A squadron of five planes disappears over the Bermuda Triangle

Artist's depiction of the five TBM Avengers that disappeared.

On December 5, 1945, five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers – Flight 19 – took of from Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station on an over water navigation training flight. All five planes and the 14 men on them disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle.

Two hours into the flight, Flight 19's squadron leader reported his compasses had failed and his position was unknown. The other planes also reported similar malfunctions. Two more hours of confused messages occurred, with the last one being from the squadron leader calling for his men to ditch their aircraft because they were running out of fuel.

An hour later, a Mariner aircraft took off on a search and rescue mission for Flight 19 with a 13 man crew. It too disappeared. A tanker cruising off the coast of Florida reported seeing an explosion 20 minutes after the Mariner took off.

Hundreds of ships and aircraft combed thousands of square miles of the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico and even remote parts of Florida, but no trace of Flight 19 or the Mariner were ever found.