All language subtitles for The.Bermuda.Triangle.Into.Cursed.Waters.S01E04.Spies.in.the.Deep.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

narrator: Tonight,
on the "Bermuda Triangle:

Into Cursed Waters."

- All right, surface,
this is 0-6.

- Oh, no way!

narrator: Why did a secret
spy plane suddenly vanish?

- Does not appear
that the pilot got out.

narrator: Did it fall prey
to something in the fog?

- Four of them hit a fog bank.
Only three come out.

narrator: The team
investigates a phenomenon

that appears without warning.

[dramatic music]

- The clouds are building.
We're going right into it.

narrator: To help
write the final chapter

for an American hero.

- It's great to see Dad,
you know?

♪ ♪

narrator: There is
a place that evokes

fear and fascination.

♪ ♪

Bounded by Florida,
Bermuda, and Puerto Rico,

the Bermuda Triangle
has swallowed

countless ships, planes,
and people.

But why?

♪ ♪

Now, an elite team dives in.

- These are dangerous dives.

- Any sane person
would not be doing this.

narrator: Their secret weapon,
a map decades in the making,

which pinpoints
unidentified wrecks.

- There's all these
shipwrecks out there

in the Bermuda Triangle
that there's no names to 'em.

- Dive, dive, dive.

narrator: Their mission,

solve the mystery
of the Bermuda Triangle

one wreck at a time.

- Mother nature is gonna
take these wrecks away

and these mysteries
are never going to be solved.

The clock is ticking.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

narrator:
Mike Barnette and the team

are on the edge
of the Bermuda Triangle,

heading toward
an underwater target

nicknamed the 540 Wreck
by fishermen

because it's
over 500 feet down.

It's rumored to be a plane.

♪ ♪

- I've been collecting
intelligence from fishermen,

from geological surveys,
historical reports

now for about 30 years.

narrator: The 540 Wreck
is one of the targets

on Barnette's map
that are beyond the limits

of manned dives.

- A section of my shipwreck
coordinates of my database

that I have,
but its unattainable

to me 'cause it's
beyond my diving depth.

Its beyond 500 feet,
far off shore.

♪ ♪

narrator: Until now.

♪ ♪

Working off
the research vessel "Odyssey,"

the team can hit some of
their deepest targets yet.

♪ ♪

The "Odyssey" is equipped
with advanced multi-beam sonar

that can paint a picture
of the sea floor.

- Closing hatch,
looking for permission.

- Hatch coming down.

narrator:
And Triton-class submersibles

that can reach depths
of 3,000 feet.

- Being on the "Odyssey"

is a once in a lifetime
opportunity.

Having these kinds
of resources,

it was just like
being on the "Calypso"

with Jacques Cousteau.

narrator: Joining Barnette
aboard the "Odyssey,"

shipwreck specialist
Jimmy Gadomski

and investigator Wayne Abbott.

- Not only are we going
to be able to investigate

some unknown shipwrecks,
but we can also dig deeper

into the bigger mystery
of the Bermuda Triangle,

and what makes it so
dangerous and ominous

to be in this part
of the ocean.

So the "Odyssey" gives that.

♪ ♪

narrator: Based on the profile
and position of the 540 Wreck,

the team is hoping
it's a plane at the center

of an unsolved
Bermuda Triangle mystery.

♪ ♪

February 1958,
a four-member banshee squadron

from the Royal Canadian Navy
are conducting

joint-training exercises
with the U.S. Navy

along the Florida coast.

- These aircraft were
designed as high-altitude,

reconnaissance aircraft.

They can go as high
as 50,000 feet.

They were designed
to be able to get high

so that they can get above
enemy anti-aircraft weaponry.

So they were utilized
in the battle space

in the Korean conflict to get
a viewpoint from high altitude

with these high aspect cameras

to allow them to see
what the enemy

might have been doing.

narrator: The squadron
is on a course

to rendezvous
with their aircraft carrier

flying into clear skies.

They suddenly face
an intense fog bank

that materializes
seemingly out of nowhere.

- With visibility
at nearly zero,

the squadron leader
orders evasive action

to get out of the fog.

However, as four planes go in,
only three planes come out.

The Canadian pilot simply
disappeared in the fog

and was never seen again.

♪ ♪

narrator: The team
hopes to solve the mystery

of the missing Banshee.

- First question I ask is,
"What happened?

And more importantly, you know,
what happened to the pilot?"

It's what we go through
as investigators of shipwrecks

and plane wrecks because it's
always exciting when you find

something new on the bottom,
and it's always

exciting to identify it,

but then,
there's that human story.

♪ ♪

narrator: To answer
these questions,

they first need
to determine if Barnette's

wreck target is even real.

- Time is money
literally out here.

With a vessel this size,
and the crew,

and all the assets,
there's a lot riding on this.

Like, by long, it's two.

narrator: Before they launch
a single submarine,

the sonar team
needs hard proof

that something viable
is at Barnette's coordinates.

- Nothing really showed up
on the screens at all,

just sand, flat bottom,

until all a sudden,
we had a pool of fish.

- But surprisingly,
there was nothing

with the fish.

- Nothing on S2.
Nothing on S2.

♪ ♪

narrator:
A large mass of fish

is often a tell-tale sign

of a wreck, but the engineers
are not seeing

any structure on the bottom.

- The concern is that
we're in the area

and we aren't
seeing anything yet.

- The multi-beam
was picking up

no hard object
besides the fish.

- This doesn't actually read
as a stronger density

than the sea floor.

- The technicians,
I think, just basically

believed that there was
no wreck at the bottom.

- I think we're going
to start to seeing stuff,

yeah, right through here.

I have been doing this
for decades,

and when you see something
like that,

that kind of fish show

had to be holding
on something substantial.

- Yeah, it's--
is it a hole or a rock?

- So even though
the technicians

felt there's nothing there,

I was positive
there's definitely

structure there,
something there

worthy of a dive.

♪ ♪

narrator:
After hours of impasse

and despite the lack
of evidence on the sonar,

the team decides
to take a leap of faith

in Barnette's map.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- We're good for launch.

Stand by to launch.
Stand by to launch.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

narrator: They're diving
in an area

between the deep, calm waters
of the Sargasso Sea

on one side, and the surging
Gulf Stream on the other.

The clash of these two regions
creates some of Earth's

most violent storms.

And below the surface,

powerful and erratic
bottom currents.

♪ ♪

- Topside, this is 0-0-6.
We have bottom in sight.

8-6 meters heading 3-0-0.
Life support good.

- That's a perfect heading.
Thank you.

narrator: The Comm room
is keen to see

if Mike's hunch will pay off,
or if they're chasing a ghost.

♪ ♪

They run into
their first challenge,

the current.

narrator: The sub's top speed
is 3 knots per hour,

but swirling bottom currents
are hitting

nearly 3 knots as well.

Pilot Steve Chappelle
has to max out his thrusters

to crawl toward the target.

♪ ♪

- Taking a 3-0-0 heading,
which will put him right here.

narrator: The fast currents
are churning up the seafloor,

but something else
is clouding their view.

Lots and lots of kahalas
down here or amberjacks.

- Copy, fish everywhere.

- I mean, he is just certain
something's there

because of the amount of fish.

- More fish.
They're coming from somewhere.

- Oh, look at the size of that
grouper that just came out.

It's huge!

♪ ♪

narrator: Then Barnette spies
something in the distance.

- Oh, I see--
is that a shadow

along the bottom?

Seeing the shadow in the gloom
and getting closer

and the details start to pop
as your mind

is racing trying
to make heads or tails

of what you're looking at.

There's a wreck here.

Yeah, you see linear lines
like that, that's not natural.

- It was up a little
on the side--

- Yeah, there's
a little clump there.

- All right, surface,
this is 0-6.

- 0-6, come back.

- We are at something.

We're not sure what yet.

We're at some sort
of lumpy rock formation,

lots and lots of fish.
We're creeping up on it now.

narrator: At first glance,
the team assumes

that this is some kind
of geology

as the sonar technicians
suspected,

but they move in
for a closer look.

- Okay.

- Is it a plane?
- No way!

- It is a plane!
- It is a plane!

♪ ♪

[soft dramatic music]

- Surface 0-6, comms check.

- 0-6, go ahead.

narrator: Elite diver
Mike Barnette

has proven
his instincts and his intel

were right on the money.

narrator: The team is diving

on a previously
unidentified wreck

on Mike Barnette's map,

located on the edge
of the Bermuda Triangle,

nicknamed the 540 Wreck.

It's turned out to be
some kind of plane,

but IDing the plane
won't be easy.

- Ooh, feel that?
- Oh, yeah.

- Oh, yeah.
- Wow.

- We're being pushed.

narrator: A surging current
is now 4 knots

and overpowering
the Triton sub's thrusters.

♪ ♪

- So they're here now, right?
- Yeah.

- This is their approach?
- Yeah.

- Yeah.

narrator: Pilot
Steve Chappelle

is struggling to hold
the sub's position

to get a clear view
of the wreck.

♪ ♪

- There is part of the wing
right there, I guess.

- Wow, just--
- Yeah, we're whipping past it.

Let's see how close
I can get us in there.

- Perfect.

♪ ♪

- Oh, look at
what's raining down on us.

- Tons of fish.
- Oh, my gosh.

- This little structure
is holding this much fish.

- They love aluminum.
- Wow.

♪ ♪

narrator: Barnette spots signs

that this is
a military aircraft.

Here's the engine
right there, one engine.

there might be another engine.

narrator: The flaps
on the wing are down,

indicating this plane
could have been trying

to land when it crashed.

- He actually tried
to do a ditching at sea

try to slow down.

- Looks like it probably
crashed nose in.

♪ ♪

narrator:
Barnette begins to take in

some difficult details.

- Is that the back
of the canopy?

That's the nose crunched back,
and that's the top.

- Oh.

♪ ♪

narrator: The canopy
and ejection seat

are still intact,
which suggests the pilot

didn't get out before
the plane hit the water.

- Just the chaos
on the bottom

of how mangled
the aircraft was

on the open cockpit
and seeing the seat in there,

I mean, our first thoughts
were, "Is this a grave site?"

♪ ♪

- Topside, this is 0-6.

We are currently sitting
on top of the aircraft.

It looks to be a pretty
dramatic crash-landing.

Does not appear
that the pilot got out.

I see the canopy intact.
The cockpit is intact.

Someone had a really bad day.

- Clear.
Copy all.

♪ ♪

narrator: Despite
the thrusters being on full,

the sub is pushed away
before they can find

any additional clues.

- Yeah.

narrator: Erratic bottom
currents are getting

even stronger
and more hazardous.

The team decides
to pull back for now.

They've got enough to know

that their find
has a story to tell.

♪ ♪

- You are clear
to surface to 0-3-0 meters.

We're ascending through 82 now.

♪ ♪

- Unbelievable, man.
I was just following it,

but I just can't wait
to hear more.

- What we found
was basically a jet fighter.

It met a really tragic end.

We've got to talk
to a few experts

and hit the archives.

- It's so exciting
that we found this aircraft.

- It's super exciting but then
also potentially sobering

knowing that this could have
been a grave for someone.

- We can get Jason and Dave
on this right now,

and hopefully
solve the mystery.

♪ ♪

narrator: Back on land,
retired U.S. Air Force officer

and aviation accident
investigator Jason Harris

and military historian
David O'keefe

meet to evaluate the images

the "Odyssey" team
has sent from the ship.

- So we got the picture
of this aircraft,

but as you can see,
these photos are quite murky.

- Really comes across
like a ghost, doesn't it?

What have we got?
- Every aircraft is different.

narrator: Harris spots
several clues in the imagery

to this aircraft's identity.

- You can kind of
see some specifics

in this area of the wing,
as well as the fuselage.

This aircraft
is most likely a Banshee.

♪ ♪

narrator: Harris can't see
enough yet to know for sure,

but if it is a banshee,
it could be the Canadian plane

that flew into
the mysterious fog in 1958

and was never seen again.

- Check this out,
late 1950s,

a flight of Canadian Banshees
on the way

to do carrier
training operations.

Four of them hit a fog bank.

All four go in,
only three come out.

narrator: How could a plane
simply vanish in the fog?

Did the pilot
lose his bearings

and crash at sea,

or was the fog hiding
something more treacherous?

- What about
the possibility of this fog,

you know, blanketing some
sort of other weather issues

that are behind it, and he
ended up flying into that?

- There are weather systems
that move in so suddenly

that the briefing that you had
30 minutes ago

for the weather report
is no longer accurate.

- So if that's
the case, though,

what kind of
weather instability

could possibly cause
a plane to go down

if it's not so-called "fog"?

narrator:
The Bermuda Triangle

is synonymous
with deadly storms.

♪ ♪

One of the most feared
is a phenomenon

called a microburst.

These storms
get their name

because they are small,
concentrated,

and powerful,
usually less

than 2 and 1/2 miles
in diameter,

but with winds up to 150 mph.

They seem to appear
without warning,

and from a distance,

often look like
a wall of clouds or fog.

They are responsible
for at least

20 major airline disasters,
totaling over 500 deaths.

♪ ♪

And they may very well
be behind

many of the mysterious
disappearances of planes

lost in the Bermuda Triangle.

- The thing with fog
is you really never know

what could be behind it,

and it could
very well be hiding

something like a microburst

that could be
absolutely deadly.

narrator:
The team will consider

whether the Banshee could have
fallen prey to a microburst

or other anomaly.
It all hits home for Jason.

♪ ♪

- In that moment
when that aircraft goes

into that unannounced fog,
I begin to think

about how would I respond?
How would I react?

And how much time do I have

to make a decision
that is gonna determine

if I live or die?

♪ ♪

- Doing just one dive
on any wreck

is just more of a tease
than anything else

because you have a glimpse
of what you think it is,

but it really takes sometimes
multiple dives

to figure out
what you're looking at.

♪ ♪

narrator: But their plans
may be cut short.

♪ ♪

- These storms
come out of nowhere.

Before we jump,
if it looks like this,

sometimes we'll call the dive
because of it

if it really looks like
it's gonna open up.

♪ ♪

narrator: The "Odyssey"
is running headlong

into the sudden,
violent storm.

- Clouds are
building right now.

It's about to probably get
kind of nasty out here.

Thunder in the distance.
Rain in the distance.

We're going right into it.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

- Boom.

Count one, three,
four, five, six.

That's only a mile away.

♪ ♪

narrator: On the edge
of the Bermuda Triangle,

the team is on the trail
of a military plane

called a Banshee lost in 1958.

It disappeared
into a sudden fog

that may have masked
even deadlier weather...

♪ ♪

Much like the sudden storm
the team is confronting now.

- Well, right now, we've got
some pretty heavy squalls

coming in from the West
dead ahead

at about 30 knots
of wind just now.

And you can see
it's coming over the side.

[wind whooshing]

Yeah.

♪ ♪

narrator: Captain Hugh Maynard
is on alert

at the helm of the "Odyssey."

♪ ♪

- Yeah,
I'm staying off the deck.

- 64 knots of wind.

That's Force 11,
hurricane strength.

Wind like this would
lay a ship on her beam end.

If it was at night and a squall
like this hit a sailing ship,

she could easily be,
you know, sunk.

♪ ♪

It's really coming down now.

narrator:
The next dive must wait,

as Captain Maynard steers
the ship toward safer water.

- Disappointment is--
it's a common thing

we face as divers because
weather is our nemesis.

You can only work with what
mother nature is giving you.

You just gotta roll with it
and do the best you can.

narrator:
Onshore, David O'keefe

looks for clues
in the type of storm

that may have caused
the Banshee to crash.

They're called microbursts,

and he's about
to see one up close.

narrator: Storm chaser and
severe weather photographer

Jeff Gammons is an authority
on the microbursts

that form
off the Bermuda Triangle.

♪ ♪

- All right, here we go.
Hang tight.

I wanna get back out
'cause I think

that's gonna land spout,

and it's gonna cross
the main road.

- These types of microbursts,
you go from calm winds to 60,

70-mile hour winds,
you know, in five minutes.

♪ ♪

narrator:
It's a key piece of info.

The Banshee pilots
who survived

said the skies were clear.

Then suddenly,
they were surrounded by fog.

- So drop of a hat,
everything changes?

- Yeah, because
the thunderstorm goes up,

and then it almost
collapses on itself.

♪ ♪

- This is going to be
quite cataclysmic, isn't it?

♪ ♪

Yeah, here we go.
- So here we go.

♪ ♪

narrator: Gammons
has identified

a distinct pattern
that occurs ahead

of the most violent
storm systems.

It's called convergence.

- As you can see,
the thunderstorm heads

have exploded now
right over us.

- 'Cause basically,
what we're getting

is the boundary here
colliding with

the boundary coming across.
- That's right.

Yeah.
- Fantastic.

narrator: Convergence occurs
when weather fronts collide

and pile on top of each other
until they reach

a tipping point.

In a normal thunderstorm,
it all comes crashing down

in a column of rain and wind,

but under
the peculiar conditions

found in the Bermuda Triangle,

convergence can spawn
something far deadlier,

a microburst
with tornado force winds

that exceed
100 miles per hour.

- So basically, the sudden
nature of these microbursts

could easily be veiled
by a fog bank coming in.

You go through the fog bank,

and next thing you know,
you're into one of these.

- Oh, absolutely.

narrator: It suggests the wall
of fog that the Banshees

flew into was actually
the convergence

of two violent
weather systems combining

to form a deadly microburst.

♪ ♪

Given what David's seeing,
it's easy to see

how that could cause
a plane to crash.

- It's one thing to be sitting
there in the car

with all the latest gadgets,
and you have

all the meteorological data
that you need.

But being up in an aircraft,
especially back in the '50s

and '60s, you have no clue
when these are gonna

sort of appear out of nowhere.

Maybe this is the big monster
that everybody's

been thinking about when it
comes to the Bermuda Triangle.

♪ ♪

narrator: 300 miles
off the Florida coast,

on the edge
of the Bermuda Triangle,

the team has determined
a target on Barnette's map

that fishermen
nicknamed the 540 Wreck

is likely a 1950's
military jet

called the Banshee.

The clues point to
a Bermuda Triangle mystery.

A Banshee flown
by a Canadian pilot

that disappeared
into a dense fog.

- Good to see you again, Roy.
- Nice to see you.

- How are you doing, brother?

- Even if you are Air Force,
glad to see you again.

narrator:
Jason Harris meets

with military
aircraft restorer

and former combat pilot
Roy Stafford

to inspect
the photos of the wreck.

- I'm pretty sure
we got a Banshee here,

but I think I'm gonna
need a little bit of help

just identifying
the specific model.

[dramatic music]

narrator:
Roy is uniquely qualified

to confirm
whether this plane

is indeed
the Canadian Banshee.

He restored one of
the last Banshees in existence

for the National Naval
Aviation Museum in Pensacola.

- I agree with you.
It's a Banshee.

To tell what type
of Banshee it is,

it's all from
the cockpit forward.

Each iteration, the Banshee
had a little different

nose configuration.

narrator: Most models of
the Banshee were fighter jets.

They had radar in the nose
and armament for combat.

♪ ♪

Looking at the wreck,
Roy can tell

immediately that this Banshee
was something rare.

- Ah, down here, see that?

- Yeah, what is that there?

Those are window apertures
for reconnaissance version

of the F2H.
It's called F2H2P.

♪ ♪

These three apertures
that you see there

are for the rotating cameras.

♪ ♪

narrator:
The Banshee F2H-2Ps

were specialized spy planes
with a full array of cameras

replacing the armaments.

- Roy, looking at
this Canadian accident

that happened,
do you know anything

about the aircraft models
that the Canadians flew?

- Yeah, they flew the F2H3,
which was

the first of the big Banshees.

narrator:
The Canadians flew only

the fighter model
of the banshee,

not this specialized
spy plane.

- That aircraft
was distinguishably different

than this aircraft
that we're looking at?

- Oh, absolutely.

- So we can definitely
rule that--

- Rule that one out.
- Wow.

Once you rule out
that this aircraft is not

a Canadian variant,
then that puts us back

in a position
to start thinking, "Well,

"who was flying this aircraft?

What mission were
they actually doing?"

narrator: The plane
wreck they found

was not the Banshee
that flew into the fog

never to be seen again.

Instead,
a new mystery opens up.

♪ ♪

This plane was American.

- Any reason why
that particular aircraft,

that model for reconnaissance
might have

been off the coast of Florida?

- There's easy explanation,
Jason.

They were hurricane hunters.

♪ ♪

narrator: When not doing
recon missions

deep over hostile territory
or tracking enemy warships,

American F2H-2P Banshees

took on
another dangerous task,

studying hurricanes.

The Banshees weren't
the first planes to do this.

The U.S. Navy tried
to track hurricanes

as early as
the Second World War.

- My father was a member of
the Navy's hurricane hunters.

They used to fly
the World War II bombers.

They would penetrate
a thousand feet or less

to go into the storm,
and they would fly

all the way into the eye,

and they would take
barometric pressure,

wind velocities,
you know, on the fringes,

turbulence readings.
It was pretty dangerous.

narrator: But the development

of the high flying
F2H-2P Banshee

led to a breakthrough
in storm tracking.

- Everybody always thought
if they could get over the top,

then they could circle down
into the eye, you know,

where the weather
was more benign.

So they had two Banshees
from Jacksonville

that flew above the storm
and spiraled down in

and took some photographs
of the waves.

♪ ♪

narrator: By flying over
the top of the storm,

the Banshee gave military
and civilian authorities

an unprecedented view
into the most violent storms,

revolutionizing forecasting
and saving thousands of lives.

- For decades, this mission
that they had provided

warnings for ships
at sea, our fleets,

and for the civilian
populations on the ground.

These guys were heroes.

narrator: Whether the Banshee
Barnette found

at the edge
of the Bermuda Triangle

was lost on a secret
Cold War spy mission

or tracking violent storms,
Roy insists the military

would have kept track of it.

- What I would be looking for
is bureau number,

which is generally a small set
of numbers on the empennage,

or the tail end
of the aircraft.

And that's kind of like
the VIN plate on your car.

That'll tell us exactly
what airplane it was.

Match hat up with
the crash reports from Navy,

and you'll be able
to run a complete record

of the aircraft,
where it served,

its entire lifetime.

- If we get some
of these pertinent details,

that allows us to solve
this bigger mystery

of this aircraft accident.

♪ ♪

narrator: Back out at sea,
the storms have subsided

and the team is ready
for their second dive.

- All right,
guests coming down.

narrator:
Following Roy's advice,

they'll search
for the tail section

of the aircraft
and its markings

to ID the plane.

They can only hope

the vicious bottom currents

will let them
get to the wreck.

♪ ♪

narrator: The team
is heading back down

to the site of a crashed
Banshee spy plane

in search of the clues
they need

to ID this mystery wreck.

[dramatic music]

The conditions
beneath the surface

appear cooperative.

♪ ♪

- 0-0-6 topside,
if you are able,

could you provide an update?

- Topside, this is 0-0-6.

We have the bottom in sight.

narrator:
This time the sub pilot

is able to maintain position,

giving Barnette
and Gadomski a front row seat

with an excellent view.

- This is pretty amazing.

I'm gonna kind of
creep over the wing,

if you don't mind,
and creep up on the fuselage.

narrator: Then the team finds
what they are looking for.

The tail section
looms in the distance.

- Up and to your right.

- I kind of see a shadow.
It's hard to say.

- Is that the tail there?

♪ ♪

That's definitely
a tail right there.

- Yeah.
Oh, look at that.

- The tail
is sitting broken off.

♪ ♪

narrator: At last,
Mike Barnette

has achieved the first
objective of his mission,

to locate the missing tail
of a Banshee spy plane.

♪ ♪

But after decades
under the water,

does it still have
markings that will

help the team ID this plane?

- The tail
is sitting broken off.

And that's the rudder
and the horizontal stabilizer.

Yeah, right?
It just snapped off.

It just was resting
down the sand.

Is there's lettering
on the tail there?

♪ ♪

- Let's see
what I can do here to get us--

- Oh, there's a P.
Look on the tail.

- Okay.
- Look on the tail.

- P1?
- P1, looks like.

- That is incredible.

- It's PL.
- PL? Okay.

- PL.

- And, honestly,
that PL is gonna help.

That's probably the squadron.

We'll know
where it took off from.

- I'm gonna let
the current push me back

and I'll come around
the other side.

narrator: Incredibly,
paint on the tail

is still legible.

These two letters, P and L,
are the air group number.

♪ ♪

- Surface 0-6,
I think they got

what we need,
and we're requesting

permission to surface.

♪ ♪

narrator: Back on board
the "Odyssey,"

Mike and jimmy
review their footage

with Wayne and underwater
photographer Evan Kovaks.

- We could still make out
the paint on the tail section.

Like Jimmy said,
you can see this squadron

designation on the rudder,
which was just amazing.

You can see the white paint,
but it's also

partially obscured
with sediment.

- It's amazing
after all these years

that it just
hasn't eroded away.

- This is
the first identifiable thing

that we came up on, which looks
like P and maybe an L.

narrator: The P and L
is an important clue.

Some quick research
indicates the plane

flew out of
the Naval Air Station

in Jacksonville, Florida.

- We can almost see
the entire wreck.

♪ ♪

- Whenever you see any wreck,
whether the vessel

or aircraft,
what were the final moments

that led to that incident?
Why is this aircraft here?

And that's where
I wanna look at it

from a scientific approach.

It's just a process to find out
what happened to it

in it's the last moments.

♪ ♪

I reached out
to the historian of actually

the squadron there
at NAS Jacksonville,

and they were unaware
of any event

of a 2P banshee being lost.

♪ ♪

narrator: Strangely, there are
no obvious candidates

for this missing spy plane.

If there is a record
of a Banshee lost

at sea
in the Bermuda Triangle,

it is being kept
closely guarded.

- For every setback,
we just had

to re-evaluate
and reposition and attack it

from a different angle.

narrator: So Barnette digs in.

It turns out this particular
spy plane was a rare bird.

Of the 900 Banshees
the U.S. military made,

only 89 were
the F2H2P photo recon version

the team has found.

Barnette has no choice
but to pull

the records
for every single one

of them and dig in.

- So then it was just
trying to go

through
the available information

to find out of losses
of this aircraft that happened

off the Florida coast.

You can rule out ones
that were lost in Korea,

ones that were
put into storage.

♪ ♪

So it was just
a process of elimination

until we had one
basically viable candidate.

narrator:
The most likely suspect

was flown by an American hero
who never made it home.

♪ ♪

Now Jason and Barnette
want to talk to the family.

♪ ♪

narrator: The team
has uncovered

a jet-powered spy plane

at the edge
of the Bermuda Triangle.

They believe this plane
was flown by a pilot

named Lt. Peter Mongilardi.

Jason and Mike
have tracked down

Mongilardi's son, Raoul.

- I'm very interested
to hear about your father.

- He loved flying.
It was his passion, you know?

He was a great aviator.

♪ ♪

Testing flight suits,
high altitude suits,

aircraft, everything.

Flying was his life, you know?

- I think your insight
to your father's career

is gonna help us shed
some light on this mystery.

I'd like to share
the video we took

of the mystery wreck site.
- Yeah.

♪ ♪

It turns out to be an aircraft.

It was a fairly unique aircraft
as we learned

as we're exploring the site.

- Do we know what kind
of an aircraft it is?

- It was F2H Banshee.

- Oh, that's very meaningful.

So my dad later flew
through the eye

of the Hurricane Connie...

♪ ♪

In a Banshee,

and they were testing specific
reconnaissance photography.

That was top secret
at the time.

narrator: Lt. Mongilardi
was one of the first pilots

to fly Banshees
into hurricanes to study them.

The data the others collected
helped us to better understand

how hurricanes behave,
and has saved lives

in the years since.

It was on a routine flight

that Lt. Mongilardi's
luck almost ran out.

- We went through
all the bureau numbers

because one right here,
"Stricken after an accident

"at sea on aircraft carrier,
the 'Lake Champlain'

on September 24th, 1954."

And we know the "Champlain"
was off Northeast Florida

during September doing
carrier qualifications.

So do you know where
your dad was this time period?

- Yes, he was on
the Lake Champlain.

He was flying
this plane, or another plane

very much like it.

And I actually have
his service record.

So I have an incident report

dated in 1954 of my father

in a Banshee aircraft.

- Right there, 1, 2, 5.
- Right there.

- That's the same one.

narrator: This incident report
says that on September 24th,

1954, Lt. Mongilardi had just
landed his Banshee

on the USS L"ake Champlain"
aircraft carrier

when one of his brakes failed.

- It says,
"following arrested landing."

So that basically
says your dad had

a normal, safe,
arrested landing

on that aircraft carrier,

and then
the starboard brake failed,

and that likely was what
caused him to go off the edge

of that aircraft carrier.

- And it shoved
the plane over this way.

- Yeah.

- I have a photograph
of this plane,

and of my dad in the plane.

♪ ♪

- Oh, it's hanging
off the side.

- So it's hanging
off the side.

- Wow.
That's it.

- Look, the canopy is open.
- It's open.

♪ ♪

- It looks like
he's not looking up.

He's not waving.
He's not saying, "I'm okay."

He's sort of like, "Really?"
You know?

- Likely as he's realizing
that he's slowly

going over the edge of this,

he's gotta figure out how
quickly he's gonna get out.

That type of ejection seat,
you don't eject

when you're on the ground,
so he's likely

unhooking himself so that
once he hits the water--

- He could just walk
out on the wing.

- Absolutely.

narrator: Lt. Mongilardi
was able to escape

the open cockpit
of his Banshee

with the ejection seat intact,

which initially
made it appear to the team

that the pilot
had not gotten out.

- Matches up exactly.
- Wow.

- That is crazy.

- His name is on the side
of the aircraft.

- Right, Pete Mongilardi,
Lieutenant USN.

♪ ♪

Well, it's great, you know?

Like, you know,

it's great
to see dad, you know?

I last saw my father
when I was 8 years old.

What are the odds that you
guys would find, you know,

this particular aircraft?

♪ ♪

It means a great deal to me,

and I know it will
to my family.

♪ ♪

narrator:
Lt. Peter Mongilardi

gave his life for his country

over the skies of Vietnam
in 1965.

- As professional aviators,
as military members,

we talk about, "you don't
leave anyone behind."

And you wanna make certain
that in everything that we do,

you provide a level
of closure.

And if you can provide
a level of closure

to the service member,
to the family,

and everyone else
that's involved,

that's extremely special.

- Thank you.
Thank you.

- For me, this is
a way I can contribute.

I can serve those
that have served,

and so it gives meaning
to my diving

when you can have
these kind of stories

and bring closure
to the families.

♪ ♪

The luck that we stumbled
into this story,

it wasn't just any old pilot.

It was a pretty
remarkable pilot.

This whole story, the process
has just been remarkable

'cause we started
from scratch.

- It's a rare occasion
that you find an aircraft

like this,
and as it comes to life,

we then have a whole
different level of respect

for what happened
to the person,

what happened
to the machine,

and what happened
on that fateful day.

And to see that image
and knowing

that's moments before
it dropped off

the carrier to the seafloor,

and then compared
to what we've seen

on the bottom, I mean, that
was almost a mirror image.

Everything fit,
and that's what you want.

You wanna test your theory.

You wanna poke holes
in your own theory

and your own hypotheses,

and I feel very solid
that we've got our aircraft.

♪ ♪