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Flight 19

"THE FINDING OF FLIGHT 19"

By Wesley H. Bateman

The loss of Flight 19 on December 5, 1945, is a classic disappearance that took place in the Bermuda Triangle. It began as a routine training flight by five Grumman Avenger torpedo bombers, also known as TBMs. The flight's mission entailed dropping depth bombs on a sunken vessel.

It is reported that four of the TBMs carried crews of three men each, while the fifth carried a crew of two. Thus, flight 19 consisted of fourteen men.

While returning to their base at Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station, the flight leader, Lt. Charles Taylor, radioed the base that the flight was in some kind of trouble.

During several hours of confusion it is reported that the following radio conversation took place between Lt. Taylor and the Fort Lauderdale tower:

Taylor: "Calling control tower . . . emergency. We have gone off course...we can't see the ground any more. I repeat . . . we can't see the ground."

Another reporting source states the transmission included the statement: "We can,t see the ground or the sun."

It then became more difficult to pick up messages from Flight 19. The aircraft progressively lost contact with the tower, but, every now and then, snatches of conversation between the pilots were heard. They were discussing the possibility of running out of fuel, of 75-knot winds, and also discussing the fact that the magnetic and gyro compasses on all 5 planes were malfunctioning.

According to some reports, the last words heard from Flight 19 were: "We are entering white water. We are completely lost."

Reporter Art Ford stated that another radio conversation took place between flight leader Taylor and a fellow Navy pilot Lt. F. Cox, who was in the air but not part Flight 19. The conversation went as follows:

(The text of these and all other radio transmissions from Flight 19 are on public record in the National Archives in Washington D.C.)

One report states that Taylor was overheard to either turn over the command of the flight to another pilot in the formation, or, turn over the flying duties of his plane. This is not clear.

It is also reported that one of the Avenger pilots broke formation and took off on his own to fine safer and more familiar skies.

The fact that the ten compasses and five radios aboard the planes malfunctioned at the same time, and, that Lt. Taylor did not comply with a constant request that he switch his radio to the emergency frequency, adds to the mystery.

Later, Fort Lauderdale sent a Martin Mariner (a large amphibious craft) to try to rescue the men of Flight 19. There were thirteen men aboard the Mariner. One hour after take off, the Martin Mariner also disappeared without a trace.

Nothing was found of the five TBMs or the Mariner in spite of the intensive search by two-hundred-forty land-based aircraft, seventy aircraft from the aircraft carrier, Solomons, four destroyers, eighteen Coast Guard patrol boats, hundreds of private aircraft, yachts and boats of all sorts. Nothing was found: no inflatable rafts, no trace of oil, no sign of wreckage. Avenger aircraft are known to float from minutes to hours. Why were no bodies, oil slicks or wreckage found? Why didn't any of the pilots use their parachutes and life rafts?

During the search of December 6, 1945, a Navy Privateer that was a one-tail version of the Army Air Corps two-tail B-24 also disappeared without a trace.

A report published by the Navy after several months of inquiry offered no explanation for the disappearances.

During the evening of August 16, 1985, while assembling several segments of video tape that pertained to pictures of UFOs taken by astronauts during various missions in space, I took notice of one such picture in particular. The picture was one (of several) that was taken one day out (at about a 6,500 mile altitude) by the crew of Apollo 11 on their way to the first manned moon landing.

The Apollo photograph of which I speak is shown below. Its NASA photo I.D. number is: AS-11-36-5319.

After some study, it came to my mind that the white object in the Apollo 11 photograph had the shape of an airplane. More specifically, the shape of a TBM Avenger such as the type of aircraft that once composed Flight 19 which, had been missing since December, 1945.

Notice that the nose of the UFO/Avenger in the photo above is oriented in the direction of the Earth. The mass of the plane's large radial engine would naturally become situated in this manner (relative to the planet's gravitational attraction).

The picture below is of the Apollo 11 UFO, enlarged and rotated to the horizontal. In this enlargement, the outline of a TBM Avenger becomes quite obvious when viewed as being possibly shrouded in ice (most likely frozen seawater).

Later, a scale model of a TBM Avenger was obtained. A silhouette of the model was superimposed over a slide projection of the picture below. With very little effort, the TBM model was moved in the projection to conform exactly with each and every feature of the object's outline.

The highly trained Apollo astronauts estimated the length of the object to be about forty-feet, which is the approximate length of a TBM Avenger. It was first thought that it was Apollo's second stage rocket booster. But later, NASA claimed that it was a "Ten-inch piece of material that came from the Apollo 11 space craft itself." This is presently their official position on this matter.

I am certain that neither NASA, or any other government agency will ever admit that the Apollo 11 UFO is, in fact, a World War II fighter bomber which was, as of, twenty-nine-years ago, orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 6,500 miles. NASA, in keeping with the government's program of debunking UFO sightings, and, discrediting any witnesses of such an event, will even publicly insult the intelligence of their own astronauts, by stating that these expensively trained observers could not tell the difference between something that was forty-feet long and something that was only ten-inches in length.

 

1) Blunt nose with propeller missing. 2) Angle of cockpit canopy is correct. 3) Rear of canopy may be open. 4) Gun turret (bubble). 5) Height of tail is correct. 6) Possibly the inner section of the folding wing. 7) Torpedo bay doors. May be missing or collapsed.

Note: Feature 3 might be gun turret bubble and feature 4 might be a disfiguring bend in the rear of the fuselage.

In September 1986 I submitted the information above to both the Spotlight newspaper and Omni magazine. The Spotlight article, which was written by Tom Valentine, was published in October of that year. The article was accurate and contained every piece of information that I had provided the author.

On the other hand, the Omni article, published November 1986, was written by Sheri Baker. Ms. Baker consulted with Philip Klass (editor of Aviation Week Magazine). None of the data I provided Omni was reported accurately and Mr. Klass was given full reign to criticize. Klass said: "a person could say that the shape of the Apollo 11 UFO could also be a representation of the face of God." Within the Omni article was a photograph of several World War II B-24 bombers. This type of aircraft bears no similarity to a TBM Avenger anymore than a chicken does to an elephant. I believe that this photograph was published along with the story in order to deliberately mislead uninformed readers into believing that the B-24s in the photograph were TBMs which did not match the shape of the Apollo 11 UFO. A person could draw the conclusion that because the planes in the picture did not look like the Apollo 11 UFO, that I had to be crazy to see any similarity.

Can you imagine that the editor of Aviation Week doesn't know the difference between a B-24 and a TBM Avenger? Of course he does.

Recently I watched a television program that pertained to the subject of UFOs. During the program a gentleman, (I did not get his name), stated that he believed: "Philip Klass is a paid government stooge." He added that if this was not true, then the government was certainly getting a bargain. I wish that I had been the first person to say that publicly.

SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT THE DISAPPEARANCE OF FLIGHT 19

There is no doubt in my mind that the Apollo 11 UFO is a TBM aircraft that was one of five that once composed Flight 19. The question of how the plane got into orbit is probably more important than the fact that it's there (or was there).

When considered as a whole, the radio transmissions between Flight 19, the Fort Lauderdale control tower and the radio conversation that occurred between flight leaders, Lt. Taylor and Lt. Cox, and the later disappearances of the Martin Mariner and Privateer, it seems quite clear that in 1945 we were being visited by extraterrestrials who were considerably ruthless and hostel.

Allow me to offer the following scenario as a possible description of what happened to Flight 19, the Martin Mariner and the Navy Privateer:

The planes of Flight 19 were practicing dropping depth charges on a sunken hulk (or thought they were bombing the hulk), when they accidentally bombed and damaged, or destroyed a submerged extraterrestrial space craft and also killed some or all of its crew. There might have been more than one of these spacecraft present at the time. It is possible that no extraterrestrial craft was damaged, but its occupants thought they were under attack.

If an extraterrestrial craft was damaged or destroyed by depth charges, the extraterrestrials might have first responded defensively before surfacing and physically confronting the crew members of Flight 19. Damage to, or, the activation of the field drive propulsion system of any functional extraterrestrial craft is most likely the reason why the compasses and radios of the Avengers began to malfunction. During the physical confrontation stage of the event, Lt. Taylor was contacted by Lt. Cox (not part of Flight 19). Remember that during this radio contact Taylor told Cox: "Don't come after me. They look like they're from outer space. Don't come after me."

Damaged or not, or just out of pure viciousness, the extraterrestrial spacecraft accelerated into space after accidentally or deliberately drawing one or all of the TBMs into its propulsion field along with a considerable amount of churning and foaming, white seawater. Thus, the reason for the last message that was received from Flight 19: "We are entering white water. We are completely lost."

The crew members of Flight 19 were obviously killed as the ET spacecraft gained altitude. Unless they were somehow removed from their planes prior the time that the planes were ejected from the spacecraft's propulsion field and thereafter assumed Earth orbit (s). The fact that the TBM shown in the Apollo 11 photograph is apparently covered with ice (frozen seawater), strongly suggests that the crew of that particular TBM were killed during the ascent into space.

There could be any number of reasons why some kind of extraterrestrial activity continued later at the spot where the 5 Avengers met with disaster. They might have returned to assist any of their people, make repairs on their damaged craft, or, assist any aboard such a craft that was wounded. Then again, the extraterrestrial survivors of the ill-fated event might have needed time to make their own repairs. Maybe the completion of their under water mission at the spot was of great importance to them.

The later disappearance of the Mariner and Privateer can only be attributed to maliciousness on the part of the extraterrestrials. As mentioned above, it is possible that one or more extraterrestrial spacecraft were damaged or destroyed by Avenger depth charges and that some of the ET crew might have been seriously injured or killed. Therefore, the extraterrestrials in some manner, simply took revenge on the crews of these two search planes.

Several years ago, the front page of a tabloid declared: World War II Bomber Found on the Moon. A picture that accompanied the headline was of a very rare Navy Privateer (few were constructed). The article that pertained to the headline stated that the picture of the bomber resting in a lunar crater was taken by a moon-orbiting Russian space craft.

copyright ©1987 and 1998 by Wesley H. Bateman.All rights reserved.