The Squadron That Flew Into Nowhere: The Last Flight of Flight 19

2026-05-05 · Vanished Without a Trace · 2 min read

At 2:10 in the afternoon on December 5, 1945, five Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bombers roared off the runway at Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The mission, known as Navigation Problem No. 1, was routine: fly east to the Hen and Chickens Shoals in the Bahamas for practice bombing, continue on a triangular course, and return home. Fourteen men were aboard. None of them would ever be seen again.

Leading the formation was Lieutenant Charles C. Taylor, a combat veteran with roughly 2,500 flight hours. About ninety minutes into the flight, radio operators began picking up troubling exchanges. Taylor's compasses had failed, and he had become convinced the flight was over the Florida Keys — far southwest of its actual position near the Bahamas. Every correction based on that false assumption pushed the squadron farther out into the Atlantic.

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