The Disappearance of Flight 19

Much of the mystery surrounding the Bermuda Triangle stems from the mysterious disappearance of Flight 19. On December 5, 1945, five U.S. bombers took off from a U.S. Naval Air Base in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and subsequently disappeared. No trace of the planes or personnel involved in Flight 19 have ever been discovered.

At around 2:10 p.m. on December 5, 1945, five TBM Torpedo Bombers left on a training flight that would take them several hundred miles round trip over the Atlantic Ocean and back to their base. There were 14 men on board the planes. The flight instructor – who was piloting one of the bombers – had more than 2500 hours of flight time. Every other pilot involved had conducted 350-400 hours of flight time. In short, they weren’t the most experienced bunch, with the exception of the instructor, but they were hardly unprepared for a routine training flight.

When Flight 19 departed, it was a little windy and the water was choppy. This was within the norm for flight training in the area. Unfortunately, the weather got worse as the evening wore on. By then, Flight 19 was in trouble of an unknown sort. The weather was a problem for attempted search and rescue missions in the area.

At about an hour and a half into Flight 19, airplane and base radios began picking up strange communications between the Flight 19 bombers. It soon became apparent that Flight 19 had gotten lost. There was talk of at least two compasses malfunctioning. Over time, it was ascertained that Flight 19 had no idea where they were or what direction they should be heading. The instructor had the impression that they were over the Gulf of Mexico, while his students believed they were still over the Atlantic. Several attempts were made to change direction and stay on course long enough to spot land, but none were successful. There was only enough fuel in the planes to last until about 8 p.m. Radio communication was lost at about 6:20 p.m.

Numerous craft were sent out in search of Flight 19 in an attempt to set them on the right course. No one was able to spot the five planes. Even stranger, one of the patrol planes sent on the attempted search and rescue vanished as well. This disappearance is easier to solve. The plane was known to be something of a flying bomb. Men spoke of the smell of fuel inside of the plane. This would explain why a ship in the area reported an explosion in the sky and an oil slick upon the water in the area the plane was thought to have been. The plane itself was never found, nor were the men on board, who are thought to have died in the explosion.

The most likely scenarios place Flight 19 over the Gulf of Mexico or far east of Florida when they ran out of fuel. It is assumed that they would have attempted to make a water landing, which would have spelled their doom. The planes would not have made the landing and the men would have died on impact or while they were awaiting rescue in the open water. This would explain why nothing was ever found.

Other theories include aliens, time vortexes, rips in the space time continuum and so forth. None of these theories has any basis in fact, but they cannot be discredited as there is no proof of the fate of Flight 19 apart from the fact that they were obviously lost and would have run low on fuel. The fact that the five planes in Flight 19 disappeared as well as one of the planes that was searching for them only fuels such theories. Indeed, the disappearance of Flight 19 and the search plane was quite a strange occurrence.

By: Shelly Barclay

Sources:

historicmysteries.com

Department of the Navy, The Loss of Flight 19, retrieved 11/21/10, history.navy.mil/faqs/faq15-1.htm
McDonell, Michael, Lost Patrol, retrieved 11/21/10, history.navy.mil/faqs/faq15-2.htm

UFO files: World War II Essex sighting revealed

An apparent UFO sighting in Essex during the Second World War features in a raft of UFO reports confirmed to the public today by The National Archives. 

The 25 files, which contain 4,400 pages, include details of a "saucer shaped object" encountered by a Barking teenager in 1943/44 . 

"saucer shaped object" encountered by a Barking teenager in 1943/44.

Details of a possible UFO sighting in Barking during the Second World War are included in files released today by The National Archive

Unexplained lights spotted by a police officer in Brightlingsea also feature, as does an orange light seen by a mother and child in Harlow.

The documents are the 10th and final tranche of UFO files released by The National Archives. They cover the work carried out during the final two years of the Ministry of Defence (MoD)’s UFO desk, from late 2007 until November 2009.

They include details of Government policy, official correspondence with senior ministers and the handling of the largest ever number of UFO sighting reports received since 1978 - the year the film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was released.

The files contain accounts of alleged abductions and contact with aliens, as well as details of UFO sightings near UK landmarks.

Included in the files is a handwritten letter sent to the MoD by a man in his eighties who claims to have seen a UFO during the Second World War.

Prompted to share details of his experience in 2008 after reading an article about UFOs in the Daily Mail, the Barking man describes seeing "in the sky a large saucer shaped object (with coloured lights all round its side) spinning around and hovering above Barking Station before speedily floating and spinning away in the direction of Barking Park and then Dagenham.

"I would assume it to be around 300/400 ft above ground level and there was absolute silence from it. From where I was standing, the size was around 7ft wide 2ft deep."

The man, who says he was 15 or 16 at the time of the incident, adds: "I have always associated the sighting with being connected to the war but seeing all these pictures of UFOs, they are an absolute replica of what I saw in 1943/44."

'Police officer sighting'

Also included in today’s files is an email from a police officer which details a possible UFO sighting.

The officer describes being at her friend’s address in Brightlingsea on New Year’s Eve 2008, smoking a cigarette outside. "In the sky was a bright orange/yellow light at first glance I ignored it thinking it was a trailing firework but then double took as it did not disappear.

"It moved very slowly in like a half circle around the top of us then stopped over the water between Brightlingsea and East Mersea. It was quite large and the night was extremely clear with no clouds or mist.

"I hazard a guess about 1500 to 2000 feet up. It stayed perfectly still for about 3-4 minutes then appeared to shoot straight up in the air very fast, going completely out of view in less than 30 seconds."

The officer said her ex-RAF boyfriend was "as disturbed as I was with no answer" when she later asked him what the object might have been.

Images: themysteryworld.com

'Unexplained lights'

The newly-released files also include an email from a Harlow mother who, along with her seven-year-old son, saw "a diamond shape orange light" in May 2009.

"It certainly was not a plane as these could be seen clearly at a greater height and all flashing lights could be seen on those. Above us (if you were to hold out your hand) it would have been the size of a 20 pence piece," the email read.

"The object was almost silent as this was around 10pm, and carried on its path into the distance. I went to call my partner and at the same time was talking to my son about what we had both seen and in the same place another orange object appeared and travelled in the same direction, again, no flashing lights or obvious shape and also almost silent.

"I waited for almost 20 minutes trying to convince myself it may have been the route of planes, but nothing else was seen".

Unexplained lights were also spotted by a Chigwell resident in December 2008. In an email to the MoD, the individual says "it was quiet spooky, it was around 7pm I let my dog out to the back garden and these lights in the sky lasted around half an hour, they seemed as high as the planes moving slowly, they looked as though they were coming from the Loughton/Abridge area, they came in groups of three on top one middle and one bottom but not in line.

"They looked like an orange/yellow streetlight colour, the lights kept coming from above the trees and when they got directly in line with my back bedroom window they disappeared there was no noise coming from these things, there must have been at least 30 or more."

Other highlights in today’s files include reports of UFOs spotted near UK landmarks; one hovering opposite the Houses of Parliament and one near Stonehenge.

The files also include a report received via the UFO hotline by someone who had been "living with an Alien" in Carlisle for some time, and a report by a man from Cardiff who claimed a UFO abducted his dog, car and tent while he was camping with friends in 2007.

The files also show in 2009 Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth was told that in more than 50 years, "no UFO sighting reported to [MoD] has ever revealed anything to suggest an extra-terrestrial presence or military threat to the UK".

This led to their decision to close the UFO Desk and with it the UFO hotline and dedicated email address.

Dr David Clarke, author of the book 'The UFO Files', said: "The last pieces of the puzzle have finally been revealed with this insight into the last days of the UFO desk.

"These files spell out clearly why the MoD decided – after 60 years – it no longer needed to keep tabs on sightings, even those made by 'credible' people such as police officers and pilots.

"The last files from the UFO desk are now all in the public domain. People at home can read them and draw their own conclusions about whether 'the truth' is in these files or still out there."

 Source:  thisistotalessex.co.uk

A World War II mystery

Images: palmbeachpost.com

A World War II mystery: Why is a Navy fighter plane submerged off Miami Beach?

His submarine was whirring along the bottom of the ocean, 240 feet below the twinkling turquoise Atlantic off Miami Beach, when the sub’s pilot, Stockton Rush, came upon a dark but familiar shape nestled in the sand.

No, this was not the wreckage of a ship, which his sonar had seemed to suggest. But he is an airplane pilot, and so was his co-pilot on the five-person sub that day, so they immediately recognized a plane when they saw one — even flipped upside down at the bottom of the ocean.

“It was just a total shock,” he said.

What started off as a job studying artificial reefs for Miami-Dade County last summer became one of the Navy’s most significant finds in years: One of a handful of remaining examples of a World War II fighter plane that helped Americans win the air war against the Japanese.

High definition video that Rush’s company, OceanGate Inc., sent to the Navy confirmed it was a Grumman F6F Hellcat, first built in 1942 specifically to counter the Japanese Zero, which was faster, flew higher and could outmaneuver America’s air force.

Now, begins the task of untangling the mystery on how and why this particular Hellcat ended up on the Miami Beach ocean floor. Rush’s company announced the discovery late last month.

The find is significant because although more than 12,000 Hellcats were built, mostly during the war, only a few original planes remain today, said Hill Goodspeed, historian at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola.

“Any time you can see an aircraft like this, it’s exciting,” Goodspeed said. “It’s always neat because you’re seeing that aircraft in its original state.”

The Hellcat came along at just the right time during the last days of propeller fighters ruling the skies.

America was entrenched in World War II when the Hellcat came into service in August 1943, less than a year after it finished its final testing. But the proof of its power was immediately visible, Goodspeed said.

The Hellcat, which replaced the Grumman F4F Wildcat, was faster, could fly higher and had better range than its predecessor, thanks, in part to its 2,000-horsepower Pratt & Whitney supercharged engines. It was also more versatile, and able to carry more firepower than its predecessor. It could carry light bombs for long-range missions. It could win a dogfight when fitted with six 50-caliber machine guns. And it could be launched and landed on carriers.

“It added more capabilities than the Japanese aircraft it was facing,” Goodspeed said.

Grumman began cranking out Hellcats at an astonishing rate. At one point in the war, they were producing one Hellcat an hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s no wonder that 12,275 rolled off the lines until production stopped in November 1947.

At a cost of about $51,000 per plane, the entire fleet would cost the same as about six $137 million F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, today’s cutting edge dogfighter.

Plus, when combined with the Navy’s experienced pilots, who would often return to the training rooms to teach young pilots, the Hellcat reigned supreme. To date, the Navy’s all-time lead ace, Capt. David McCampbell — who was born in West Palm Beach and retired to Lake Worth before his passing in 1996 — still holds the Navy record with 34 enemy planes shot down, all done in Hellcats.

“It was exactly what the U.S. Navy needed at that point,” Goodspeed said.

But technology caught up with the Hellcat. By time the war ended, America was on the verge of the jet age. (Germany was already field-testing a jet in the last months of the war.) The Hellcats went out of service, older planes were scrapped. Some Hellcats were used as test planes and even un-manned drones as late as 1961, Goodspeed said.

OceanGate will try to determine, from any visible serial numbers, exactly what the plane was doing on its last run. Because it was found with its landing gear stowed, Rush believes the pilot had prepared for a crash landing.

Florida was an active training center for Navy and Marine fighter pilots, which flew the Hellcat, and 79 planes were lost between 1943 and 1952, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command, though many were safe bailouts and water landings.

But the Navy acknowledges this Hellcat could very well be an American pilot’s final resting place. So, Goodspeed said, the Navy will deliberate carefully about the plane’s historical value before deciding whether to raise it.

The team plans to return to the site several times, hoping to get closer to this particular plane’s history.

“Who was on it? What was it doing on its last flight?” Goodspeed wonders. “That’s the big mystery.” (The Palm Beach Post)  by Carlos Frias