training squadrons on that particular day). Flight 19 completed their assigned exercise and on their way back about 90 minutes after takeoff, the squadron commander Lt. Charles C. Taylor reported that he was lost. By this time, the weather and sea conditions got worse, as the evening wore on.Over the next three hours Lt. Taylor mistakenly led Flight 19 far out to sea, where the planes apparently ran out of fuel and crashed. That was on December 5, 1945, several months after the end of World War II. A massive search was launched for 5 lost planes, with units of the Navy, Army and Coast Guard to scour the sea for the lost NASFL Aircraft. Their disappearance launched one of the largest air and sea searches in history, and began the legend of the Bermuda Triangle. To this date, Flight 19 remains one of the great aviation mysteries.THE SQUADRONFT - 28 Flight Leader: NASFL Instructor, Lt. Charles Carroll Taylor, USNR. Aircraft: TBM-3D - BuNo 23307. Crew: Gunner George Francis Devlin, AOM3c, USNR. Radioman: Walter Reed Parpart, Jr. ARM3c, USNR.FT - 36 Pilot: Capt. Edward Joseph Powers, USMC. Aircraft: TBM-1C - BuNo 46094.Crew: Gunner Sgt. Howell Orrin Thompson, USMCR. Radioman: Sgt. George Richard Paonessa, USMCR. FT - 81 Pilot: 2nd Lt. Forrest James Gerber, USMCR. Aircraft: TBM-1C - BuNo 46325.Crew: (Only one) Pfc. William Lightfoot, USMCR. That day, Corporal Allan Kosnar had asked to be excused from this exercise.FT- 3 Pilot: Ensign Joseph Tipton Bossi, USNR. Aircraft: TBM-1C - BuNo 45714. Crew: Gunner Herman Arthur Thelander, S1c, USNR. Radioman: Burt E. Baluk, S1c, USNR.FT- 117 Pilot: Captain George William Stivers Jr., USMC. Aircraft: TBM-1C - BuNo 73209.Crew: Gunner Sgt. Robert Francis Gallivan, USMCR. Radioman: Pvt. Robert Peter Gruebel, USMCR.DECEMBER 5, 1945The squadron's flight plan was scheduled to take them due east from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale for 141 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 140-mile leg to complete the exercise. Flight 19's location was last given as 75 miles northeast of Cocoa, Florida. At that time the planes had slightly more than one hour's fuel supply. They may actually have been as much as 200 miles at sea. Meanwhile, weather and sea conditions got worse, as the evening wore on. It was reported by the airport weather station at Miami, that a large area of turbulent air rolled out of a storm centered over Georgia, sweeping over Jacksonville about noon, and reaching Miami by nightfall. Squalls on the surface, 40 mile winds at 1,000 feet, and full hurricane of 75 miles an hour at 8,000 feet, was recorded at 4:00pm.There was a radio conversation that took place between flight leader Taylor and fellow Navy pilot Lt. Robert F. Cox, a Senior Flight Instructor who was in the air but not part of Flight 19. This conversation was uncovered in the Board of Investigation records. The last transmission from Flight 19 took place at 19:04 when Lt. Cox was on air communicating with Flight 19, until their signal got weaker. He wanted to search for the Squadron at this point, but was told not to, by NASFL officials who feared losing another pilot. An interesting note, is that the control tower officials at NAS Fort Lauderdale had a "ready plane" to search at the last transmission location, but they decided to ground all planes. At some point the crew tried to communicate between themselves: Ensign Bossi, and also Capt. Powers separately, tried to take control (Powers was higher in rank than the pilot leader, but still a student on the Avenger). They both communicated with the Squadron leader suggesting that they should be correcting their course. Captain Charles Taylor was initia...

Flight 19 the Lost Avengers