On December 5, 1945, five Navy torpedo bombers took off from Fort Lauderdale on a routine navigation exercise and never came back — the disappearance that launched the legend of the Bermuda Triangle. Partway through, the flight leader, Lt. Charles Taylor, radioed that both his compasses had failed: "I am sure I'm in the Keys but I don't know how far down and I don't know how to get to Fort Lauderdale." He was actually far to the north, over the open Atlantic, and led his students east and out to sea.
One trainee was heard pleading over the radio, "if we could just fly west we would get home; head west, dammit." As fuel ran low, Taylor's last message came in: "when the first plane drops below 10 gallons, we all go down together."
All 14 men vanished. A Martin Mariner flying boat sent to find them disappeared too, with 13 aboard — a passing tanker reported a burst of flames on the water where it had been. The Navy first blamed Taylor, then revised the finding to "cause unknown."
Previously:
• Plane disappeared and crashed in Bermuda Triangle, family still missing
