What Happened to The Lost Patrol?

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One of the most bizarre disappearances in the history of aviation concerns the Lost Patrol, five US Navy torpedo bombers that disappeared off the face of the earth. On Wednesday, 5 December 1945 at 2 pm, Flight 19, also known as the Lost Patrol, left the Naval Air Station at Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Lost Patrol was last seen rising in formation smoothly into the clear sky as they swung out eastward over the Atlantic Ocean.

The aircraft were the most powerful and efficient ever built until that time. Each plane that comprised Flight 19 held three men: pilot, radio operator and gunner, making a grand total of 15. The flight leader, Lieutenant Charles Taylor, was an experienced war veteran and their mission was a routine navigational exercise involving two hours of flight time on a journey that traversed a course within the area known as the Bermuda Triangle.

At around 3:45 the control tower lost contact with Taylor and the Lost Patrol who despite clear weather, claimed he was lost. Shortly after 4 pm a large Martin Mariner flying boat, equipped with a specially reinforced hull for dangerous sea landings, a crew of 13 and full rescue equipment took off in the search of the Lost Patrol. Within ten minutes, the Mariner was never seen or heard from again. Despite a massive search and several false alarms over the years, no wreckage from the Lost Patrol or the Martin Mariner has ever been retrieved.

The Lost Patrol, despite continuous contact with the control tower until the very last minute, disappeared into the strange vortex known as the Bermuda Triangle, an area where many ships and planes have vanished over the years. It is also true that many ships have passed through the area unscathed, only deepening the mystery of the fate of the Lost Patrol.

The story of the Lost Patrol remains one of the strangest on record in the history of modern aviation.