Plane Found In Everglades Fails To Shed Light On `Lost Patrol`
July 02, 1989
By Knight-Ridder Newspapers. - Chicago Tribune
FT. LAUDERDALE, FLA. — The Bermuda Triangle legend lives on.
Experts Friday probed the ghostly hulk of a World War II-era airplane discovered deep in the Everglades, but couldn`t determine for certain whether the plane was part of the ill-fated ``Lost Patrol`` that left the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station on Dec. 5, 1945, and flew into oblivion.
No tail number nor engine serial numbers could be found amid the wreckage of the Grumman Avenger, which authorities suspected might have been part of the missing five-plane Naval patrol that spawned tales of a Bermuda Triangle into which planes fly, never to be heard from again.
The wreckage lay hidden for decades until a recent brush fire cleared part of the Everglades and made the old plane visible to a Broward sheriff`s pilot on a routine drug interdiction flight.
The searchers Friday found no human remains at the site about a mile north of Alligator Alley some 10 miles west of the Broward tollbooth on the Alley.
Along with helicopter pilot Bob Lester were naval historians eager to learn whether the plane belonged to Flight 19, a group of five Avengers that disappeared on a 1945 training flight from Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station. The so-called ``Lost Patrol`` mystery is the cornerstone of the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, a region off the Florida coast said to have caused the mysterious disappearance of numerous planes and ships.
Former Navy flight instructor David White led search missions the day after the squadron disappeared. He said Friday he doesn`t believe Flight 19 ended in the Everglades.
``We were training for (aircraft) carriers,`` the Detroit-area businessman said. ``We did over-water navigation. You never flew over the Everglades unless you were going out to `chase alligators` `` - fly at low altitude.
``Ten to one, I bet this isn`t one of them from Flight 19,`` he said.
``And I don`t believe in the Bermuda Triangle, either.``
Lester, the sheriff`s pilot who found the wreckage May 30, had tried to identify the plane. He notified the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, but neither had a record of an accident in the area.
``I got all the literature I could on the Avenger,`` Lester said. ``The dashboard panel is identical. . . . Everything matched up.``
A Navy researcher told Lester that many airplanes were lost during World War II training missions from the Naval Air Station, now Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
``But the (Navy) curator said that whenever there was a crash, they almost always found the wreckage and brought it back in,`` Lester said.
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By Knight-Ridder Newspapers. - Chicago Tribune
FT. LAUDERDALE, FLA. — The Bermuda Triangle legend lives on.
Experts Friday probed the ghostly hulk of a World War II-era airplane discovered deep in the Everglades, but couldn`t determine for certain whether the plane was part of the ill-fated ``Lost Patrol`` that left the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station on Dec. 5, 1945, and flew into oblivion.
No tail number nor engine serial numbers could be found amid the wreckage of the Grumman Avenger, which authorities suspected might have been part of the missing five-plane Naval patrol that spawned tales of a Bermuda Triangle into which planes fly, never to be heard from again.
The wreckage lay hidden for decades until a recent brush fire cleared part of the Everglades and made the old plane visible to a Broward sheriff`s pilot on a routine drug interdiction flight.
The searchers Friday found no human remains at the site about a mile north of Alligator Alley some 10 miles west of the Broward tollbooth on the Alley.
Along with helicopter pilot Bob Lester were naval historians eager to learn whether the plane belonged to Flight 19, a group of five Avengers that disappeared on a 1945 training flight from Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station. The so-called ``Lost Patrol`` mystery is the cornerstone of the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, a region off the Florida coast said to have caused the mysterious disappearance of numerous planes and ships.
Former Navy flight instructor David White led search missions the day after the squadron disappeared. He said Friday he doesn`t believe Flight 19 ended in the Everglades.
``We were training for (aircraft) carriers,`` the Detroit-area businessman said. ``We did over-water navigation. You never flew over the Everglades unless you were going out to `chase alligators` `` - fly at low altitude.
``Ten to one, I bet this isn`t one of them from Flight 19,`` he said.
``And I don`t believe in the Bermuda Triangle, either.``
Lester, the sheriff`s pilot who found the wreckage May 30, had tried to identify the plane. He notified the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, but neither had a record of an accident in the area.
``I got all the literature I could on the Avenger,`` Lester said. ``The dashboard panel is identical. . . . Everything matched up.``
A Navy researcher told Lester that many airplanes were lost during World War II training missions from the Naval Air Station, now Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
``But the (Navy) curator said that whenever there was a crash, they almost always found the wreckage and brought it back in,`` Lester said.
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