Original subtitles

narrator: Tonight on

"The Bermuda Triangle: Into Cursed Waters"...

- On top of the spike right now.

[dramatic music]

- If you want to make discoveries,

sometimes you gotta push the edges of the envelope

just a little bit.

narrator: What caused these Cold War jets

to crash off the coast of Florida?

- Right there. There he is.

- Oh, there was somebody trying to get out.

narrator: Did they fall prey to a curse

that plagued an unlucky aircraft carrier?

- If this bears out, there's an unexploded

atomic weapon sitting off Florida.

narrator: The team hits the water...

narrator: And makes a historic find.

- This just provides what we've been

trying to figure out with this mystery wreck.

[dramatic music]

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.

♪ ♪

Now an elite team is on the hunt...

- Dive, dive, dive.

narrator: And making big finds.

- We've discovered "Challenger."

narrator: Their secret weapon,

a wreck map decades in the making.

- These are dangerous dives.

- Ah!

- Any sane person would not be doing this.

narrator: Their mission,

solve the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle

one wreck at a time.

- Dude, are you seeing this?

- Mother Nature is gonna take these wrecks away.

The clock is ticking.

♪ ♪

[water burbling]

[tense music]

- Good morning.

- How are we doing?

- I have friends that are commercial fishermen,

and they're pursuing the fish,

not the story, not the history.

But they can guide us to find the wrecks.

♪ ♪

We were made aware of this wreck called Chang's Wreck,

named after Jimmy Chang,

who was the commercial fisherman that first found it.

♪ ♪

narrator: Shipwreck hunters

Mike Barnette and Jimmy Gadomski

often find their best mysteries from local hearsay.

Today, they're sailing to the underwater object

known locally as Chang's Wreck.

It lies 57 nautical miles off the coast of Florida,

just north of the Bermuda Triangle.

Rumor has it that it's an aircraft wreck.

- Commercial spearfisherman had been on it,

and they saw it was obviously an aircraft.

They saw the wings.

They saw the fuselage.

So we had that information.

They didn't know what kind of aircraft it was,

but word quickly got out about this new wreck site.

♪ ♪

- So we're going down 240 feet.

Uh, we're gonna plan 25-30 minutes on the bottom.

We're gonna try and put a shot line in the water.

Once the shot line's in the water,

hopefully we don't have too much current,

and we'll be able to follow that shot line

straight down to the wreck.

- We don't really know what exactly is down there.

So to actually go down and discover for yourself,

not to be told about it, but you actually

looking into it and uncovering that lost history,

that's the passion that drives us.

♪ ♪

[propellers whirring]

narrator: The waters in and around

the Bermuda Triangle

have claimed over 50 aircraft,

many lost without explanation.

The team is hoping that Chang's Wreck is the answer

to a series of plane crashes that happened here

over 60 years ago.

In July 1960, a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier,

the USS "Saratoga," entered these waters

and experienced a run of bad luck.

- When you look at the history on the USS "Saratoga,"

they did a lot of patrols off the coast of Florida

in the area that is known as the Bermuda Triangle,

and so it started getting this reputation as an unlucky ship

around about 1959, 1960,

because of some accidents that were documented

from that aircraft carrier.

♪ ♪

- July 1960, you have to remember that

we're at the part of the Cold War that is now

really starting to heat up.

USS "Saratoga" is actually on patrol

in the Bermuda Triangle area,

and this area is pretty much a hotbed.

In 1959, you have the Cuban Revolution,

which brings Castro to power,

and now you have an entry point for the Soviet Union.

They could bring in missiles.

They could bring in aircraft.

They may even be able to bring in their own navy.

And so this became the most hotly contested environment

in the entire Cold War.

♪ ♪

narrator: July 26, 1960,

a strategic bomber on a practice run

is approaching the "Saratoga."

A mile from the flight deck, it crashes into the waves,

killing the pilot, William N. Collier,

and his two crewmen.

Three days later, another plane of the same type

hits the flight deck briefly

before careening over the side,

killing three more men.

♪ ♪

The pilot of the second plane

was Commander Charles T. Frohne.

- Dad was always a hero.

In World War II, my dad flew

over 11 different types of aircraft.

He had 162 missions.

- He was also awarded the Flying Cross

and a number of air medals.

♪ ♪

narrator: Both the "Saratoga's"

ill-fated jets were A-3 Skywarriors,

new aircraft capable of carrying

nuclear bombs.

They crashed in water so deep,

they were written off as unsalvageable.

Their precise location is not recorded,

but in the general vicinity of Chang's Wreck.

- Being a military aviator,

we're taught from day one that

we're not all guaranteed to... to make it back.

It's extremely sobering when we're able

to bring additional details to that family

so that they understand what really happened

in those last moments of their loved ones

so they can hopefully rest a little bit easier.

[dramatic music]

narrator: Captain Will Hinton navigates to the coordinates

for Chang's Wreck.

Then he and Jimmy locate the submerged structure.

- The target's almost microscopic on our radar.

It's almost just a tiny blip with a few...

luckily some fish swimming around it.

Can see some of the discolorations

in the pattern.

- You notice any current, any push to the north?

- I am seeing already a push to the north.

- Oh, yeah. I can see it right there.

- Yeah. It pushed me way off already.

- That sucks.

♪ ♪

narrator: Stronger than expected currents

mean Jimmy needs a new plan.

♪ ♪

- All right, guys. This is a little different.

We're going to hot drop onto the wreck.

So we have a lot of current today.

We need to get in and get down as quick as possible.

♪ ♪

- We have a very, very strong surface current.

We're hoping that the current doesn't go all the way down,

but we're assuming that it is.

- All right. On top of the spike right now.

700 feet.

- We're also trying to factor in

how much further away we should be dropping the divers,

considering the depth.

The visibility isn't great.

They could easily lose each other on the way down.

So there's kind of a lot going on

in the hopes that this dive goes well.

It's actually a lot of pressure.

[laughs]

- Neutral.

Dive, dive, dive!

♪ ♪

- Because the current's so strong,

they're trying to go down as fast as they can.

That's why they have the scooters.

[whirring]

You are essentially going full throttle.

If you turn your head the wrong way,

your mask actually might fly off your face.

They're literally going into the abyss.

Like, they don't know what's in front of them.

♪ ♪

narrator: The strong current has created

a blizzard of biological matter,

and visibility is less than 20 feet.

At 240 feet down, they only have 25 minutes

to explore before they must resurface.

♪ ♪

narrator: Finally, the sharp edges of a plane

emerge from the depths.

♪ ♪

narrator: What appears to be a wing comes into view.

♪ ♪

narrator: And then the engine mount,

with no trace of the engine.

♪ ♪

narrator: Not far from the wing,

they see what appears to be the cockpit,

split off from the rest of the wreck.

♪ ♪

narrator: There are no signs of human remains.

With the dive clock running out,

the divers must return to the surface.

♪ ♪

- The bags just came up.

Uh, that means that they're leaving the bottom.

They're leaving the 220, 240 range,

and they're starting their slow ascent.

narrator: If the divers come to the surface too quickly,

they'll suffer a potentially deadly condition

called the bends.

They must spend at least an hour at depth to decompress.

Unfortunately, they have

a fast-moving visitor circling them.

[dramatic music]

narrator: Mike Barnette and Jimmy Gadomski

have just discovered an airplane

240 feet underwater in the Bermuda Triangle.

It may be one of two missing Navy jets

that crashed off an aircraft carrier in 1960.

Now they must spend an hour halfway to the surface

so that nitrogen can leave their bodies.

- So it's not uncommon when we're on decompression

that sharks appear.

But you have to keep in mind, these are wild animals,

and they're not predictable.

narrator: Silky sharks are large, with cutting teeth,

and can be dangerous to divers.

♪ ♪

[laughter]

narrator: After the dive on Chang's Wreck,

Captain Will Hinton is running his sonar

on the way back to port in St. Augustine.

It's a standard practice for wreck hunters

always on the lookout for new targets.

[beeping]

The sonar pings something down below.

- Hey, Jimmy.

Come check this out real quick.

♪ ♪

I noticed there's a bit of a spike right here.

- It's about the size of, uh... of what we were just on.

Let's, um, circle back around.

Let's see if we can ping it from a different direction.

- All right.

♪ ♪

- Look at that.

It's holding fish.

We have structure for sure.

- I'm gonna go ahead and remark this location,

just to show that it's an active site.

- Yeah.

narrator: It looks like another plane,

similar in size and shape to the one they just dove on.

Have they accidentally found both A-3 Skywarriors

that crashed off the USS "Saratoga" in 1960?

Last year, the team made its biggest find

with a similar happy accident.

They found a piece of the space shuttle "Challenger"

while looking for a lost World War II plane.

- We should come back out in the next couple days.

We should have some good weather,

and let's...let's jump on it.

♪ ♪

narrator: Once ashore, Jimmy and Mike

meet with pilot and combat veteran Jason Harris

and military historian David O'Keefe

to review their dive footage.

- Right here, we're seeing the wing.

- Oh, wow.

- Uh, the wreck sits upside down.

Uh, you see the two pylons with the engines,

but the engines have just ripped loose,

and they're probably several hundred feet away

in the distance.

You can see where they were originally

mounted under the wing.

It's definitely a large aircraft,

twin jet engines slung under the wings.

- Based on its size

as well as where the engines were hung at,

it becomes pretty clear that this is the A-3 Skywarrior.

narrator: The most telling clue is the cockpit.

♪ ♪

The A-3 Skywarrior cockpit had a unique configuration

with three crewmen crammed in together,

making them vulnerable.

- The A-3 Skywarrior was such a large aircraft,

they had to lighten as much weight as they could,

so they took out the ejection seats

on this particular aircraft.

And so if they had an issue in the aircraft,

the air crew members, they were not able

to get out by way of ejection seat.

And so that was part of why they nicknamed it

the A3D, "all three dead."

[dramatic music]

narrator: This is probably one of the two

Skywarriors lost off the cursed carrier "Saratoga."

But is it the jet flown by Captain Collier

or the one flown by Commander Frohne?

- I find it's important to tell the stories

of these lost aviators,

because while it might not have been

an incident in wartime,

they were training in their defense of this country,

and I think they should be remembered as well.

narrator: Mike and Jimmy prepare for another dive

while Jason and David will gather details

to help identify whose plane is now

lying at Chang's wrecksite.

They head to Jacksonville, Florida,

to meet a renowned expert on historic aircraft.

Roy Stafford served as a Marine fighter pilot

flying off aircraft carriers,

and he knows the A-3 well.

- Good to see you again, brother.

How you been? - It's nice to see you.

- Likewise. - How you doing?

- Coming to have a conversation with Roy,

that's literally like coming to talk to Yoda.

Roy is so knowledgeable.

He has so much experience, so much background.

- So was the A-3 specifically designed for carrier ops?

- Oh, absolutely. - Or did they...really?

- Absolutely.

And it's the largest operational airplane

to ever operate off an aircraft carrier.

- Was this a challenging airplane to fly, Roy?

- Yeah, carrier aviation is...

I don't think the public ever really understands

or appreciates what a dangerous environment it is.

- The impression I'm getting is next to combat...

and correct me if I'm wrong...

this is the most dangerous thing

that you could possibly do. - I think so.

- We know we have a Skywarrior down there,

and the question is, what type?

- Yeah, the airplane was a very adaptable aircraft.

It served initially as a bomber,

and then later on it was converted to surveillance.

It had the camera mounts,

which you could see through the portals.

Then later on, the transport version had

passenger windows, you know, along the bomb bay area.

- So what you're telling us is,

in each one of these versions,

there is a unique signature. - Yes.

narrator: These unique configurations

could help ID the wreck,

but Roy says there's something else the team needs to know.

- There was a rumor going around

there was an A-3 crashed off Mayport

and that it may have had a nuclear device on board.

[dramatic music]

- So right in the area where this was found?

- Yeah.

♪ ♪

- If this bears out, there's an unexploded

atomic weapon sitting off Florida.

♪ ♪

narrator: The team went looking

for two missing Skywarriors.

Now there's a third one, lost in 1957,

that they now need to consider.

And this one might have gone down with a nuclear bomb.

- We thought everything was benign,

but there was an occasion where there might have been a...

what they call a "Broken Arrow."

- When you hear the term Broken Arrow,

that essentially means that there was an unexpected event

with a nuclear weapon.

That unexpected event could have been

an accidental firing, an accidental detonation.

It could have been

the potential loss of a weapon,

or in certain cases where they actually had to

ditch the weapon out at sea.

narrator: The American government has publicly

acknowledged there are 32 possible nuclear weapons

accidents since 1950.

The accident Roy is referring to happened in 1957.

♪ ♪

- The interesting part was that this was not

reported publicly for a couple of months,

and likely because the United States government

wanted to keep it under wraps until they could

figure out what was going on.

As a matter of fact, it was only in August

when President Eisenhower stated

one of the planes off Jacksonville on June 19th

had to jettison an atomic bomb.

There doesn't seem to be any subsequent report

or follow-up on this.

narrator: The White House said there was no danger,

but that wasn't the word among sailors.

- So what you're saying is, is that there was an accident

with an A-3 Skywarrior that jettisoned a weapon,

and then it also went down in the water.

- Yeah.

The indications were something was dropped

that caused it to be listed as a...as a Broken Arrow.

- I think, you know, our number one priority that we need

to make certain that everyone understands

is that there is a potential that there

could be a nuclear weapon somewhere in that vicinity.

- Yeah.

I mean, odds are it's gonna be very slim

that this is gonna be it, but better safe than sorry.

- Absolutely.

[line ringing]

- Hey, David.

- Look, Jason and I are here,

and we got some stuff you gotta hear.

- Hey, guys.

We had a chance to chat with Roy recently,

and definitely identified this as an A-3 Skywarrior.

But one of the interesting things

he shared with us is that there was another potential

A-3 Skywarrior aircraft that might have been carrying

a nuclear weapon, and they might have had

to ditch that nuclear weapon in the water.

♪ ♪

- Wow. Okay. That's, uh, important news.

[chuckles] - Yeah.

So you're saying there could potentially be

a nuke on board?

- We just aren't sure, and we just want

to make certain that we alert you guys so that

you can be safe on that next dive.

- Yeah, just make sure you keep Jimmy on a leash.

Don't let him go poking around with anything, okay?

- Roger that.

- Be safe on that next dive,

and definitely let us know what you guys find out.

narrator: Mike Barnette and Jimmy Gadomski

have been investigating a mystery wreck

in the Bermuda Triangle.

Most likely, they've found one of two A-3 Skywarriors

that crashed off the USS "Saratoga" in 1960.

♪ ♪

But they've also learned of a third jet

that crashed in 1957

while carrying a nuclear bomb that was rumored

to be capable of exploding.

♪ ♪

They've decided to seek some advice.

Captain Bill Toti served as weapons officer

and second in command of nuclear armed submarines,

later commanding USS "Indianapolis."

♪ ♪

- So, Bill, we know we have a A-3 Skywarrior back in 1957,

with a nuclear weapon on board, running drills.

How often was that occurring back then?

- Fairly often.

I mean, this was pretty common.

You had to be certified to employ nuclear weapons,

whether you were a submarine or a bomber squadron

or an aircraft carrier.

So there was a certain number of times

you would need to fly with nuclear weapons

to retain certification.

- How dangerous is it to dive on a wreck site like that?

- There's this thing in the Navy that we call

operational risk management,

which is probability times consequence.

Now, the probability that this particular plane was

carrying a nuke is low, but the consequence if it were

would be high.

♪ ♪

I hasten to point out, from the radiation standpoint,

water is a great moderator of nuclear radiation.

So if there were a nuclear core down there somewhere,

it's gonna be moderated significantly

simply by the water.

You honestly...the depth you guys are diving,

the depth poses a much greater risk for you

than any risk from potential radiation

off of a weapon that's probably not there.

- Very useful information.

And I mean, it put my mind at ease,

and now we can focus on the job at hand.

We need to identify which A-3 Skywarrior

we actually are diving on.

♪ ♪

narrator: The next day, Mike and Jimmy

are back at sea.

♪ ♪

After their first dive, where they found an A-3 Skywarrior,

they were heading back to shore when sonar

picked up another mystery plane.

It's the right size, shape, and location

to be another one of the planes.

But the Bermuda Triangle's unpredictable weather

is making it difficult to get to the location.

- We've got a cell approaching within the next 4 miles.

That essentially means we've got a pretty good storm

right in front of us.

♪ ♪

narrator: Storms pop up frequently in these waters,

but it won't stop them from diving.

- When you want to make discoveries,

sometimes you gotta push the edges of the envelope

just a little bit.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Right on top of it.

- All right, Will. Throw it.

♪ ♪

narrator: Mike and Jimmy feel okay about this upcoming dive,

but safety diver Kiki Dee is nervous.

- When things change, they're out of my control,

and I have no idea what's going on with them...

they could have a ripping current,

we could get a weird squall...

- Neutral.

- It does stress me out a little bit.

We are in the Bermuda Triangle, so anything can happen.

♪ ♪

[tense music]

narrator: Meanwhile, Jason and David

have made a breakthrough.

They've found a witness named Phil Wilcoxson.

He served on the accident-prone

USS "Saratoga,"

and he has information that may help answer

whether the plane the team found

is the A-3 flown by Captain Collier

or the one piloted by Commander Frohne.

- We are really excited about talking to you today,

because of course, we understand that

you were serving on the "Saratoga" in 1960.

- Yes.

I went aboard the "Saratoga" in June of 1959.

I was on the flight deck as a plane captain.

- What exactly is a plane captain?

- That's your bird.

It's your place to look after it,

make sure it's got the right amount of fuel,

all the oils and everything are

where they're supposed to be,

and then when it finally gets flight time,

you put the pilot in the seat, and then you turn it over.

♪ ♪

- If you take us back to July 1960

when this accident happened,

you were on deck ready to perform your duty,

and I guess we're trying to get a picture of what happened.

So that's why we're trying to get as much detail

as possible from you.

- Okay.

narrator: Phil saw Frohne's plane crash

and recently came into possession

of film shot that day.

- The guy that's president of the "Saratoga" Association

enlightened me about a video of the last part of the accident.

- Video? - Wow.

- Yeah. - There's film footage of this?

- Yeah.

- You're kidding me.

- And...

- When was this shot? This was shot on the day?

- It was shot as it was going on.

- Okay. So look.

Let's play it right through first,

and then we'll come back, and we'll dissect it.

♪ ♪

- Evidently, his tailhook broke.

- Yeah, it looks like

the tailhook did catch briefly.

- Yeah.

- Slowing him down enough or too much.

You can see...look, he's trying to climb, right?

But he has no speed whatsoever.

- He's trying to get some air under his wings.

- Gotcha. Okay.

Wingtip in. Nose in.

- Yeah.

- And then it cuts, and then we see...

♪ ♪

- That right there. - Yeah.

- The white spot.

That's a guy's helmet.

- Right there. There he is.

Oh, there was somebody trying to get out.

- Yeah. That's a guy's flight helmet.

- Whoa.

♪ ♪

- And you're 90 foot above the water.

- Yeah.

- You're not gonna jump off that carrier and get to him.

- Wow. - It just ain't gonna happen.

♪ ♪

- You know, watching Phil relive it

was really emotional.

You know, you can still see he's haunted by it.

- And now we have a lot more information

to give to the dive team to go on and to work with.

- Yeah.

We're so close to solving this.

It's just gonna take one more dive.

narrator: In stormy waters,

Mike Barnette and Jimmy Gadomski

are searching for three missing A-3 Skywarriors

lost near the Bermuda Triangle.

They've already found one A-3 in the water north of here.

The target they're diving now was located

by chance on sonar.

One of the missing planes also jettisoned a nuclear weapon.

It could still be sitting down below.

[dramatic music]

- Neutral.

♪ ♪

- We saw the water get more and more turbid

from all the sediment and biological matter

in the water column.

♪ ♪

narrator: The team hits the bottom.

The strong southern current

has stirred up clouds of sediment,

and the divers can barely see each other.

- When you have a big video light

trying to illuminate the bottom,

it's like driving with your high beams on

in a snowstorm.

♪ ♪

- We have a fixed point. That's the anchor.

That's the grapple hook.

So I basically tied a line off to that

and ran some line out from it on the reel,

and basically, that's the radius.

So now I'm just running a radius around

in a circle from that central point,

hoping to intersect into wreckage.

♪ ♪

narrator: Mike completes one circle, but finds nothing.

♪ ♪

narrator: So he extends his search

another 10 feet from the anchor

and circles it again,

feeling his way along the murky seafloor.

♪ ♪

There it is.

It's not a bomb.

♪ ♪

narrator: It's an airplane.

♪ ♪

- A lot of wiring, a lot of components.

Uh, like, stainless steel plumbing.

Like, thin, like, high-pressure lines.

Then moving a little bit farther away,

you start seeing a turbine engine,

seeing the fan blades, and then on the opposite side,

you see the intake for that.

♪ ♪

narrator: It's definitely a jet aircraft,

but what kind?

♪ ♪

- We're gonna have to go back and review the footage,

uh, bring it to the rest of the team

and kind of go over some stuff.

But I think we might be able to get some kind

of an identification from it.

- Looking around on the bottom,

we didn't see any signs that there was a nuclear weapon

here at any point in time.

♪ ♪

narrator: Jimmy and Mike return to St. Augustine

to evaluate their dive footage with the rest of the team.

♪ ♪

- All right, guys.

So we got out there and we were able to get

on that second site that we had run over

on the way in that last time.

And uh, we ended up coming across a couple engines

and metal debris from this...this plane wreck.

- We got some footage to show you here.

- Okay.

- We have a very compact site.

We have the two engines side by side.

♪ ♪

Basically almost on top of the landing gear,

which is very petite.

Small wheels. Uh, very squat.

- So it turns out it was a plane,

but it was not an A-3.

- Really? - Yeah.

♪ ♪

- When comparing that to archival images

of naval aircraft,

we were able to identify it.

We realized this is an S-3 Viking.

♪ ♪

- The S-3 Viking was

actually designed and designated

specifically as an anti-submarine aircraft,

operating off of aircraft carriers.

- What happened to the crew in this?

- So what was interesting about this,

I was able to track down the pilot of this aircraft,

and he relayed the whole incident to me

of what happened.

They basically lost control, and they all

had to eject from the aircraft.

And unlike other aircraft crashes

that we typically come across, everyone survived on this.

So it was a very happy ending.

- Sounds like they were fortunate.

They got pretty lucky.

narrator: The team can cross off one target.

Now they shift their attention back to Chang's Wreck,

which they know is an A-3.

But is it Captain Collier's jet?

Is it Commander Frohne's?

Or is it the bomb-carrying jet from 1957?

♪ ♪

David shares the footage of Frohne's crash.

- I think if you take a look at this,

you guys are gonna get a better handle on the kind of,

you know, fingerprints, if you will,

that you're gonna need when you're down on your next dive.

- Sounds good. Let's take a look at it.

♪ ♪

- Yeah, you can see he's... he's dropping down,

and he gets just a bit too close to the water.

As that wing dips and it catches the water,

that's when things become fatal

for that particular pilot that day.

You know, when that aircraft actually impacted the water,

it's possible that the gear weren't fully retracted,

'cause it takes some time for that gear

to get retracted fully into the wheel well.

- So when we're down there, we're gonna be looking

for potentially partially-retracted

landing gear. - Yeah.

You have some good clues here for sure.

You can see it here that there is

one of the crew members trying to get out,

and apparently there was a rescue diver

from a following ship that went in

and tried to cut them out of their parachutes.

Unfortunately, he failed,

and sadly, they perished in the accident.

- So some parachute rigging, we could find that down there,

unfortunately, as well.

narrator: When Mike and Jimmy dive,

partially-retracted wheels and parachute materials

would be telltale signs the wreck is Frohne's.

Not seeing any of that could mean it's Collier's,

or the 1957 nuclear bomber.

Either way, they're hoping for an answer.

narrator: As a new day begins,

Mike and Jimmy make final preparations.

They're going to dive Chang's Wreck again.

They know it's likely one of three Navy planes

lost for 60 years,

but they want to find out which one.

41 miles away, David O'Keefe and Jason Harris

hope to uncover a few final clues

to help with an identification.

They're meeting with the sons of one of the planes'

lost pilots, Commander Frohne.

♪ ♪

- The amazing thing is that they both became pilots.

- Really? Following Dad's footsteps.

- Yeah. I can't even imagine.

They lost their father at such a young age,

and the likelihood is that they wanted to create

some kind of connection.

And they probably have been searching for details,

for information, searching for something

that would provide them closure.

- That's a great idea.

You know, sometimes the families can

have more insights than you can find anywhere else.

♪ ♪

[knocking]

Take us back to that day in 1960.

- It's like, 6:00 in the evening on a Friday.

Um, I looked out,

and I saw two guys in dress blues.

I went, I don't think this is good.

And I was what, 14?

And I opened the door,

and they wanted to talk to my mother.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- So tell us a little bit about the role of the A-3

that he was flying in the squadron.

- My dad's mission in 1960 was as a surveillance aircraft.

♪ ♪

His final squadron was a photographic squadron,

and they were the ones, quite frankly,

that were doing the photo recon of Cuba.

- So his aircraft was surveillance,

not dropping ordnance?

- That's correct. - Wow. That's...

- So he's...he's flying reconnaissance missions.

- Yes.

- I mean, look.

If this aircraft is rigged for reconnaissance,

then odds are they're gonna have cameras on board,

and that means portholes.

That means distinctive features,

and if the wreck has those,

then we know what we're looking for.

- We can definitely have a positive identification

of the aircraft.

- Yeah, the A3D-2P,

which was the plane that he was flying,

definitely had portholes on the sides.

♪ ♪

narrator: Captain Collier was flying a bomber,

and Commander Frohne a surveillance model.

This and other clues will be the deciding factors

for identification on the next dive.

♪ ♪

- Based on what we know, the location of the wreck,

the additional information...

when the dive team goes back down there,

if they can actually identify that part of the aircraft,

that it has these portholes,

that it's a reconnaissance type of airplane,

we're gonna pretty much be able to know

that this is exactly the aircraft

that we've been looking for.

[tense music]

narrator: Nearly 60 miles off the Florida coast,

Mike and Jimmy are ready to go.

- Dive, dive, dive!

♪ ♪

narrator: As they make their 240-foot descent,

natural light fades to an eerie darkness.

Flashlights barely illuminate the sandy bottom.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

narrator: Almost immediately,

they find the long span of the wing...

♪ ♪

With the tip broken off.

♪ ♪

Then another clue:

port windows.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

And then they spot a tattered parachute

silently dangling in the current.

♪ ♪

narrator: Elite divers

Mike Barnette and Jimmy Gadomski

have just returned from their second dive

on the wreck of an A-3 Skywarrior.

They're eager to share their findings

with aviation expert Jason Harris

and military historian David O'Keefe.

- All right, guys.

So uh, we had another dive

on the A-3 Skywarrior,

and um, everything that we talked about last time...

- Yeah? - We found.

- Oh, wow. - Like, to a T.

- Tell us a little bit more, Mike,

about what you guys saw down there on this dive.

- Well, Jimmy's gonna cue up the footage here.

We can show you what we saw.

[dramatic music]

We knew it was an A-3 Skywarrior

resting upside down.

Knowing we wanted to key in on it

and see if it was a reconnaissance version,

we did see all the windows,

the ports on the side of the fuselage

as well as on the ventral surface on the bottom.

Uh, we saw on the right wingtip,

uh, damage on the...basically the outer edge of it.

It just ripped off.

So that matches the crash footage.

You can actually see

there's all the parachute rigging wire

all over the perimeter of the cockpit.

I mean, that just... seeing that

tells the story of what happened.

- Yeah.

- This just provides so many pieces of the puzzle

and fully paints the picture of what

we've been trying to figure out with this mystery wreck.

narrator: There's no doubt.

The wreck is from the plane

of Commander Frohne and his crew.

- That's really amazing, because you know,

Jason and I were fortunate to sit down with the sons,

and you gotta think about it from their perspective.

They were kids.

I think one was 12, and the other one was 14?

- Something around that.

- Yeah, something like that time.

And then, you know, next thing you know,

their dad's off,

and then he just doesn't come home.

And that has haunted them for their entire life.

And the amazing part is, guys,

you've now found that last little piece of evidence.

We could bring these men some serious closure.

- You know, I always feel... being able to talk

to family members and to provide answers

they may have about the incident

or the wreck site, just to let them know

that their lost loved one is not forgotten,

we remember them...

I think that's one of the most important services

I can do as a diver.

It brings meaning to what I do.

♪ ♪

narrator: Mike and Jason make the trip to Jacksonville

and reveal the final resting place

of Navy Commander Charles T. Frohne to his sons.

- Well, gentlemen, we really appreciate you guys

having us to come back.

The divers, they went down, and they took another look

and got some footage

that Barnette would like to show you guys.

- Well, guys, yeah.

We saw some really key diagnostic features

that helped us identify the aircraft.

Combined with the archival research,

we're 100% certain this is your father's aircraft.

♪ ♪

This is the top of the cockpit.

You can see the windows and the framing there.

♪ ♪

There's the landing gear.

You can see it's almost pulled back in the fuselage.

♪ ♪

- So he was trying to get the gear up, huh?

- Yeah.

♪ ♪

- Your father was clearly thinking very fastly,

trying to figure out, how do I rescue?

How do I save the aircraft?

How do I save everyone?

And in that moment, likely, he's trying to figure out,

how do I get off this aircraft carrier as quick as I can,

as soon as I come off?

Let me get the gear up, because that's gonna give me

a fighting chance to survive. - Make airspeed, yeah.

- Now we're looking at the fuselage.

We're looking in.

And this is all the parachute material

draped around the wreckage.

As we know from the event,

when they put the rescue diver in the water,

they're trying to get everyone out.

- Right.

- And the parachute had deployed,

and that was part of the problem.

♪ ♪

- I can't believe the parachute existed

as long as it has there.

And it really tells a pretty horrific story.

- Yeah.

You know, I'm...I'm sad my wife never got to meet him.

I'm sad.

- Yeah.

I never got to fly with him.

- Yeah. Yeah, ever.

- That's my really sad point. - Yeah.

- I would...I think I could have learned

some things from my dad.

- People talk about closure.

Guys, you know, some things you never get closed.

I mean, it's, um...

- You know, I appreciate that.

You're absolutely spot-on.

You all are still cherishing the memory of your father,

and so why would you want to close the memory

of your father, such a great man?

- Thank you so much for sharing this with us.

- Really. I mean...

- It's...yeah.

It's always fulfilling and gratifying

when you give meaning to your dives,

and this had a lot of meaning for me.

When you actually find an aircraft

and you get to know the relatives,

it's no longer abstract.

It's very much very real, very emotional.

Uh, it gives purpose to what I do.

- Bringing perspective to that aircraft

that's laying at the bottom, that is a final resting place

for military aviators, that's really, really special,

and it's really significant.

♪ ♪

narrator: Lost with Commander Frohne

were crew members Roger Paganessi

and Raymond Schomer.

Their plane has been found,

but some questions remain.

Where is Captain William Collier's Skywarrior?

And what about that Skywarrior lost in 1957?

Is the nuclear bomb it jettisoned

as non-hazardous as President Eisenhower said?

Those Bermuda Triangle mysteries

require further investigation.

This season on

"The Bermuda Triangle: Into Cursed Waters"...

- All right, drop it!

- It's that thrill of discovery.

- Look at that!

- The idea of the unknown... - Holy [bleep]!

That's the hull.

- We have no idea what it is.

- Ahh! - That was a nightmare.

- How do you lose two 500-foot-plus ships?

- Don't know what else could be that big.

- One more Bermuda Triangle mystery solved.

- Holy [bleep].