All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Mysteries.S02E01.720p.WEB.h264-BAE

Tonight, on History's Greatest
Mysteries.

The Hoodoo Sea, the graveyard of the
Atlantic.

Or, as we know it more commonly today,
the Bermuda Triangle.

I'm Lawrence Fishburne. Nearly a hundred
ships and planes have vanished into

this enigma.

On tonight's mystery, the case that made
the Bermuda Triangle famous.

The disappearance of Flight 19.

In December 1945, in the months after
World War II, a squadron of U .S. Navy

torpedo bombers took off from Florida on
a routine training mission and never

returned.

Where did they crash and why?

Somebody has to know the truth.

The only way we're going to solve this
is to find an aircraft.

Over the decades, there have been
countless searches, but now a possible

-changer.

Bridge, stand by.

You got time.

Three groups of investigators join
forces in the biggest search for Flight

yet. Dead ahead. What is that?

Deep -sea explorer Rob Kraft.

leads the most advanced research ship of
its kind. That's an aircraft.

No doubt.

Scientist and wreck diver Mike Barnett
investigates new clues along the

coastline. We definitely have a mystery
aircraft, definitely maybe.

And researchers David O 'Keefe and Wayne
Abbott follow a trail of cover -ups,

conspiracy, and missing evidence.

Of course they're going to whitewash it.

From the deep.

We're looking for F -28.

To the swamps. That is a .50 caliber.
All leading to a moment that could solve

the mystery.

Boom. Staring us in the face. A large
propeller.

Flight 19 could be in this area. This
could be one of them.

Have they finally found Flight 19?

Petro is a very unique ship.

We are outfitted unlike any other
vessel. The ship itself is inherently

and built for deep water search
operation.

It's February 13, 2020, day one of a
search 200 miles off the Florida

coast.

Camera's coming up.

Underwater explorer Rob Kraft has led
the research vessel RV Petrol deep into

the Bermuda Triangle.

An infamous area between Florida's
coast, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico.

Their hopes for finding Flight 19 are
high.

Here's the bottom.

That is our waypoint. RV Petrol's
mission is to seek out the great

the world.

using an array of advanced technology,
including ultra -high -def cameras that

can be deployed to extreme depths.

Since 2017, Kraft and Petro have
discovered over 30 World War II ships

and the final resting place of thousands
of servicemen.

It's really about them and the service
that these men gave for their country

paid the ultimate sacrifice.

It's part of the reason we do what we
do.

And yet, this search will be Kraft and
Petrel's greatest challenge.

This is the biggest search project we
have and will undertake.

And the reality is, is there is no
smoking gun here.

There is no one piece of evidence that
is going to put an X on a map and say

they're here. It just doesn't exist.

You really kind of have to put yourself
back in 1945 and try and understand what

these men were going through.

The case of Flight 19 begins on December
5, 1945, at the Fort

Lauderdale Naval Air Station.

It's 2 .20 p .m.

Five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers prepare
to take off on a training mission

designated Flight 19.

A choppy wind kicks up.

But visibility was unlimited with blue
skies.

The mission should have lasted just over
two hours.

Instead, these five planes, carrying a
total of 14 men, disappeared.

Hours later.

A Martin Mariner rescue plane with a
crew of 13 goes looking for them.

It too vanishes.

The Martin Mariner also failed to return
to base.

It is so bizarre for us to try to
comprehend.

Twenty -seven U .S. Navy sailors lost
their lives. They disappeared in the

Bermuda Triangle, and there has still
never been an adequate explanation for

what happened to them.

It was a routine training flight.

Just take off, drop some bombs, shoot a
little navigation, and then come back to

base.

So what happened to Flight 19?

Did they crash somewhere near Florida's
coast?

Did they get hopelessly lost, ditching
far out to sea?

Or did they make it back to land,
crashing in Florida?

This is not a needle in a haystack. This
is orders of magnitude more difficult

than that.

I mean, this was the largest Navy search
ever conducted.

And they found nothing out there.

Fully fueled, the EBM Avengers lost on
Flight 19 at a range of 1 ,000 miles,

creating a massive potential search
area.

No one has found anything.

So, really, all the cards are still on
the table.

Aboard RV Petrol, Kraft has invited
David O 'Keefe and Wayne Abbott.

to help narrow the search area.

And I think you're right. I think that
would be the area that we have to start

at. David served in the Canadian
infantry and is now a military

I did two and a half years in uniform
with one of the most famous regiments in

Canada, which was the Black Watch of
Canada.

I was recruited from there to actually
work as part of the official historical

team. Going through old files and
archives, that's my forte. That's what I

to do.

There's nothing like it.

Wayne is a historical investigator,
obsessed with Flight 19 since he was a

I was early teens when Close Encounters
of the Third Kind came out in the

theaters. And that was really the first
time I heard about the story Flight 19.

And it's an iconic opening.

Scientists are going through the dusty
Mexican desert.

All of a sudden you see five perfect...

planes from Flight 19.

Who flies greats like these anymore?

No one.

These planes were reported missing in
1945.

I don't understand.

In the film Close Encounters of the
Third Kind, Flight 19 is abducted by

To find out what really happened, Wayne
and David are helping Kraft dig into the

official report from the Navy Board of
Inquiry that investigated Flight 19.

This is all we have, so this is what we
have to use.

Nobody knew truly where the planes were.

But there is a lot of evidence within
the Board of Inquiry report of radio

transmissions. And there's just great
little tidbits of information.

According to the report, signs of
trouble began an hour and a half after

takeoff.

3 .40 p .m.

Lieutenant Charles Taylor, the
instructor leading Flight 19.

Radio's one of the other pilots saying
he thinks they're lost.

Powers, do you copy?

I think we got lost that last time.

Back near Bort Lauderdale, another
flight instructor, Lieutenant Robert

overhears Flight 19's radio traffic.

Both compasses are out. We're lost.

I'm sure we're over the Keys, but I'm
not sure how far down.

Gotta get back to Lauderdale.

According to Cox, Taylor was convinced
Flight 19 was over the Florida Keys,

off their flight path.

Cox instructed Taylor to fly northeast
till they hit Miami, and then on to Fort

Lauderdale.

But they never made it.

Where were they?

The flight leader, Charles Taylor, is
completely confused about his position.

The report says that at 1750, military
time for 5 .50 p .m., the Navy

triangulated a rough position fix on
Flight 19.

And what we can see from the rudimentary
data that we have is that the flight is

actually progressing off the
southeastern part of Florida.

Charles Taylor thought he'd gotten badly
turned around and was over the gulf.

But the location fix puts them north of
the Bahamas.

If Taylor did turn northeast, he would
have been leading them even deeper into

the Bermuda Triangle.

This is the 1750 fix that the Navy put
them at, and there is the 100 nautical

mile radius.

Kraft uses the bearings to calculate
Petrel's search grid.

It's an area more than twice the size of
the state of Rhode Island, with an

average depth of 3 ,000 feet.

I mean, we're talking nearly 2 ,600
square nautical miles.

And we're looking for a target that is,
you know, the wingspan on an Avenger is

50 feet.

Undaunted, Kraft begins the search.

it starts with some of the world's
deepest diving autonomous underwater

or auvs able to reach depths of more
than three miles

ready it's a drone that we program on
the surface we tell it where we want it

go and what we want it to do and it goes
and does its mission all by itself once

the auv nears the sea floor it follows a
grid pattern and emits bursts of sonar

to create a detailed undersea map.

Any unnatural shapes it finds could be
wrecks.

We have been lucky enough to find
targets on the first dive in the past.

I do not feel that level of confidence
here.

There we go. Dive one.

As the AUV begins the search, Petrel's
chief technician and lead researcher,

Paul Mayer, reviews what an aircraft in
deep water might look like.

Here is a 3D model of an F4F. This is in
about 10 ,000 feet of water, so the

paint is still in very good condition.

This F4F Wildcat is part of the Petrel's
2018 discovery of the carrier USS

Lexington.

The team discovered 35 aircraft that
went down with the ship.

In this deep water environment, low
oxygen levels reduce corrosion.

These planes have been on the ocean
floor for nearly eight decades.

Yet the paint still looks fresh.

On this particular aircraft, we have
victory tallies here.

of how many Japanese planes were shot
down. There's a bomb here, representing

that he did a bombing mission, and then
the insignia of that flight crew.

If Flight 19 is in deep water, the
chances of a positive identification are

high.

Thirteen hours later, in the dead of
night, the AUV completes its first dive.

Kraft reviews the data.

He immediately spots something. It
stands out. It's an extremely bright,

contrast target.

It could be something man -made. So we
need to go put some eyes on those and

figure out what they are.

Could Rob Kraft's instincts be proven
right yet again?

Is this Flight 19?

It's day two of the search for Flight
19, the Bermuda Triangle's greatest

mystery.

What happened to five torpedo bombers
that disappeared in 1945?

Aboard RV Petrol, explorer Rob Kraft has
detected a promising target.

It stands out. It could be something man
-made.

To get a visual.

he deploys a remotely operated vehicle,
or ROV, fitted with an array of cameras.

You're going down.

You're in.

All right, we're ready for some
thrusting.

Altimeter's on.

There you go, it's up.

We'll be just a meter off the bottom.

Sound speed's still 1522.

You know, it's the bottom.

I think you're about 70, 75 meters due
north of this, Rudy.

Let's head over to the left. Did you see
that?

Hold your heading right there, Rudy.
Just hold there.

What is that?

That's the squid.

Oh, yeah.

Look at all that biology.

One, four, five. That is our waypoint.

We're just coming up on it now.

And it appears to be... You think it's a
wheel?

No. It's a rock.

It's just some form of rocks.

It's just a geological anomaly.

Sonar this sensitive will produce some
false targets.

Box ticked. Box ticked. On target. Bring
it up.

But for craft, there is a silver lining.

It's not mountainous like we see in a
lot of deep water environments.

So it's fairly flat, so we've got a
pretty good chance of identifying these

targets.

But search operations must now be
halted.

The weather has come up pretty fast and
ahead of schedule.

We've got to get the vehicle up, get it
on deck while we still have this window.

We're getting everything secured for sea
because it's going to be a rough ride

in. Start running at 10 knots and it's
going to get pretty lively out here.

Petrol is being chased back to port by
the Bermuda Triangle's freak and

dangerous weather swings.

These sudden and violent storms, called
white squalls, have sunk ships and added

to the Triangle's deadly reputation.

You had a lot of incidences where planes
went missing, boats went missing.

So you have to respect it and you have
to fear it.

The Bermuda Triangle borders some of the
Earth's most powerful forces.

The Gulf Stream, the Atlantic's
strongest current.

known to carry disabled ships and planes
miles from their reported positions.

A mid -ocean area that is often eerily
becalmed, trapping many a stranded

in a slow death grip.

And the triangle is a superhighway for
hurricanes.

There's no doubt that this area is
incredibly active. It is an area where

are anomalies.

that cannot be explained by physical
science.

And nowhere else has so many eyewitness
accounts of paranormal activity,

malfunctioning instruments, and strange
lights attributed to aliens or the

supernatural.

The U .S. government recently revealed
that in 2017, Navy pilots flying over

Bermuda Triangle captured UFOs on
camera.

My gosh!

The facts are the facts. There are
disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle

are unexplained. I don't think it's
aliens.

But no one's ever really discovered the
smoking gun.

While Kraft waits for the weather to
calm,

Team members Wayne Abbott and David O
'Keefe head inland.

They are hunting for any evidence the
planes crashed in Florida.

There is one possibility that the plane
that night actually decided to split up

and go their own way.

And if that's the case, then it is a
possibility that some made it back to

The theory that at least one plane made
it back to land rests on cryptic

evidence of possible detention on Flight
19.

Intercepted radio calls indicate that
one of the student pilots, possibly

Captain Ed Powers, disagreed with
instructor Charles Taylor that the

lost over the Florida Keys.

Powers argued they were over the
Atlantic.

He urged Taylor to fly west.

to fly west.

If we fly west, we will get home.

There was some dissension in the ranks,
and a guy like Captain Powers said, you

know, Pruitt, Taylor, you've messed us
around too long. I'm going to head

towards land, because I know where we
are.

So that easily could have happened.

Wayne and David have recently tracked
down new evidence that could back up

theory.

Just west of Barrow Beach, Florida,
they've come to meet Graham

who is taking them back to the site of a
vivid boyhood memory.

So how old were you at the time?

I was nine.

So this is similar to what you remember?

Yeah, it is. The first thing that you
passed was the tail section, and then

probably another, gosh, 50 to 100 feet
in front of there was the plane.

In 1962, years after the disappearance
of Flight 19, a nine -year -old Graham

was brought here by his father to see a
plane wreck.

Graham's father, a Florida judge,
discovered the wreck while hunting and

reported it to the Navy.

He was told it was from Flight 19.

But the wreck was removed, and the Navy
later denied any knowledge of the

incident.

What did your father do upon finding the
wreck? The first place he called was

Patrick Air Force Base. They finally did
pull the plane out, and there were

bodies in it.

Where did your father take this story,
then? He finally kind of hit a wall, and

nobody talked to him anymore.

What really raises a lot of mystery
about this plane is the Navy told him

this was part of Flight 19.

Unfortunately, no matter how much the
judge went back to the Navy, he could

get any more information.

As a researcher, you can't place too
much faith in human memory. Human memory

becomes fallible immediately after.

You still needed some sort of concrete
proof.

Do you have anything that came from the
plane?

Yeah, I do. I do have pieces of the
plane and some bits. You have pieces of

plane that your father found? Yeah,
absolutely.

After his father died, Graham gave the
plane pieces to a friend named Jimmy,

collects World War II memorabilia.

Jimmy has agreed to meet Wayne and
David.

Are they about to uncover a piece of the
legendary Flight 19?

Here it is.

Here we go.

Wayne Abbott and David O 'Keefe.

are part of a team of Bermuda Triangle
investigators.

They're now in Florida to examine plane
wreckage.

Here it is, fellas.

It was found on this spot and is
allegedly part of Flight 19.

That's a .50 cal. That is a .50 caliber.
Yes, this is an M2 aircraft .50

caliber. I believe it would have been
mounted in the wing of the aircraft.

And this is the mount?

That would be the forward mount that
would have attached to this portion of

gun.

David compares the parts to a schematic
from a TBM Avenger manual.

Looking at this picture, if you look
right there, there's the mount.

That is it.

The TBM -3 Avenger had .50 cal machine
guns mounted on its wings.

This gun was used on many planes, but...

The small mount is unique to the
Avenger.

Making it likely this gun came off the
same kind of planes lost on Flight 19.

Are there any other markings on here?

There are.

The original markings from the factory,
and there is a serial number.

All right, this is great. This is great
because all of these were logged,

particularly when it came to armaments
on planes.

And somewhere in the archives, there is
going to be a log of this.

The big reason that having a machine gun
is great is because it comes with a

serial number.

And with the serial number, we might be
able to find out what plane this came

off of. We might be able to find out who
the pilot and the rest of the crew

were.

This is the best piece of hard evidence.

we've ever come across as david follows
the trail of the serial number

another member of the bermuda triangle
investigation team seasoned

explorer mike barnett is opening up a
new search his dive

team will focus on the waters along
florida's coastline i've been working on

bermuda triangle or as i call it the
bull triangle for 30 years

As a scientist, Barnett believes these
disappearances have a rational

explanation. There's all sorts of
theories about what's going on here,

it be paranormal phenomena, UFOs, time
warps, Atlantis.

In the film Close Encounters of the
Third Kind, another famous Bermuda

disappearance, the ship called the
Cotopaxi, was set down by

in the Gobi Desert.

Barnett recently found the Cotopaxi and
worked out what really happened.

The Cotopaxi was caught in a storm on
November 30th, 1925.

She sank in just over 100 feet of water
about 40 miles off the coast of Florida.

There's no need for additional drama.
The weather can provide all the drama

ever would want. I mean, the weather can
go from flat calm to raging, you know,

7 to 10 foot seas and 25 knot winds at a
snap of a finger.

To find Flight 19, Barnett's using the
same approach he used to find the

Cotopaxi.

Follow the fish.

Fish are after structure and habitat,
and shipwrecks provide great habitat.

Shipwrecks are like mini reefs.

that make for rich fishing ground there
are hundreds off florida's coast and the

fishermen who make their living off
these wrecks can provide valuable leads

know where the wrecks are they don't
know what the wrecks are but they know

there's something there i've worked with
all sorts of commercial fishermen

whether it be draggers and trawlers or
in this case i'm working with captain

jeff marinko who is a commercial
spearfisher

Me and Barney have been friends for a
long time, and we wanted to come out

and check out some wrecks off of North
Florida that we've been talking about

years.

You know, a lot of these wrecks, a lot
of people lost their lives. So anytime

you can identify something and finish
the equation of what happened to it, I

think it's a good thing.

There's a mystery wreck the captain told
us about.

No one knows what it is.

The dive team includes Jimmy Godomsky
and underwater cinematographer Evan

Kovacs. What's the range, depth range?

130 to almost 200 feet of water.

They're rated to hit extreme depths of
up to 500 feet, close to the limit for

human divers.

Just starting to mark the edge of the
wreck now.

We're starting to see some stuff.

The bob's at 160, 165, and we're seeing
the fish up to 140, so there's

definitely something here.

I'm ready when you are if you want to
try to hook it right now.

they find not a plane, but a 200 -foot
shipwreck.

Could this be an important piece of the
Bermuda Triangle mystery?

Mike Barnett is part of a team of
investigators exploring the legendary

Triangle.

Searching for a lost squadron of Navy
bombers, they may have stumbled upon

another of the triangle's victims.

A massive shipwreck.

What is it?

We found a wreck that was about 200 feet
long, about 24 and a half foot being.

We noticed it was carrying a very
bizarre cargo, this white clay -like

We took a sample of that because we
figured if we can identify the cargo.

Potentially, we can identify a threat.

Barnett's team heads to the surface to
try to work out what they've found.

This is a sample of cargo.

It just looks like a white grayish clay,
but it's just tons of it down there.

So I'm curious what this is.

After assessing the evidence...

Barnett matches the wreck to a famous
unsolved Bermuda Triangle disappearance.

A cargo ship lost in April 1950 and
never heard from again,

the Sandra.

The Sandra left Savannah, the 12 -man
crew, and vanished.

Thought to have been swallowed by the
legendary Bermuda Triangle.

We found a record of a vessel called the
Sandra that was lost in 1950.

And it was carrying a cargo of DDT.

And when we actually analyzed the cargo,
we found out it was kaolin clay, which

uses an insecticide or pesticide, as
well as traces of DDT.

We know that then it left Savannah,
Georgia, headed south along the North

Florida coast. It would pass right over
where we were diving, where the mystery

wreck is.

And all the dimensions, all the
machinery matched exactly what the

We put all this evidence all together.

Cumulatively, it was overwhelming that
the mystery wreck was indeed Sandra.

For the Bermuda Triangle investigation
team, it's a major discovery.

A 200 -foot ship, thought to be vanished
forever, is now found.

But what or who buried Sandra and her 12
sailors in this watery grave?

Is there some unknown force behind this
and so many Bermuda Triangle mysteries?

With the sensational discovery, these
questions can now be investigated.

I mean, just serendipity, right?

We're trying to find information on
another Bermuda Triangle mystery, and

stumble into another one, which just
shows you that's what happens when you

out exploring out here. You just never
know what you're going to run into.

But the mystery of DeSandra must wait.

Barnett is eager to return to his
primary mission, finding the missing

Forced into port by severe weather,
Petrel is heading back to sea.

Barnett joins team member Rob Kraft for
the next leg of the expedition.

Yeah, I really appreciate the
opportunity.

Mike Barnett is a NOAA marine biologist
and an avid diver.

We're going to bring him on board and
we're going to talk to him about the PBM

Mariner aspect of Flight 19.

Barnett is most interested in a lesser
known aspect of the Flight 19 saga.

The loss of the Martin Mariner search
and rescue plane.

In the process of trying to rescue these
five aircraft, another search and

rescue aircraft was dispatched to find
them.

And it disappeared less than a half hour
after taking off.

So in an instant, we've doubled the men
that need to be rescued.

7 .30 p .m., about an hour since the
last transmission from Flight 19.

A 13 -man rescue team goes after the
lost flight, like firemen running into a

burning building.

Around 8 .30 p .m., the rescue plane
suddenly drops off radar.

A passing freighter, the SS Gaines Mill,
reported a large fireball in the skies

around that time.

Did the plane explode mid -flight?

No wreckage was ever found, and the true
location of the incident is hotly

debated.

This is a site identified in 1989 during
the search for Challenger debris.

Barnett thinks he may have found the
missing mariner.

by digging through the archives of a
seemingly unrelated event.

The 1986 explosion of the Challenger
spacecraft.

Tragically exploded a few minutes after
launch and trapped in the Atlantic Ocean

in several pieces. And there was a major
effort to go out and search for this

debris. And they actually found what
they identified as a DC -3, a twin

aircraft, in this area here.

Searching for the debris of the
Challenger, NASA identified the wreck of

aircraft.

But the dive report states visibility
was poor.

So did they get it right?

Could this actually be the missing
mariner?

How far offshore is this?

This is about 30 miles.

Okay, let's get on the phone and call
the bridge and give them that position.

Rob Kraft adjusts course to head towards
Mike Barnett's provocative target.

It's early March, 2020.

Rob Kraft and Mike Barnett have taken RV
petrol over the very spot where NASA

records document a mysterious aircraft
wreck.

Next one will be 133 meters.

They suspect that it may be the PBM
Mariner rescue plane that was lost along

with Flight 19.

We know the PBM was likely traveling at
an altitude of 800 feet or so, so if it

did crash, we should have large chunks
of wreckage.

Using the petrol sonar, they search the
ocean floor for half a mile in every

direction and turn up nothing.

Yeah, there's nothing there.

Is the NASA data inaccurate, or did
churning undersea currents destroy the

wreck?

Whatever the explanation, there's no
plane here.

But for Kraft, this is still progress.

When you rule targets out, that can help
you focus your search. X rarely ever

marks the spot.

As Kraft steers petrol back toward
deeper water, Barnett prepares another

expedition along the coast.

Meanwhile, back in Florida, the other
members of the team, investigators Wayne

Abbott and David O 'Keefe, have
uncovered a provocative witness.

This is the first interview she's ever
given.

Yeah, I mean, 75 years later, it's going
to be hard to find any eyewitnesses.

And so she's about the closest thing
we're going to get.

My father was Lieutenant Robert Cox.

He was in radio contact with Flight 19.

Colby Cox is the daughter of Lieutenant
Robert Cox, the first to realize Flight

19 was in trouble on that fateful day.

Howard, can you copy?

I don't know where we are.

Cox was also the only person to have
more than a fleeting contact with Flight

19.

Please identify yourself so someone can
help.

Cox was sure he could find them, but he
was low on fuel.

He requested to land and swap into a
ready plane that was on standby.

This is FD -74 coming in low on fuel.

Request permission to immediately
disembark and ready plane.

But his request was inexplicably denied.

Why wasn't Lieutenant Cox allowed to go
back up after Flight 19?

It's very sad that Dad wasn't allowed to
go back up. Did it weigh heavily on

him? My dad felt extremely strongly that
he could locate the flight

if he were allowed to go back up, and he
was... very frustrated that he

wasn't allowed to go back up.

What was the follow -up for your father
then?

My mother was always convinced that this
adversely affected my

father's career because my father told
the truth.

Robert Cox is one of the most crucial
characters in the whole Flight 19 story.

Now, Robert died a few years ago, and
his story died with him.

But Colby Cox told us a story that is
shocking.

There was a huge party on the base that
night.

From what I recall Dad saying, they
couldn't even find the base commander.

My father believed that the fact that
there was that big party the night

definitely contributed to the loss of
Flight 19.

If Lieutenant Cox did testify to this
base -wide party the night before Flight

19 was lost, it's nowhere in the Navy's
official report.

Did your father believe that they
whitewashed, say, the Board of Inquiry?

Yes. Wow.

The Navy doesn't want to hear that.

I grew up as a Navy brat.

My father was in the service 24 years,
and knowing what I know about the Navy,

Of course they're going to whitewash it.

Boy, did she just open up something.

Do you think that they would have
sanitized the board of inquiry?

Well, it could have. I mean, let's just
say the entire base was off its game.

They were all hungover.

Would the Navy really want that to come
out?

Especially with the loss of 27 men.

Particularly with the loss of 27 men.

The amount of partying.

that was happening is a bit surprising,
shocking, but also understandable.

My God, these guys just got home from
fighting World War II.

It's official. It's all over.

It's total victory.

The guns of World War II fell silent in
August 1945 after the final Japanese

surrender.

Cameramen and reporters of many
countries record this historic moment.

Servicemen from all branches went from
high alert...

to suddenly, unexpectedly coming home.

The American military did not look to
the year 1945 and go, we'll wrap it all

then, and then we'll all go home. That
was not the plan.

The American military had imagined a
force of 305 ,000 American troops

participating in an amphibious landing
on the Japanese home islands.

I don't want to say that they suddenly
became unprofessional.

and that they neglected their duties and
responsibilities.

But I am saying that there's a different
set of priorities by December 5th,

1945.

Even if there was a massive base party
the night before, the men of Flight 19

were experienced aviators.

Most had seen combat in the Pacific.

None more than Flight Instructor Charles
Taylor.

His friends called him CC.

And he was from Texas, from Corpus
Christi, and he joined the Navy in 1941.

He was a highly seasoned pilot.

He had combat experience, but he had
also logged 2 ,500 hours of flying time,

mostly on the Avenger.

He ditched twice while in combat.

If there was anybody on Flight 19 who
understood what it was like to land in

ocean, deploy the rafts, and survive, it
seems to have been Charles Taylor.

So he was nowhere near in over his head.

There must have been something that
really threw him off that day.

Could Flight 19 have run into something
in the Bermuda Triangle that surprised

them? In aviation, when we look at
accidents, when we look at reports, We

at things as a compound series of
events.

An accident doesn't just happen with one
thing.

Wayne and David have come to the Florida
Aviation Academy.

They're meeting U .S. Air Force pilot
and accident investigator, Lieutenant

Colonel Jason Harris.

We need to be able to gain experience
from somebody who's been in the cockpit,

somebody who's been in situations like
this before.

Jason has a way to give David a pilot's
eye view of Flight 19.

Whoa, Dave.

There we go. Geez, I didn't realize you
weighed that much.

They're lifting off in a flight
simulator programmed for December 5,

Are you ready? Let's go.

So we'll go ahead and start climbing on
up.

Perfect.

We know that the weather report here in
Fort Lauderdale on that day was cavoo.

Clear skies, visibility unrestricted.

But the naval report shows that
offshore, conditions quickly

that is almost standard in this part of
the country, that there might be clear

weather here on the landmass, but the
flight conditions over the entire route

the flight were not.

In a time before GPS and with limited
aerial radar, pilots relied on visual

landmarks to correct for course drift.

Flight 19's first landmark was a small
island called Chicken Shoals.

With poor visibility, Jason thinks
Flight 19 was unable to find Chicken

Shoals. Wow.

It comes in at first. You don't realize
how quick you can lose your visibility

and your reference points.

Absolutely.

Unable to find the small island, Taylor
would have turned to his compasses to

stay on course.

The Avenger had two.

But turbulence and poor weather could
lead both to read incorrectly.

Even in a simulator.

The feeling of being lost leads to a
pilot's worst enemy, panic.

This is it. This is serious. We're lost.

And we have no idea where Chicken Shoals
is, where our intended target is.

This is not a good feeling. It's not.

When you look at the transcripts on
Flight 19, you begin to realize that

the flight instructor,

was clearly panicked because he was
lost.

You're running out of fuel.

It's in the middle of the night. You've
got rain potentially.

You've got cloud cover. You've got
turbulence.

You've got winds.

You've got instruments that you no
longer can trust.

I'd be panicked.

I don't care how much experience I have
as a professional pilot.

Those are a recipe for disaster.

From the simulator, Jason reconstructs
one possible scenario.

Unforecasted bad weather closes in,
reducing visibility and causing Flight

drift from their planned route.

As panic sets in, Charles Taylor
distrusts his compasses and leads the

further out to sea towards certain doom.

So there's the possibility that there
was a lot of weather that day. There was

lot of stress.

What I think happened is that these guys
got lost.

If Jason's right, that means Flight 19
is most likely deep out to sea.

But now, on land, Wayne and David have
uncovered a clue that could flip the

whole case on its head.

You have been misinformed about me. I'm
very much alive, Georgie.

Was there a survivor from Flight 19?

Flight 19.

It's the most legendary Bermuda Triangle
disappearance on record.

David O 'Keefe and Wayne Abbott are part
of a team trying to finally solve this

mystery.

They're now hunting for clues in the
stories of the men who disappeared that

night.

This is about 14 men that took off that
day and never came home. 14 families

that had to deal with that. Not to
mention the other 13 men lost on the

Mariner that went out to rescue them.

27 men died in one night.

That's the real story.

The trails led them to the suburbs of
New York City.

For years, I've been hoping that we
could speak to somebody from the Panessa

family. Yeah, they've got that one piece
of cryptic evidence we have to take a

look at.

Wayne and David are meeting Bill
Panessa.

Hi, how are you? Good. Dave O 'Keefe.
Bill Panessa. Nice to meet you. Hey,

Wayne Abbott.

Bill's uncle was Flight 19 radio man
George Panessa.

I've got something to show you that's
going to be piquing your interest.

Today, Bill is the keeper of a family
secret.

Is this all related to George? All
related to George that my Aunt Lou, who

the matriarch, took very good care of in
communication. I also have some of his

effects from Florida where he
disappeared and also from the Pacific.

Even a stencil from his locker? No way.

George was my dad's brother, and George
was the youngest of the brothers.

My dad was in the Army. George was
Marines, flight aviator, gunner and

bombardier.

The disappearance in the Bermuda
Triangle always hung over the family.

And it's something we have always, you
know, wanted an answer.

And his flight book, this was from the
Pacific.

He was on patrols. He was on convoy
duty, dive bombing. They were attacking

Japanese -held islands, strafing. I
mean, he saw some heavy combat.

What has the family said about the night
of December 5th with you?

Well, they really thought there was a
miscommunication. How could men who were

experienced, seasoned pilots, get lost?

Whatever happened, they wanted an
explanation, ironclad, that tells them

this happened to a group of servicemen
that went through the Pacific Theater

came back to die in the Atlantic Ocean.

In December 1945, as families around
America prepared for their first

together again after years of war, the
Panessas received a series of telegrams.

Your son is missing.

The search has been discontinued.

Your son was killed.

And then, the day after Christmas, they
received a telegram that appeared to be

from George.

One telegram that threw everybody for a
loop was on December 26th, my

Uncle Joe received this telegram.

So this is a bit strange.

You have been misinformed about me. I'm
very much alive, Georgie. And he spelled

it G -E -O -R -G -I -E.

That was his signature.

The telegram was allegedly sent by my
uncle, and he signed it G -E -O -R -G -I

-E. He was the only person that signed
his name like that.

So it was like, wait a minute, we got a
letter from the government saying...

He's lost at sea, presumed dead, and
we've given up on the search because

been over ten days.

And yet we get a telegram from Georgie,
alleged, that he's fine.

Which one do you want to believe?

This mystery telegram leads to so many
questions, with the strangest question

being, did George survive?

George Panessa was Captain Ed Powers'
radio man.

Some speculate Powers realized flight
instructor Charles Taylor was heading

wrong way and turned west toward land,
ultimately crashing somewhere over

Florida.

If so, could Panessa have survived?

Was there discussion in family, like who
would have done this as a hoax?

No, no, no, no. This came from Florida.
It came from a Western Union in Florida

near the base. So this all had credence
of it's original, it's authentic.

It might not have been sent by Georgie,
but it was sent by somebody.

Any frustration or hurt or anger even
over this? I think hurt from the

standpoint of there wasn't any
satisfactory answer, that it seemed to

-up.

In the end, nobody had an answer.

So you know what we're trying to do here
is try to get down to the truth, the

truth of what happened. And if we do
succeed, what would the truth mean to

in this?

Well, it would finalize everything for a
family, for myself.

But I think I already know the outcome,
but it would be nice to, you know, to

find the planes.

I really feel for the Panessa family
because we don't really know what the

situation was.

Whether that was a hoax, it kind of goes
down as a hoax.

But why would anybody do that?

You know, why?

I mean, I kind of lean on believing it.

In other words, that, you know, maybe he
deserted, maybe he had enough, maybe he

wanted to get out.

Maybe our search in land will discover
something that ties that together.

The Panessa telegram could add more
weight to the theory that one or more of

planes somehow made it back to land.

Could this clue connect to the plane
Graham Stikeleather's father allegedly

found in 1962?

While Wayne and David may be on the
verge of a major breakthrough.

Back on RV Petrol.

Frustration is mounting among the Deep
Sea team members.

That was a bad idea.

That was a terrible idea.

It's now mid -March 2020.

Rob Kraft and the crew have been
scouring the Bermuda Triangle for weeks,

looking for any sign of the Avengers.

Nothing. Nothing but a barren wasteland.

Kraft knew this search would be a slow
grind.

But there is some good news at last.

They have detected a promising new
target.

It's around 1 ,000 meters or so, so it's
not going to take long to get the ROV

down there.

We should be able to get a good look at
this and decide whether it's one of our

planes or not. Over there.

Yep.

We'll start pushing towards the target,
Rob, yeah?

Yeah.

Dead ahead. What is that, Rudy?

There's something.

As the target comes into view, it's
clear it's definitely man -made.

And it's clear, it's definitely not a
plane.

Most likely, it's a fridge thrown
overboard as trash.

Well, it's an adventure.

You know what an adventure is?

What? It's a poorly planned vacation.

The team can still joke.

They've proven they can detect even the
smallest objects.

And Rob Kraft is convinced that all they
need to do is finish mapping their

prime target area.

To date, we've covered about 210, 220
square nautical miles. So it's really

the beginning of this search.

It's just going to take a lot of time to
cover it all.

Breaking news tonight, the U .S. and
Canada closing their borders as the

coronavirus pandemic deepens.

But time is something Rob Kraft has just
run out of. The World Health

Organization has officially named it
COVID -19.

A wave of states are issuing stay -at
-home orders tonight, recognizing the

measures needed to control the virus. So
we've had to cut the mission short.

There's a bit of craziness going on with
this coronavirus, so we're going to

shut it down right now and give
everybody a chance to get home so they

rested up and we can get back out here.

Petrel is driven to port by the pandemic
and locked down.

But with the discovery of a provocative
new target, the search is just heating

up.

A team of investigators are on the hunt
for the Bermuda Triangle's most famous

disappearance.

Flight 19.

The COVID pandemic has thrown a wrench
into the offshore search.

But on land, David O 'Keefe and Wayne
Abbott are now following up on a

tantalizing clue.

A .50 caliber machine gun that could be
from Flight 19.

You've attempted to cross -reference the
serial number.

with the reports written at the time.
That's what I was planning to do. The

problem is trying to find the reports.

The gun was allegedly recovered by a
Florida judge in the 1960s.

Naval officials initially told the judge
that the plane was part of Flight 19.

But the Navy later denied any knowledge
of the incident.

The gun is the only evidence of the
crash.

But after an exhaustive search, David
has failed to uncover any record of this

serial number.

I'm not going to call it a cover -up or
anything, but the judge tried to get

information out of the Navy once they
cleared the wreck, and he came up empty.

Yeah, I can understand the 1960s. It was
still kind of fresh. It was new. There

were security classifications. 75 years
later?

I mean, it should be relatively easy to
get our hands on this information if it

still exists.

Typically, .50 caliber machine guns were
carefully tracked, so the missing

serial number raises eyebrows.

Is there something the Navy is hiding?

Or is there a less conspiratorial
explanation for why David has been

locate the records?

This is December 1945.

There's a big giant war machine that is
starting to gear down.

And who knows, you know, who knows
whether, you know, the people on the

took their eye off the ball a little
bit. You know, you're no longer at war.

you want to do is get home.

Maybe your record keeping is not as good
as it was.

David still believes the serial number
records are buried somewhere.

But a definitive answer won't come
anytime soon.

The pandemic?

has shut down the archives we are now
locked down

we're shut out so for the time being
this remains one heck of a mystery and

news for rob craft has gone from bad to
worse the pandemic has forced rv petrol

off the water for seven months and
counting we had no idea that it was

have the impact that it did The boat
went into the dry dock, period.

And so right now, it's unavailable.

Hopes of finding the missing Avengers
are dwindling.

But Rob Craft has never been one to go
down without a fight.

With Petrel's high -tech tools off the
table, He has assembled an ad hoc team

go after a provocative new lead,
codename Target 77.

This target was discovered by another
survey, and it was an incidental target.

It was not something that they were
actually looking for.

While the target is outside Kraft's
primary search area, it is well within

Flight 19's range.

And the sonar image matches the wingspan
of a TBM Avenger.

It's the right signature and sonar. It's
the right size.

It is definitely something we need to go
look at.

Rob Kraft and Petrel's lead technician,
Paul Mayer, are teaming up with Micah

Eldred and Dan Taylor on this
expedition.

So what do you have on this target? We
found this target doing a big survey out

here with an AUV, and this is going to
be the first time we've got an ROV on it

to see what's there.

Excavate a little bit there.

Dan and Micah are modern -day treasure
hunters.

Look at that.

They search for lost ships, some known
to have gone down with cargo worth

millions of dollars.

There's not a lot of people in the world
that do this, particularly in the deep

ocean because it's so expensive.

For us, not independently wealthy, we
needed to find targets that could

potentially find commercial cargo that
would be of value.

Micah and Dan were conducting sonar
scans in an area known for colonial -era

shipwrecks when they stumbled across
what looked like an airplane, where an

airplane should not be.

I was like, okay, what's this airplane
doing out here? It's not on a flight

where you would go with a single -engine
aircraft.

We came to the conclusion that this
could be one of those Avengers.

With Petrel's future uncertain,

This could very well be Kraft's best
shot to find the lost squadron.

We have to go identify this target, and
this is all we can do right now. This is

our last chance.

As Kraft and the Go America head toward
the mystery wreck in deep water,

back on shore, Mike Barnett is meeting
Wayne Abbott and

David O 'Keefe to review a new series of
targets.

Well, I think our investigation has run
its course, you know, for now.

And I think it's up to you and Kraft to
get out there and search that deeper

water. Yeah, I think, you know, Rob's
got a very worthwhile target he's going

be looking at.

And I've got a cluster of aircraft that
we're going to check out. Oh, a cluster

of plane wreck. That's what we're
looking for.

When this fisherman told me he's got
three or four aircraft within about five

miles of each other.

No way. It's just a pretty tight cluster
when you're talking about 80 miles

offshore.

So we're going to focus on that now.

Barnett's intel for this cluster of
plane wrecks comes from spear fisherman

Marinka.

Warp speed, there's no secrets in the
ocean.

And I feel if it's in traveled water,
somebody has a number for a Flight 19

wreck.

It's just a matter of when it lands on
the right hand.

The team begins their descent.

This time, they hit Peter.

The unmistakable outline of an aircraft.

Could this be Flight 19?

Deep in the waters off Florida's coast,
Mike Barnett is part of a team of

investigators. out to solve the Bermuda
Triangle's greatest mystery.

Flight 19, a squadron of torpedo bombers
that disappeared in 1945.

Going down the water column, we actually
had great visibility.

We got down on the marine life, came
out, looked at us, realized they can't

us, and they headed back to the wreck.

So we followed them, and that's when we
found an aircraft wreck.

Any initial dive that I do on a new
wreck site, I want to try to gather as

information as possible.

The problem with an aircraft, three
blades versus four blades, basic size,

many engines.

But as we look a little bit closer, the
site's dominated by a large turbine jet

engine.

And so this is not World War II vintage.
This is not what we're looking for.

But this aircraft has a story to tell.

Diving on sites like this, you have to
keep your emotions in check.

There could be very well a fatality
associated with these sites.

It's definitely a jet engine fighter
aircraft, most likely from the 1960s or

70s, maybe even more recent.

Odds are the U .S. Navy probably has a
report of this craft site right here, or

at least an event in their vicinity.

Barnett identifies the wreck as an F -8
Crusader.

at one time the fastest vehicle in the
world.

Naval records reveal a deadly 1966
incident that's likely tied to this

The Navy lost contact with a Crusader on
patrol in this area, later finding

only an oil slick and some floating
debris.

The cause of the crash remains unknown.

Barnett will report his discovery to the
Navy, who can more fully investigate

and inform the family.

While this wreck is not from Flight 19,
it's proof that Mike's intel is good and

his approach is working.

Just going out blindly and diving in the
water is not very productive.

Every hour you can spend in the library,
in the archives, speaking to commercial

fishermen, every little piece of that
puzzle can come together to solve the

mystery.

Back aboard Go America, shipwreck
investigator Dan Taylor believes the key

the triangle mystery is a bizarre subsea
anomaly.

Methane bubbles.

Naturally occurring gas seeps are not
uncommon.

But Dan's seen evidence that in the
Bermuda Triangle, they can be lethal.

On one of our surveys, we discovered
huge crater -like formations.

We had no idea what these things were.
The largest one was 600 meters across.

There is growing scientific consensus
that when subsea methane deposits

they can create a massive bubble with
the potential to displace water and sink

ships. A 600 -meter gas hydrate bubble.

would create a bubble on the surface of
the ocean that's miles, miles wide.

If you were a vessel and a bubble
birthed underneath you, then you would

simply fall off the planet into the
abyss and the water would swallow you.

Some even speculate they can create
lethal turbulence and down aircraft.

Could this explain the disappearance of
Flight 19?

Or is this another far -fetched
explanation for what may have been a

simple disaster?

This story took on a life of its own,
and people were connecting it to aliens

and vortexes and, you know, different
dimensions.

Paranormal and supernatural explanations
have proliferated. They include subsea

crystal pyramids, alien abductions, time
warps, and vortexes to

alternate dimensions.

When Flight 19 disappears out over the
Bermuda Triangle, people want some

explanation. They want something better
than the crew made a navigational error

because that seemed so hard to
reconcile.

To lose someone for something so common
and banal is just a little bit too

painful. But if you lose them to
supernatural forces, suddenly it all

sense.

Everybody's looking for the one reason
why they got lost, the one reason they

didn't come home.

But it doesn't work that way. There are
plenty of different reasons, all playing

off of each other.

And the only way we're really going to
solve this is if we find an aircraft.

On board the Go America, that's exactly
what underwater explorer Rob Kraft is

hoping to do.

He has teamed up with modern -day
treasure hunters Micah Eldred and Dan

to investigate Target 77, a wreck the
size of the Avengers from Flight

19.

It looks really good. It's the same size
as an Avenger, so we got a pretty good

shot here.

They are 300 miles offshore in the heart
of the Bermuda Triumph on a vessel that

has been retrofitted, for deep sea
exploration rough conditions

make it challenging to launch the
remotely operated vehicle or rov

the boat's pitching and rolling quite a
bit so as soon as you pick that heavy

vehicle up off the deck it starts
swinging and uh once that happens you

really stop it you've got to set it down
and try again all right

She didn't want to go, did she?

Ahead, the ROV detects the unmistakable
outline

of an aircraft.

Wing, wing, nose, tail.

That's an aircraft.

No doubt.

Will this aircraft finally unlock the
mystery of what happened to Flight 19?

In the heart of the Bermuda Triangle,
underwater explorer Rob Kraft watches as

remote vehicle approaches a mysterious
plane wreck.

He's searching for the Triangle's most
famous victims.

Five Avenger torpedo bombers that
vanished without a trace.

Visibility is really bad.

The current's really strong. Trying to
push me to port.

You're on it.

There it is.

There's the prop right there.

That's a cockpit to the left the
windshield there Looks like it's

white doesn't it? Yeah stripes Yeah

It's not our bird Well,

we definitely have an airplane

We've got some paint markings on this
aircraft that indicate that it's

commercial, it's not military.

So it's not an Avenger.

From the yellow and white paint, it's
immediately clear that this is not

19.

So what is it?

And how did it end up here?

You can see the shapes and how this
lines up with the window. Step down

here. This little triangular window
here, it's a real unique feature on this

airplane.

The team identify the aircraft as a
Cessna Guidemaster.

A ditched Cessna can float hundreds of
miles before sinking.

This wreck is most likely tied to an
accident report from 1982.

The pilot ran out of fuel and ditched
overseas before being rescued by the

Guard.

We were excited to come out and rule out
this target. It needed to be done.

You know, we were always hoping to find
an Avenger, but this would lead us to

believe or reaffirm our theory that the
flight is much further to the west.

So it is kind of a bittersweet ending.

Now, their last chance of finding an
adventure lies with Mike Barnett.

So guys, I think we have an opportunity
for one more dive before the weather

really shuts us down for good. He and
his team have been exploring a cluster

plane wrecks off the North Florida
coast.

They're racing to hit one last target
before weather closes the door for the

season.

But it may already be too late.

We have a hurricane to the east of us.
We have a hurricane to the west of us.

Here we are stuck in the middle.

Being out there in 25 knots, 30 miles
offshore, that's what's caused a lot of

these shipwrecks out here. We don't want
to become one of them.

There's only a short window before
dangerous weather moves in.

Barnett's team decides to take advantage
of the calm before the storm and go for

it.

As the divers descend,

Captain Jeff Marinko closely watches the
surface.

With typical scuba diving, there's
actually bubbles coming up that we would

follow.

However, when they're doing closed
circuit rebreathers, there's no bubbles

follow. So basically, I just have a
timer running, approximate bottom time

they're trying to do.

The team has only about 30 minutes on
the seafloor.

But to Jeff's surprise,

They resurfaced way too early.

Something has gone wrong.

The tide on the bottom was running
really hard.

Storms were really stirring things up.
It was really green water.

Yeah, so the hook had pulled out. It had
no sign of the wreck on the bottom. So

we had to abort the dive and come up and
try for another run at it.

A whipping bottom current ripped out the
line, securing the boat to the dive

target. And they missed the wreck.

With their weather window closing fast,
the team can't afford another miss.

This station's a little tougher, but
that's been the theme of this, hasn't

It's just been one hurdle after another.
First COVID, now there's hurricanes.

It just doesn't stop.

All right, let's try this again.

This time, everywhere Barnett looks,
fish, a sure

sign he's close.

That's them. They're on it for sure.

Good.

Below, the wreck comes into view.

But what is it from?

One of the first things we see is
there's this big chunk of debris metal

could have been from anything.

It could have been garbage pitched off a
ship.

It didn't really speak to me of an
airplane.

The next thing we come across is a large
section of flat metal with rivets.

Looking through a rustle on the top, I
saw what appeared to be black rubber.

I'm saying to myself, Maybe this is a
tire.

Time is our enemy right now. The clock
is ticking. We've got to find something

to reveal what we're diving on.

Then boom.

Right there, staring in the fade, a
large propeller.

And right next to it was the engine.

We are excited. We are stoked.

We know we have an aircraft.

We have a World War II vintage aircraft.

Now we want to find proof positive of
what this aircraft is.

We want to find that smoking gun.

And then we move on a little bit
farther, and we see this round piece of

wreckage with, in the middle of it,
teeth, like for gears.

I'm thinking to myself, this looks like
a turret.

Emotions are running off the chart.

Could this be an Avenger?

Barnett meets up with Rob Craft and Paul
Mayer.

to share the exciting discovery we
checked out some targets and i can show

some of the footage we've definitely
found an aircraft it spread out pretty

and it's been busted up pretty good
obviously this aircraft had a really bad

i mean its ending was catastrophic to
find out what the mystery wreck is

they're joined by roy stafford a former
navy pilot and world war ii aircraft

expert got a three blade prop And his
ball turret, which looks to me like it's

definitely a ball turret. Sounds like
you got a lot of convincing clues there.

At first, I wasn't sure, you know,
because there's so many World War II

that had three -bladed props.

You know, the wreckage was kind of
dispersed.

One by one, Roy identifies each piece.

The wing.

The propeller and double radial engine.

the gunner's turret with a pane of
bulletproof glass.

But it is the first piece of wreckage
that reveals what the aircraft is.

This structure, almost overlooked on the
dive, is a landing gear.

And the design is unique to the Avenger.

It was a perfect match because the TBM
sat real high and, you know, had a

torpedo bay underneath it.

You know, you take the landing gear, the
bulletproof glass, serrated teeth on

the gears of the turret, it's all there.

I'm actually 100 % at this point that
it's a TBM.

Roy looking at the footage, he's
pointing out multiple things. He's

this and this and this, and we're
like...

So it's an Avenger. He said, oh yeah,
without a doubt it's an Avenger. And

was just exciting to know.

You've made some amazing discoveries
here. You found an Avenger. You've still

got some other targets. And based on
what we know, Flight 19 could be in this

area. It could be one of them.

It's an enticing discovery.

A TBM Avenger torpedo bomber on the edge
of the Bermuda Triangle.

Where all indications are, Flight 19
went missing.

After 75 years.

Has Mike Barnett finally found the
legendary lost squadron?

December 5th, 1945.

Five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers and a
Martin Mariner rescue plane

fly into the Bermuda Triangle and
disappear.

Seventy -five years later, no trace of
them has ever been found.

That may be about to change.

Mike Barnett's been invited to the
Washington Navy Yard to share a

discovery with Dr. Robert Neeland.

So this first one here, obviously, is a
three -blade propeller.

Neeland heads underwater archaeology in
the Navy's History and Heritage Command.

He and naval underwater archaeology
expert Augustin Ortiz review Mike's

So I see here you're counting cylinders.

How many were you able to count there? I
think I saw seven, definitely two rows.

This really looks positive that this
could very well be an Avenger, but is it

one of the Flight 19 Avengers?

That's the question we need to answer.

To be able to actually identify it to a
specific one is really tough because

it's broken up, it's very corroded. So
you're looking for something that will

tie it to a specific aircraft.

The one thing they know for sure is
where it was found.

Could the wreck's location match any
known crashes?

We found the record of PBM aircraft
73379 set.

within the crash zone of this wreck
site.

The Navy's records, now declassified,
reveal a botched carrier landing in

February 1945, just three miles from
Barnett's discovery.

Luckily, the pilot was able to escape.

We can't say for 100 % that this is that
aircraft without doing more exploration

to see if there's some sort of marking
that identifies it.

Without identifiable markings, there's
no way to be certain this plane is tied

to the carrier crash.

And key questions remain unanswered.

Why is an aircraft that ditched while
trying to land broken into scattered

pieces like this?

And what are the other nearby plane
wrecks?

There are other wrecks in this general
area, and we don't know what those

are. That's really exciting, and we look
forward to continuing to work with you,

and we'd be very interested to see what
you find next.

If the nearby wrecks are also Avengers,
that would strengthen the case that

Barnett has indeed discovered Flight 19.

This story with Flight 19 is important
for the Navy to see resolved.

Because it highlights the sacrifice and
service that military personnel have

done. If it's other Navy aircraft out
there, we need to know where these are

located.

With the dive season closed for the
year, Barnett must wait to explore the

nearby targets.

For the moment, the Bermuda Triangle
still holds its grip on this mystery.

But the team is more determined than
ever to find the planes.

It's going to be a lifelong pursuit.

We're not going to stop until we find
the Martin Mariner and hopefully Flight

19.

If the Avengers crashed in shallow
water, Mike Barnett is convinced he can

them all.

And the investigation still cannot rule
out the possibility some of them made it

back to land.

We've been able to check off some of the
boxes.

There's a lot of them here, and there's
still more to check, but we've been able

to get rid of some of them.

Wayne Abbott and David O 'Keefe
believe...

The archives still hold secrets.

Just when we think we're answering one
question, a whole bunch of others pop

But that's the mystery of Flight 19.

And Rob Kraft was only able to map out a
fraction of his primary search area. We

spent a lot of time and effort to make
sure that we were doing the right thing,

and I think we were.

If the planes are in deep water, Kraft
is sure he can find them. We need to go

back and resume the search where we were
before.

Despite the challenges, the team
believes they've come closer to finding

19 than anyone else.

And it's just a matter of time before
the mystery is solved.

Officially, Flight 19 is still out
there.

But the net could be closing fast.

I'm Lawrence Fishburne. Thank you for
watching History's Greatest Mysteries.