Interesting read
NOt
The truth:
Fact 1: Only the Patrol Leader Lt . Charles Taylor was an experienced pilot, and he had only recently been transferred to the US Naval Air Station in Fort Lauderdale. The other pilots, and all but one crew member were trainees.
Fact 2: The patrol was to conduct a low-level bo mbing mission at Hens and Chickens Shoal south of the Grand Bahamas. Lt. Taylor tried to get out of doing the flight, most likely because he was hung over.( He had been at a party
the night before.) No one else in the duty rotation felt like switching with him.
Fact 3: Soon after taking off, Taylor's compass went out, but he decided to fly by "dead reckoning" and "Pilotage".
Fact 4: Taylor got screwed up because of his dead reckoning flying. He was not wearing a watch (something that has been assumed because he was always asking his crew what time it was). After several minutes of flying in circles, he saw a land mark that he thought he recognized. Taylor lived in the Florida Keys, and he mistakenly identified an island of the Bahamas as the island he lived on. He then issued an order for the flight to fly due North until they hit the mainland of Florida. It was getting late and the weather had been getting progressively worse. After about an hour of flying north and not hitting the mainland, Taylor issued an order to fly east. He assumed that they were now over the Gulf of Mexico.
In fact, the flight had been flying north along the Atlantic coastline. When they decided to fly east, they started heading farther out into the Atlantic ocean.
Fact 5: Flight 19 was in continuous contact with Base throughout the flight, up to this time, and the tower was aware that Taylor was flying without a compass. They asked Taylor to switch over to the emergency radio channel, but Taylor refused because one of his planes had a faulty receiver and he was afraid that if he changed frequencies he would lose contact with the plane. The weather was now a major storm; visibility was poor.
Fact 6: Because of Taylor's refusal to switch to the emergency channel, Fort Lauderdale was picking up a lot of static on the line. It was also hard for the other radio stations along the coast to get a good fix on Flight 19. If Taylor had switched to the emergency channel, a fix could have been made almost immediately.
Fact 7: It was raining: the weather was not clear and the sun could not be seen.
Fact 8: A fix was made on the planes which put them around three hundred miles east of Jacksonville, Florida. When Taylor had thought he was lost, he was actually on course. If one were to back-track his flight plan from the point of where he thought he was lost, you will end up just South of the Bahamas.
Fact 9: Several of the crew members were heard informing Taylor that if they headed West, they'd hit Florida. Because of their adherence to military discipline, they followed their leader.
Fact 10: Fort Lauderdale sent vseveral messages to Flight 19. The flight was unable to receive the messages because of their distance from Lauderdale and all the interference from other radio traffic. If Taylor had switched to the emergency channel several other station could have contacted him. The other coastal stations id not have the
frequencies necessary to contact Taylor's group.
Fact 11: The Mariner was not the only plane dispatched to search for Flight 19. It was the only one that blew up, almost on take off. The explosion was witnessed by several people and an oil slick and debris were found. The Mariners was notorious for having fuel leaks and were known as "flying gas tanks"; it exploded 23 minutes after take
off, in the exact location were it should have been.
Fact 12: Avengers may float for up to two minutes, if you're lucky, make a perfect water landing, and the sea is calm. You might be able to get out of the plane if the sea is calm, you are uninjured from the crash (you don't land an Avenger like you would a sea-plane) and there is light. Ditching in the sea is dangerous even under ideal conditions. Flight 19 was flying in a rainstorm at night, over rough seas, with pilots who had no experience at ditching a plane; they were students. The planes would have sunk like rocks if they ran out of fuel and had to ditch. It is doubtful from the last few
radio messages, that the planes decided to ditch together.
Fact 13: It is common practice, upon the termination of any naval search, to conclude by stating that travelers in the area should remain on the alert. This order is never cancelled because it is part of termination orders. The Navy is not expecting to find Flight 19.
Fact 14: The planes had flown far enough out to sea to have placed them off of the Continental Shelf. They were no longer flying over the shallow Caribbean water, but over water thousands instead of hundreds of feet deep. It is difficult to find sunken debris in such deep water.
MMMmmmmmmmmmm ?
yeh believe it....
what is meant by the triangle is pointing to Greenland..
