Editing Flight 19 (section)

== Avenger wreckage mistaken for Flight 19 and other searches ==
In 1986, the wreckage of an Avenger was found off the Florida coast during the search for the [[STS-51-L|wreckage]] of the [[Space Shuttle]] ''[[Space Shuttle Challenger|Challenger]]''.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4O6gBQAAQBAJ&q=,+the+wreckage+of+an+Avenger+was+found+off+the+Florida+coast+during+the+search+for+the+wreckage+of+the+Space+Shuttle+Challenger&pg=PA30|title=Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale: A Catalyst for Growth|first=Minerva|last=Bloom |year=2015|publisher=Lulu.com |isbn=978-1304076465|access-date=September 20, 2015|via=Google Books}}</ref> [[Aviation archaeology|Aviation archaeologist]] Jon Myhre raised this wreck from the ocean floor in 1990.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1992-08-09-9201140787-story.html|title=One Man's Mission: Hunting the Lost Patrol Jon Myhre's Obsessive Search for Flight 19 has Cost Him Home, Job and Health. Have the Mysterious Forces of the Bermuda Triangle Claimed Yet Another Victim?|first=Vicki|last=McCash|date=August 9, 1992|website=Sun-Sentinel.com|access-date=December 13, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191213043530/https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1992-08-09-9201140787-story.html|archive-date=December 13, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> He mistakenly believed that it was one of the missing planes.<ref>The aircraft was TBM Avenger 45798, lost January 1945 off Florida coast from {{USS|Solomons}}. [http://blog.nasflmuseum.com/events-blog/category/project-19 NAS Ft Lauderdale Museum] and J. Baugher aircraft listing</ref>

In 1991, a treasure-hunting expedition led by [[Graham Hawkes]] announced that the wreckage of five Avengers had been discovered off the coast of Florida, but their tail numbers revealed they were not Flight 19.<ref name=NYT1991-06-05a>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/05/us/mystery-of-bermuda-triangle-remains-one.html|title=Mystery of Bermuda Triangle Remains One|newspaper=The New York Times|first=Tim|last=Golden|author-link=Tim Golden (journalist)|date=June 5, 1991|access-date=September 10, 2014|quote=The undersea explorers who announced last month that they might have discovered five Navy planes that vanished mysteriously in 1945, laying a foundation for the myth of a craft-swallowing Caribbean twilight zone, said that on closer inspection, the planes they found turned out not to be those of the fabled 'Flight 19.' ... Mr. Hawkes said at a news conference that in four of the five cases, the tail numbers of the planes his team had found did not match those of the lost aircraft.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171110233551/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/05/us/mystery-of-bermuda-triangle-remains-one.html|archive-date=November 10, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=MensJournal2012-03a/> In 2004, a BBC documentary showed Hawkes returning with a new submersible 12 years later and identifying one of the planes by its bureau number (a clearly readable 23990<ref name=Video2004a/>) as a flight lost at sea on October 9, 1943, over two years before Flight 19 (its crew all survived<ref name="Swint01a">Indeed, as documented [https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/21004 here]  in the ''[[Military Times]]'' Hall of Valor, the pilot, George Swint, went on to become a decorated war hero flying torpedo bombers from the {{USS|Enterprise|CV-6|6}} (an [[aircraft carrier]] that eventually gave its name to the [[Starship Enterprise|spaceship]] in ''[[Star Trek]]'') in 1944 and the {{USS|Lexington|CV-16|6}} in 1945, receiving the [[Navy Cross]] for "extraordinary heroism" in 1944 and the [[Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)|DFC]] for "extraordinary achievement" in 1945.</ref>), but he was unable to definitively identify the other planes; the documentary concluded that "Despite the odds, they are just a random collection of accidents that came to rest in the same place {{convert|12|mi|km|disp=sqbr}} from home."<ref name=BBC2004a>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007c68n|title=The Bermuda Triangle: Beneath the Waves|publisher=[[BBC]]|date=2004|access-date=September 10, 2014|quote=Graham Hawkes is also able to reveal, by using a state-of-the-art submarine, how five wrecks mysteriously wound up 730 feet down in the heart of the Bermuda Triangle.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141228164617/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007c68n|archive-date=December 28, 2014|url-status=live}}
<br/>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007c68n/broadcasts Broadcasts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323023341/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007c68n/broadcasts |date=March 23, 2016 }}: First broadcast (BBC1): Sun March 14, 2004; BBC4:Sat December 28, 2013, Mon January 6, 2014, Tue January 7, 2014, Thu March 6, 2014, Fri March 7, 2014, Tue August 9, 2014, Wed August 10, 2014
<br/>Alternative name (and full credits) at [[IMDb]]: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408692/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm Dive to Bermuda Triangle (2004)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150401035959/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408692/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm |date=April 1, 2015 }}
<br/>[http://livedash.ark.com/transcript/the_bermuda_triangle__beneath_the_waves/6630/TRAVP/Sunday_June_13_2010/332273/ Transcript of the text of a shortened version of the program (including advertisements)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140910195530/http://livedash.ark.com/transcript/the_bermuda_triangle__beneath_the_waves/6630/TRAVP/Sunday_June_13_2010/332273/ |date=September 10, 2014 }}:</ref><ref name=Video2004a>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GICglVEAIlI&t=34m41s|title=Online Video Extract from 'The Bermuda Triangle: Beneath the Waves'|publisher=YouTube|date=2004|access-date=September 10, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817175744/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GICglVEAIlI&t=34m41s|archive-date=August 17, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

In March 2012, Hawkes was reported as saying it had suited both him (and indirectly his investors) and the [[The Pentagon|Pentagon]] to make the story go away because it was an expensive and time-consuming distraction, and that, while admitting he had found no conclusive evidence, a statistician he consulted said it was Flight 19.<ref name=MensJournal2012-03a>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/graham-hawkes-and-the-race-to-the-bottom-of-the-sea-20140114?page=3|title=Graham Hawkes and the Race to the Bottom of the Sea|page=3|magazine=[[Men's Journal]]|first=Adam|last=Higginbotham|date=March 2012|access-date=September 10, 2014|quote=Hawkes has since changed his story. Now he says both he (because his investors didn't want to waste valuable time on an investigation) and the Pentagon (because they had more important things to worry about) had an interest in making the story go away. He admits that while he didn't find conclusive evidence that the planes were the same group that went missing in 1945, he consulted a statistician to establish the probability that they were not. "He said, 'You've got Flight 19,' " Hawkes says.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140910195233/http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/graham-hawkes-and-the-race-to-the-bottom-of-the-sea-20140114?page=3|archive-date=September 10, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Records showed that training accidents between 1942 and 1945 accounted for the loss of 95 aviation personnel from NAS Fort Lauderdale.<ref name="NASFtLaudhist">{{cite web |url=http://www.nasflmuseum.com/memorial.html |title=Flight 19 Memorial |publisher=Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum |access-date=December 13, 2010 |quote=A sad but equally historic note is the fact that 95 young Americans lost their lives at the NAS Fort Lauderdale base during 1942–1945 – the three most intensive training years of the war. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714154719/http://www.nasflmuseum.com/memorial.html |archive-date=July 14, 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1992, another expedition located scattered debris on the ocean floor, but nothing could be identified. In the 2000s, searchers{{Who|date=March 2019}} expanded their search area farther east, into the Atlantic Ocean, but the remains of Flight 19 have still not been confirmed found.{{Citation needed|date=March 2019}}

A 2015 newspaper report claimed a wrecked World War II era warplane with Navy markings and two bodies still inside was retrieved by the Navy in the mid-1960s after being discovered by a hunter in the woods near [[Sebastian, Florida|Sebastian]], Florida. The Navy initially said it was from Flight 19 but later recanted its statement. Despite [[Freedom of Information Act (United States)|Freedom of Information Act]] requests for details in 2013,<ref>{{citation | last= Kaye | first= Ken | title= Were two dead pilots part of Lost Patrol? | url= http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-flight-19-bodies-20150402-story.html | newspaper= Sun Sentinel | location= Fort Lauderdale, FL | date= April 2, 2015 | access-date= April 6, 2015 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150405235504/http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-flight-19-bodies-20150402-story.html | archive-date= April 5, 2015 | url-status= live }}</ref> the names are still not known because the Navy does not have enough information to identify the bodies.

A wrecked plane found in the Everglades in [[Broward County]] was also, incorrectly, postulated to be from Flight 19.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.aeroquest.org/ft-28-theory.html|title=FT-28 Theory|website=AeroQuest|access-date=March 26, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190326162252/http://www.aeroquest.org/ft-28-theory.html|archive-date=March 26, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> In fact this TBM-3E crashed March 16, 1947.<ref>{{citation
 |title        = TBM-3 Avenger ( BuNo: 53118) – Mystery Solved!
 |url          = http://www.aeroquest.org/tbm-3-avenger-buno53118.html%0A%C2%A0
 |magazine     = AeroQuest
 |date         = April 18, 2014
 |access-date  = March 22, 2018
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20180323154751/http://www.aeroquest.org/tbm-3-avenger-buno53118.html
 |archive-date = March 23, 2018
 |url-status   = live
}}</ref> The crash reportedly occurred because its pilot, Ensign Ralph N. Wachob, developed vertigo. Wachob was killed in the crash.

As of the 2020s, no trace of the five TBM Avengers or the PBM Mariner and the 27 missing aviators have been found.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-08-31 |title=Researchers reveal key discovery in Bermuda Triangle: Wreckage 'has a story to tell' |url=https://www.today.com/news/history-channel-doc-reveals-key-discovery-bermuda-triangle-t229521 |access-date=2023-11-26 |website=TODAY.com |language=en}}</ref> The most likely conclusion is that the Avengers ran out of gas and ditched at sea, and the PBM experienced a mid-air explosion.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gaffey |first=Mike |date=2017-04-03 |title=Monument to crew lost during Flight 19 search will be dedicated April 11 at Patrick |url=https://www.vieravoice.com/senior-life/stripes/monument-to-crew-lost-during-flight-19-search-will-be-dedicated-april-11-at-patrick/article_26d8d734-8cf1-5e93-a6e9-fd36b6a8e4fd.html |access-date=2023-11-26 |website=Viera Voice |language=en}}</ref>