On the afternoon of December 5, 1945, five US Navy TBM Avenger torpedo planes, with a total crew of 14, took off from the Fort Lauderdale (Fort Lauderdale) naval base in the State of Florida. The weather conditions were perfect for the routine training flight, lasting about two hours.
The squadron was led by Lt. Charles Taylor, a pilot with 2,500 flying hours and experience on the fronts of World War II. The mission, code-named "Flight 19", as it was officially named, involved patrolling and bombing exercises along a route that roughly coincided with the area later known as the "Bermuda Triangle" (Miami-Puerto Rico-Bahamas).
All was going according to plan until 3:45 p.m., when Lt. Robert Cox, from another squadron on a similar mission, heard on the frequency that Flight 19 was experiencing a problem. Taylor informed him that both of his compasses were out of order and that was why he was having an orientation problem. "I'm trying to find the airport and I can't," he was heard saying. At 18:20 Cox last heard Taylor say:“We're out of fuel. We are falling".
The US Navy almost immediately organized one of the largest search and rescue operations, which lasted until December 10. Over 300 Navy aircraft and 21 ships participated in it. They "combed" literally over 250,000 square miles, without the slightest effect. All five planes had disappeared from the face of the earth. And as if that wasn't enough, a PBM-5 Martin Mariner seaplane, with a crew of 13, took off in search of "Flight 19" and disappeared minutes later.
According to the official 500-page finding of the Navy's investigative division, the responsibility fell on the leader of "Flight 19" Lt. Captain Taylor, who lost his orientation, as a result of which the entire flock ended up in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean due to lack of fuel. But there were several other scenarios, including the metaphysical. However, these theories have never received any official confirmation.
This incident went down in aviation history as the most mysterious air disappearance. Later, in April 1962, the legend of the "Bermuda Triangle" began to be created, in the middle of which the planes disappeared.
Nuclear bombs lost in the Mediterranean
On March 10, 1956, a US Air Force B-47 Stratojet bomber carrying two nuclear bombs disappeared without a trace. That day, four planes took off from MacDill Air Force Base in Florida bound for Ben-Gerir Air Force Base in Morocco.
The swarm successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean and refueled in the air. A second resupply was scheduled to take place over the Mediterranean Sea. The weather conditions were quite difficult to fly with heavy clouds adding to the situation. When at some point the normal level of visibility was restored, it was discovered that an aircraft with three crew members was missing.
Search and rescue teams were dispatched based on the aircraft's last known coordinates. French and Moroccan soldiers participated in the rescue operation in the area. Ships of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy also arrived in the area. However, they found nothing.
Shine in the sky
On the night of March 16, 1962, the US Air Force Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation disappeared. The plane was carrying 96 soldiers from California to Vietnam. In the middle of the flight, the plane landed for refueling on the island of Guam from where it took off, bound for the Philippines.
Although the weather conditions were excellent and the pilot had not reported any problems, the plane disappeared over the Pacific Ocean an hour before its scheduled landing at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. Over a thousand people, dozens of ships and aircraft participated in the search operation but without any result.
According to the commission's reports, "it was not possible to find the cause of the disappearance of the aircraft due to the lack of material evidence." The plane had no damage, the weather conditions were ideal, there were no reports from the crew of L-1049 of any emergencies.
The only clue was the testimony of the crew of the tanker "Lenzen", which was in about the same area at the time. The sailors said they saw a flash in the sky, which looked like an explosion. Searches in the area yielded no results. Eleven crew members and 96 passengers were declared dead. It is considered the largest plane disappearance of the 20th century in terms of the number of people on board.
The Lost Brigadier
On March 23, 1951, one of America's largest transport planes, the Douglas C-124, disappeared from the radar system. The plane was carrying 44 soldiers from Roswell Airport in New Mexico to Mildenhall Air Force Base in the United Kingdom. Among the passengers was Air Force Brigadier General Paul Thomas Cullen, who was heading to England with his subordinates to set up the 7th Air Force Unit there.
The plane was over the Atlantic Ocean, 1,500 kilometers south-west of Ireland, when the operator radioed a distress signal due to a fire starting in the cargo. The crew doused the plane in the water, all passengers were transferred to five life rafts. A long-range B-29 bomber left England to provide assistance. The crew saw the rafts while flying overhead until they ran out of fuel and then returned to base.
Since then the inexplicable events began. Rescue ships and aircraft only reached the landing area after 19 hours on 25 March. They found neither the plane nor the life rafts. They combed thousands of square miles of sea and returned to base without being able to find any evidence or provide any satisfactory rational explanation for the fate and circumstances of the disappearance of the plane, crew and passengers.
At the time there was even talk of the "Kremlin hand" being involved in the case, the alleged kidnapping of American troops from Soviet ships, due to Brigadier Cullen's high intelligence value. However, this has never been confirmed.
A year of searching
It was not disappearing without leaving a trace only the American warplanes. On August 12, 1937, a Soviet DB-A long-range bomber with the number N-209 took off from a Moscow airfield and headed for Arkhangelsk. The crew led by Hero of the Soviet Union Sigismund Levanevsky had a trans-Antarctic flight to the town of Fairbanks, Alaska. Judging from the first radiograms, things went well.
On August 14, however, Levanevsky stated that he was flying "in strong wind and thick clouds, the cabin windows were covered with frost and one of the engines had failed." The plane was in Alaska. After this message, communication with DB-A was terminated.
For about a year, pilots from the Soviet Union, Canada and the US searched for Levanevsky's plane. However, neither piles nor wreckage of the aircraft were found. There were different interpretations of the incident. According to one, the crew made an emergency landing in the Endicott Mountains in Alaska. American pilots carefully examined the area, but without any results.
Perhaps the bomber landed on a piece of ice and drifted into the Atlantic Ocean. The Eskimos apparently saw a plane crash into the water near the Canadian island of Thetis. Searches in the area again yielded no results. The pilots were officially recognized as fallen.
SOURCE:SPUTNIK