By Ken Kaye | Sun-Sentinel.com
DANIA BEACH - The strange disappearance of five torpedo bombers and their crews in 1945 helped popularize the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, the area between Fort Lauderdale, Bermuda and Puerto Rico where dozens of planes and boats have vanished.
On Wednesday, about 50 military and aviation officials gathered at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, site of the former naval air station where the planes departed, to remember the flight, also known as the Lost Patrol.
A bell was rung 14 times, once for each crew member lost on Flight 19.
It was rung another 13 times in honor of those on a seaplane that crashed after it was dispatched to look for the missing squadron.
"I think it's important to keep their memory alive," said Al McElhiney of Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, a historical association that coordinates the annual ceremony.
Because no trace of the bombers was ever found and the pilots' ultimate fate was never determined, Flight 19 remains one of aviation's great puzzles.
It was supposed to be a routine training exercise.
Five torpedo bombers, carrying 14 men, were to fly to the Bahamas, practice making a bomb run and return to Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station.
But 90 minutes after takeoff, squadron commander Lt. Charles C. Taylor reported he was lost. Over the next three hours, he errantly led Flight 19 far out to sea, where many experts believe the planes ran out of fuel and crashed.
That was on Dec. 5, 1945.
Frank Dailey, a retired Naval Reserve captain and one of Wednesday's featured speakers, participated in the massive search for the missing planes, flying in a PBY-5 seaplane.
"For four days, six hours a day, we plowed up and down the whole coast of Florida, looking for wreckage," said Dailey, 86, of Alpharetta, Ga. "We never saw a thing."
Several colorful theories surround the planes' disappearance, including one where they were abducted by extraterrestrials. Another asserts they wandered into a strong electromagnetic disturbance, messing up their compasses.
More practically, many experts think Taylor, the squadron leader, simply lost his bearings after his two compasses failed. Believing he was over the Keys, Taylor aimed the squadron northeast in hopes that would lead the single-engine bombers back to Fort Lauderdale.
Instead, it led the squadron out over the open Atlantic. To compound matters, the planes likely flew into stormy weather.
Taylor finally realized his mistake and aimed the planes west toward Florida's coast, but only after it was too late. In one of his last radio calls, he instructed the rest of the squadron:
"When the first man gets down to 10 gallons of gas, we will all land in the water together. Does everyone understand that?"
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