Theory Shot Down Ex-game Commission Workers Say `glades Wreck Has Long Been Known.
July 1, 1989
By BETH DUFF SANDERS, Staff Writer
FORT LAUDERDALE -- After combing through the wreckage of an old World War II bomber in the Everglades on Friday, investigators all but ruled out the possibility that the plane was part of the legendary Flight 19, thought lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
But they did determine the plane was in fact an Avenger like the five torpedo bombers that mysteriously disappeared shortly after taking off from the naval base at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in December 1945.
And that much is an intriguing historical find to the U.S. Navy and aviation buffs. Now they want to know when the plane crashed and whether the crew perished or survived.
``I`m 99.9 percent sure that this plane had nothing to do with Flight 19,`` said Jon Myhre, a former combat pilot who works as an air traffic assistant at Palm Beach International Airport. ``But then, there`s always that 1 percent chance that you could be wrong.``
Two Fort Lauderdale men, both former employees of the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, say they are sure the aircraft was not part of that squadron.
``That wreckage has been marked as a navigational hazard for over 30 years,`` said Wayne Cone, 48. ``It was first found in late 1958 or 1959.``
His friend George Eddie, 58, agreed.
``This wreck is no big secret to people who are in the `Glades a lot,`` Eddie said. ``Its location isn`t marked on a map, but if you`re an old hand out there you know where it is.``
Cone, who said he worked for the commission from 1958 through 1965, said that engine serial numbers and two sets of dog tags recovered from the downed plane were turned over to the Navy about 30 years ago.
``They never told us who the tags belonged to or what happened to those men but we knew from the serial numbers that the plane was not from that missing squadron,`` he said.
Cone said investigators will not find the aircraft`s propeller no matter how hard they search for it.
``That`s because I took it. I used to have it,`` he said, ``but I scrapped it years ago.``
Pieces of the wreckage are spread over a 300-foot area in the Everglades a mile north of Allegator Alley in far western Broward County.
On Friday, Myhre picked through the corroded remains of the engine, wings, fuselage, landing gear and other smaller parts, including an oxygen tank, freckled with turquoise and moss-green decay and surrounded by charred stumps of sawgrass and thousands of tiny shells.
``The neatest thing we found is an old tire that still says Firestone on it,`` said Butch Stokes of the Broward Sheriff`s Office.
Myhre got excited when he found a piece of a rusted plate with numbers painted on it.
``It looks like an aircraft number, I swear to God it does,`` he said. But only the first two numbers -- 41 -- were clear.
The serial numbers from the five TBM Avengers in Flight 19 began with the numbers 45 and 46, which could refer to the date of manufacture or the date of requisition.
``Nope, none of these are even close,`` Myhre said as he compared the numbers.
Kent McMakin, an aircraft mechanic who restored and flies the only flying TBM Avenger in Florida at the Weeks Air Museum at the Tamiami Airport in Dade County, said there probably are other TBMs lost in the Everglades. Squadrons of the single-engine planes, dubbed ``old turkeys`` or ``pregnant ducks`` because of a bulge in their belly, went out on practice bombing raids out of Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
McMakin said there are only 150 to 200 TBMs left in the world, of which 50 or 60 are still capable of flying.
Myhre handed his findings over to Allan McElhiney, a local naval historian who intends to bring pieces of the downed bomber back to a makeshift museum at the Naval Surface Weapons Center at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
If the plane can be identified by serial numbers, perhaps the crew members or their families can be found.
``The reason I got so involved is there may be a family somewhere that had their loved ones die in this crash and maybe we can let them know so they won`t always be in the dark,`` sheriff`s deputy Bob Lester said.
Lester, a helicopter pilot, found the wreckage on May 30 when he was flying to check on brushfires.
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By BETH DUFF SANDERS, Staff Writer
FORT LAUDERDALE -- After combing through the wreckage of an old World War II bomber in the Everglades on Friday, investigators all but ruled out the possibility that the plane was part of the legendary Flight 19, thought lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
But they did determine the plane was in fact an Avenger like the five torpedo bombers that mysteriously disappeared shortly after taking off from the naval base at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in December 1945.
And that much is an intriguing historical find to the U.S. Navy and aviation buffs. Now they want to know when the plane crashed and whether the crew perished or survived.
``I`m 99.9 percent sure that this plane had nothing to do with Flight 19,`` said Jon Myhre, a former combat pilot who works as an air traffic assistant at Palm Beach International Airport. ``But then, there`s always that 1 percent chance that you could be wrong.``
Two Fort Lauderdale men, both former employees of the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, say they are sure the aircraft was not part of that squadron.
``That wreckage has been marked as a navigational hazard for over 30 years,`` said Wayne Cone, 48. ``It was first found in late 1958 or 1959.``
His friend George Eddie, 58, agreed.
``This wreck is no big secret to people who are in the `Glades a lot,`` Eddie said. ``Its location isn`t marked on a map, but if you`re an old hand out there you know where it is.``
Cone, who said he worked for the commission from 1958 through 1965, said that engine serial numbers and two sets of dog tags recovered from the downed plane were turned over to the Navy about 30 years ago.
``They never told us who the tags belonged to or what happened to those men but we knew from the serial numbers that the plane was not from that missing squadron,`` he said.
Cone said investigators will not find the aircraft`s propeller no matter how hard they search for it.
``That`s because I took it. I used to have it,`` he said, ``but I scrapped it years ago.``
Pieces of the wreckage are spread over a 300-foot area in the Everglades a mile north of Allegator Alley in far western Broward County.
On Friday, Myhre picked through the corroded remains of the engine, wings, fuselage, landing gear and other smaller parts, including an oxygen tank, freckled with turquoise and moss-green decay and surrounded by charred stumps of sawgrass and thousands of tiny shells.
``The neatest thing we found is an old tire that still says Firestone on it,`` said Butch Stokes of the Broward Sheriff`s Office.
Myhre got excited when he found a piece of a rusted plate with numbers painted on it.
``It looks like an aircraft number, I swear to God it does,`` he said. But only the first two numbers -- 41 -- were clear.
The serial numbers from the five TBM Avengers in Flight 19 began with the numbers 45 and 46, which could refer to the date of manufacture or the date of requisition.
``Nope, none of these are even close,`` Myhre said as he compared the numbers.
Kent McMakin, an aircraft mechanic who restored and flies the only flying TBM Avenger in Florida at the Weeks Air Museum at the Tamiami Airport in Dade County, said there probably are other TBMs lost in the Everglades. Squadrons of the single-engine planes, dubbed ``old turkeys`` or ``pregnant ducks`` because of a bulge in their belly, went out on practice bombing raids out of Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
McMakin said there are only 150 to 200 TBMs left in the world, of which 50 or 60 are still capable of flying.
Myhre handed his findings over to Allan McElhiney, a local naval historian who intends to bring pieces of the downed bomber back to a makeshift museum at the Naval Surface Weapons Center at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
If the plane can be identified by serial numbers, perhaps the crew members or their families can be found.
``The reason I got so involved is there may be a family somewhere that had their loved ones die in this crash and maybe we can let them know so they won`t always be in the dark,`` sheriff`s deputy Bob Lester said.
Lester, a helicopter pilot, found the wreckage on May 30 when he was flying to check on brushfires.
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