The Flight 19 Story

Flight 19 is the case that made the legend. In 1945, five Navy bombers vanished on a training run, and the rescue plane sent after them vanished too.

The real story is grimly ordinary. The lead pilot's compass failed, he got turned around over open water, and the planes flew until the fuel ran out. The rescue aircraft, a model known to leak fuel vapor, exploded in the air. Twenty-seven men died from a broken instrument and bad luck, not from anything supernatural.