On this day in 1945, an aircraft squadron was lost in the Bermuda Triangle. 5 U.S. Navy torpedo-bombers were on a scheduled flight called Flight 19 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The flight was scheduled go east for 120 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 120-mile leg that would return them to the naval base. They never returned back to the base.

Two hours after the flight began, the leader of the squadron reported that his compass and back-up compass had failed and that his position was unknown. The other planes had experienced similar tool malfunctions as well. Facilities back on land tried to find their location but were unsuccessful. After two more hours of confused messages from the fliers, a distorted radio transmission from the squadron leader was heard at 6:20 p.m., apparently calling for his men to prepare to ditch their aircraft simultaneously because of lack of fuel.

The facilities were able to determine the approximate area where the planes could be: somewhere north of the Bahamas and east of the Florida coast. Later, a Mariner aircraft with a 13-man crew took off to search for the planes at 7:27 p.m. The Mariner was never heard from again. Later, there was a report from a tanker cruising off the coast of Florida of a visible explosion seen at 7:50 p.m. Later, there was a small explosion seen from the area of the facilities where they were searching for Flight 19.

The mystery of the 14 men of Flight 19 and the 13 men of the Mariner’s disappearance led to one of the largest air and sea searches to this date, and hundreds of ships and aircraft reached thousands of square miles of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and locations within the interior of Florida. No traces of the bodies or aircraft were ever found in the Bermuda Triangle. There is much controversy over the mysterious Bermuda Triangle. Some people say it is something unknown that is causing the disappearances and some say it’s all just a bunch of coincidences.

The story of ‘Lost Squadron’ contributed to the legend of this mysterious Bermuda Triangle, where ships and planes are said to disappear without a trace. The Bermuda Triangle is said to stretch from the southern U.S. coast across to Bermuda and down to the Atlantic coast of Cuba and Santo Domingo.