Disaster of Flight 19 by Katherine Koegel

Katherine Koegel

Composition 1301

Research Essay

 "All planes close up tight ... we'll have to ditch unless landfall ... when the first plane drops below 10 gallons, we all go down together." These were last words spoken by Lt. Charles Carroll Taylor before Flight 19 would never be heard of again. This all started on December 5^th, 1945 when 14 crew members, including Lt. Taylor, went on a training flight to test bombings over an area in the Bahamas known as Hen and Chickens and never returned. Several conspiracy theories have been created based off of the location of the accident: the Bermuda triangle is an evil area that causes planes and ships to disappear, the Bermuda triangle holds hexagonal clouds that form air bombs causing large winds and setting planes off track, or electronic fog happened to get into the plane causing all electronics to misdirect the crew. Let’s take a deeper look into these conspiracy theories and focus on the most realistic one, hexagonal clouds were formed and caused the planes of Flight 19 to redirect to an unknown location.

Google 1940s pilots and flight 19, and Charles Carrol Taylor will be the first to appear as the instructor of the mission.  Lieutenant Charles C. Taylor, in all his black and white photos, appears as a charming Caucasian man with brown hair, brown eyes dressed in his all-white naval uniform. He was born on October 25, 1917, in Nueces County, Texas and grew up both adventurous and passionate about flying (McElhiney, 1). In hopes to continue this passion, Taylor joined the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II in order to attend NAS Corpus Christi, Texas, to fulfill his dream of being a flight instructor (1). He graduated in 1942 at the age of 24 and his instructor dream was a reality (1).  By 1943 his experiences in the air continued to increase:

He flew with Scouting Squadron 62 and later that year, he became a torpedo plane pilot with Squadron 7. From April to December 1944, he was aboard the USS Hancock as part of Task Force 38. Also part of Acorn 36 at NAS Miami Opa Locka, and Squadron 79. He was recently transferred to NAS Fort Lauderdale (November 21, 1945), where he served as a flight instructor (1).

Taylor totaled 3,125.3 of flight hours in the air, equivalent to 130 days of straight time not including ground education (1).  By the age of 28, he was the commanding officer of Flight 19 (1). Overall, Taylor showed that he had a high wealth of first-hand experience and was considered knowledgeable on the subject of flying.

            Unfortunately, although Taylor had a high aptitude for flying knowledge, his own confidence may have been a detriment in regard to his stubbornness when being proven wrong in regard to any flight matters. For example, during Flight 19, the crew he was leading began to get lost after heading to Hens and Chicken Shoals in the Bahamas to practice bombings (Andrews, 1). Taylor was persistent that the crew was above the Gulf of Mexico and ordered everyone to steer northeast in hopes to land near the Florida peninsula (1). After he announced the redirecting to his crew, they all began to argue how it was mathematically impossible for them to have traveled that far from their base (1). They all suggested following normal protocols when they get lost, which were to “point their planes toward the setting sun and fly west toward the mainland” (1). Taylor, however, didn’t listen to the multiple pilots opposing his recommendation and instead stuck with his original plan causing those in the mission to be very angry that their input was ignored. One man even spoke on the radio and replied “dammit… If we would just fly west, we would get home” (1). Taylor’s hardheadedness caused him to decline normal protocols and lead the crew to their demise of being lost and never found.

Besides having a wealth of flight experience and education with a level of stubbornness in regard to flying, Taylor may have also had a touch of clairvoyance. It is documented that Lieutenant Taylor “had for unknown reasons implored the command not to go through” the day before Flight 19 was scheduled (Seaburn, 1).  Directors of the flight missions, however, were able to convince him to not cancel because of the expected perfect weather forecasted for flight day and there had been a rush to continue the flight practices for the pilots-in-training (1). As the day of the flight came, Taylor ended up showing up hours late, again, for no apparent reason (1). His tardiness caused the crew to have to adjust their training schedule to rush through it to allow them to be able to get back before dark. All of Taylor’s recent abnormal behaviors in regard to this flight schedule caused the crew to question Taylor and if he was in the right state of mind to fly the plane much less to lead the training exercise. To this day, no one still knows why he was late or wanted to cancel, leaving his actions still a mystery.

knows why he was late or wanted to cancel, leaving is actions still a mystery.

              After the disappearance of Flight 19, several conspiracy theories have been made. But before identifying the conspiracy theories, a survey was taken to see how many people believed in the Bermuda Triangle. It was set up the survey to see if people believed the Bermuda triangle was made up of magic or that there was an ordinary scientific reason behind it. As an ending result, it was found that 49.12% indeed believed that the Bermuda Triangle was a mystical place, leaving 50.88% of people not believing in it. But only one of the sides can be true.

 In the first conspiracy theory, many people believe that the Bermuda triangle is an evil area that causes planes and ships to disappear. These people tend to call this area the “Devil’s Triangle” due to all the mysterious disappearances in the past (Editors, 1). It all started when Christopher Columbus claimed to have seen “a great flame of fire” causing the compass to read random things (1).  As time continued to pass on, another ship had a weird interaction in the area. In March 1918 “a 542-foot-long Navy cargo ship with over 300 men” completely disappeared in the area, having no one onboard report any problems or situation before the disappearance (1). This patterned continued throughout the years having vessels disappear in the area when being transferred to a different location (1). Although this may seem like a good enough reason to say that the Bermuda Triangle is a mystical area with random disappearances and strange occurrences, this isn’t a valid enough reason to fully believe this theory. We have to keep in mind that most of these disappearances occurred when we didn’t have as much technology as we do today. On May 15, 2017, a similar disappearance happened across the Bermuda Triangle where a plane vanished (Admin 2, 1). But, luckily, due to the new technology people were able to find the wreckage hours later proving that not all planes completely disappear when flying through the Bermuda Triangle (1).

The second conspiracy theory is that the Bermuda Triangle holds hexagonal clouds that form air bombs causing large winds and setting planes off track. Meteorologists have studied this phenomenon in the area and have discovered that indeed air bombs in the shape of hexagonal clouds form above the Bermuda Triangle (Admin, 1). It is said that these air bombs “send out winds to the ocean beneath at speeds of up to 170 miles per hour” (1). Having wind this fast is considered very dangerous for anything passing the area because they are unexpected and hard to detect (1). Knowing that Lt. Charles Taylor reported there being strong “gusting winds” causing them to get off track and no longer know their location helps prove that there was a high probability that hexagonal clouds formed causing their disappearance (Andrews, 1). It was also said that Lt. Charles Taylor reported being over the Gulf of Mexico even though the speed they were traveling was mathematically impossible to travel that far (1). Given the information that hexagonal clouds could have formed backs up Lt. Charles Taylor’s claim, increasing the likelihood that this conspiracy theory is what happened.

The third conspiracy theory is about how electronic fog happened to get into the plane causing all electronics to misdirect the crew. It is said that “ships and aircraft get engulfed in some kind of electronic fog and the fog keeps moving with the ship or plane. And eventually, all the electronic equipment and other instruments start malfunctioning” (Admin, 1). This too is another reasonable theory on why the planes of Flight 19 disappeared. As Lt. Charles Taylor was communicating to people back at the home base he reported that his compasses were malfunctioning (McElhiney, 1). After stating the likely effects of the electronic fog, the malfunctioning compass fits directly under the scenario. But this conspiracy theory can also be easily said invalid because the crew had the sunset to direct them back to home. In the case of getting lost, the crew is supposed to point their planes towards the sunset to redirect themselves to the mainland (Andrews, 1). So, given that the crew could have made it back home without compasses cancels out this conspiracy theory.           

Lt. Charles C Taylor, along with the rest of his crew, still remains one of the main groups that have completely vanished in the Bermuda Triangle area. This mystical event developed into three main conspiracy theories: the Bermuda Triangle is an evil area that causes planes and ships to disappear, the Bermuda Triangle holds hexagonal clouds that form air bombs causing large winds and setting planes off track, or electronic fog happened to get into the plane causing all electronics to misdirect the crew. Although most of the evidence points to hexagonal clouds being the main cause of the crew’s disappearance, this mystery that took place still remains unsolved.

Works Cited

Admin. “Bermuda Triangle Theories That Will Stun You.” Bermuda Attractions, www.bermuda-attractions.com/bermuda2_000061.htm.

Admin 2. “Flight MU-2B in Bermuda Triangle.” Flight MU-2B in Bermuda Triangle, www.bermuda-attractions.com/bermuda2_0001c1.htm.

Andrews, Evan. “The Mysterious Disappearance of Flight 19.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 4 Dec. 2015, www.history.com/news/the-mysterious-disappearance-of-flight-19.

History.com Editors. “Bermuda Triangle.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 7 Oct. 2010, www.history.com/topics/folklore/bermuda-triangle.                           

McElhiney, Allan. “Flight 19 the Lost Avengers.” Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum, www.nasflmuseum.com/flight-19.html.

McElhiney, Allan. “Lt. Charles Carroll Taylor, USNR Flight 19 Instructor, FT-28.” Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum, 2010, www.nasflmuseum.com/taylor.html.

Seaburn, Paul, and Nick Redfern. “Bizarre Last Transmissions from Mysteriously Vanished Planes.” Mysterious Universe, 23 Dec. 2017, mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/12/bizarre-last-transmissions-from-mysteriously-vanished-planes/.