All language subtitles for historys.greatest.mysteries.s02e01.1080p.web.h264-whosnext_Subtitles01_English.ENG

‐ 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 Laurence 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 game changer.

‐ Bridge, standby.

Fishburne: Three groups
of investigators join forces

in the biggest search
for Flight 19 yet.

‐ Dead ahead.
What is that?

Fishburne:
Deep‐sea explorer Rob Kraft

leads the most advanced
research ship of its kind.

‐ That's an aircraft.
No doubt.

Fishburne: Scientist
and wreck diver Mike Barnette

investigates new clues
along the coastline.

‐ We definitely have a mystery
aircraft, definitely Navy.

Fishburne: 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.

Fishburne:
From the deep...

‐ We're looking for F‐28.

Fishburne:
...to the swamps...

‐ That is a 50‐caliber.

Fishburne:
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,
and this could be one of them.

‐ Have they finally found
Flight 19?

‐ Petrel is a very unique ship.

We are outfitted unlike
any other vessel.

The ship itself is inherently
designed and built

for deep‐water
search operations.

Fishburne:
It's February 13th, 2020,

day one of a search 200 miles
off the Florida coast.

‐ Camera's coming up.

Fishburne:
Underwater explorer Rob Kraft

has led the research vessel
RV Petrel

deep into
the Bermuda Triangle...

‐ You're wet, you're in.

Fishburne:
...an infamous area

between Florida's coast,
Bermuda and Puerto Rico.

Their hopes for finding
Flight 19 are high.

‐ And here's the bottom.
That is our waypoint.

Fishburne:
RV Petrel's mission

is to seek out the great
shipwrecks of the world

using an array
of advanced technology,

including ultra‐high‐def
cameras

that can be deployed
to extreme depths.

Since 2017, Kraft and Petrel

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

and paid the ultimate
sacrifice.

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

Fishburne:
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.

Fishburne:
The case of Flight 19

begins on December 5th, 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,

disappear.

Hours later,
a Martin Mariner rescue plane

with a crew of 13
goes looking for them.

It, too, vanishes.

‐ That 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.

They were supposed to
take off, drop some bombs,

shoot a little navigation
and then come back to base.

Fishburne:
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.

Fishburne:
Fully fueled,

the TBM Avengers
lost on Flight 19

had a range
of a thousand miles,

creating a massive
potential search area.

‐ No one has found anything.

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

Fishburne:
Aboard RV Petrel,

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'd have to start at.

Fishburne: David served
in the Canadian infantry,

and is now a military
historian.

‐ 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 love to do.
There's nothing like it.

Fishburne: Wayne is
an historical investigator

obsessed with Flight 19
since he was a kid.

‐ 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
of Flight 19.

And it's an iconic opening.

I mean, these scientists
are going through

the dusty Mexican desert.

All of a sudden you see five
perfect planes from Flight 19.

‐ Who flies crates like these
anymore?

‐ No one. These planes were
reported missing in 1945.

‐ I don't understand!

Fishburne: In the film "Close
Encounters of the Third Kind,"

Flight 19 is abducted
by aliens.

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.

Fishburne:
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,

radios one the other pilots
saying he thinks they're lost.

‐ Powers, do you copy?

I think we got lost
on the last turn.

Fishburne:
Back near Fort Lauderdale,

another Flight instructor,
Lieutenant Robert Cox,

overhears Flight 19's
radio traffic.

‐ Both the compasses are out.
We're lost.

I'm sure we're over the Keys,

but I'm not sure how far down

or how to get back
to Lauderdale.

Fishburne:
According to Cox,

Taylor was convinced Flight 19
was over the Florida Keys,

well 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.

Fishburne:
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.

Fishburne:
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.

Fishburne:
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.

Fishburne: Undaunted,

Kraft begins the search.

It starts with some
of the world's deepest diving

autonomous underwater
vehicles, 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 to go

and what we want it to do,

And it goes and does
its mission all by itself.

Fishburne: Once the AUV
nears the seafloor,

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.

Fishburne:
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.

Fishburne:
This F4F Wildcat

is part of the Petrel's
2018 discovery

of the carrier
U. S. S. Lexington.

The team discovered
35 aircraft

that went down with the ship.

In this deepwater
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 group.

Fishburne:
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,

high‐contrast target.

It could be something manmade.

So we need to go

put some eyes on those
and figure out what they are.

Fishburne:
Could Rob Kraft's instincts

be proven right yet again?

Is this Flight 19?

Fishburne: 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 Petrel,
explorer Rob Kraft

has detected
a promising target.

‐ It stands out.
It could be something manmade.

Fishburne:
To get a visual,

he deploys a remotely operated
vehicle, or ROV,

fitted with an array
of cameras.

‐ And you're going down.

And feet are wet.
You're in.

All right, we're ready
for some thrusters.

‐ Altimeters on.

‐ There you go, it's up.

We'll be just a meter
off the bottom.

Sound speed still 1522.

‐ Here's the bottom.

‐ I think you're
about 70, 75 meters

due north of this, Rudy.

What's that over to the left?
Did you see that?

Hold your heading
right there, Rudy.

Just hold there.

‐ What is that?

‐ That's a squid.

‐ Oh, yeah.

‐ Look at all that biology.

145, 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.

Fishburne: It's just
a geological anomaly.

Sonar this sensitive will
produce some false targets.

‐ Box ticked?
‐ Box ticked.

‐ On target.
‐ Bring it up.

Fishburne:
But for Kraft,

there is a silver lining.

‐ It's not mountainous
like we see

in a lot of deepwater
environments.

So it's fairly flat.

So we've got
a pretty good chance

of identifying these targets.

Fishburne: But search
operations must now be halted.

‐ The weather has come up
pretty fast

and ahead of schedule.

We got to get the vehicle up
and get it on deck

while we still have
this window.

We're getting everything
secured for sea,

because it's gonna be
a rough ride in.

You start running at 10 knots,

and it's gonna get pretty
lively out here.

Fishburne: Petrel 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 incidents
where planes went missing,

boats went missing.

So you have to respect it

and you have to fear it.

Fishburne:
The Bermuda Triangle

borders some of 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
vessel 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
there are anomalies

that cannot be explained
by physical science.

Fishburne:
And nowhere else has

so many eyewitness accounts
of paranormal activity,

malfunctioning instruments
and strange lights

attributed to aliens
or the supernatural.

‐ Look at that thing, dude.
There's a whole fleet of them.

Fishburne:
The U. S. government

recently revealed
that in 2017,

Navy pilots flying
over the Bermuda Triangle

captured UFOs on camera.

‐ My gosh!

‐ The facts are the facts.

There are disappearances
in the Bermuda Triangle

that are unexplained.

I don't think it's aliens,

but no one's ever really

discovered the smoking gun.

Fishburne: While Kraft waits
for the weather to calm,

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

They're hunting
for any evidence

the planes crashed
in Florida.

‐ There is one possibility

that the planes 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 land.

Fishburne:
The theory that at least

one plane made it
back to land

rests on cryptic evidence

of possible dissension
on Flight 19.

Intercepted radio calls
indicate

that one
of the student pilots,

possibly Marine Captain
Ed Powers,

disagreed with instructor
Charles Taylor

that the flight was lost
over the Florida Keys.

Powers argued they were
over the Atlantic.

He urged Taylor to fly west.

‐ Damn it,
we need to fly west.

If we fly west,
we will get home.

‐ There was some dissension
in the ranks.

And a guy like Captain Powers
just says,

you know, screw it.

"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.

Fishburne:
Wayne and David have recently

tracked down new evidence
that could back up this theory.

Just west of Vero Beach,
Florida,

they've come to meet
Graham Stikelether,

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.

Fishburne:
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 that this
was part of Flight 19.

Unfortunately,
no matter how much

the judge went back
to the Navy,

he could not get
any more information.

‐ As a researcher,
you can't place too much faith

in human memory.

Human memory becomes fallible
immediately after.

We 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 the plane
that your father found?

‐ Yeah, absolutely.

Fishburne:
After his father died,

Graham gave the plane pieces
to a friend named Jimmy,

who 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.
‐ Oh! There we go.

Fishburne: 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.

Fishburne:
It was found on this spot,

and is allegedly part
of Flight 19.

‐ That's a 50‐cal.
‐ That looks great.

‐ That is a 50‐caliber.

‐ Yes, this is M2 aircraft
50‐caliber,

which I believe
would have been mounted

in the wing of the aircraft.

‐ And this is the mount?

‐ That would be
the forward mount

that would've attached
to this portion of the gun.

Fishburne:
David compares the parts

to a schematic
from a TBM Avenger manual.

‐ Looking at this picture,
if you look right there...

‐ Yeah, there's the ball.
There's the mount.

‐ Look at that.
‐ That is.

‐ That is it.

Fishburne:
The TBM‐3 Avenger

had 50‐cal machines guns
mounted in 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 of the same kind of planes

lost on Flight 19.

‐ Is there any other
markings on here?

‐ There are.

The original markings
from the factory.

And there is a serial number,
which...

‐ A serial number.
‐ Yes!

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 a serial number,
we might be able to find out

what plane this came off of.

We might be able to find out
who the pilots

and the rest of the crew were.

‐ This is the best piece
of hard evidence

we've ever come across.

Fishburne:
As David follows the trail

of the serial number...

another member of the Bermuda
Triangle investigation team,

seasoned explorer
Mike Barnette,

is opening up a new search.

His dive team will focus
on the waters

along Florida's coastline.

‐ I've been working
in the Bermuda Triangle,

or as I call it the
Triangle, for 30 years.

Fishburne:
As a scientist,

Barnette believes
these disappearances

have a rational explanation.

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

whether it's the paranormal
phenomenon, UFOs,

time warps, Atlantis.

Fishburne:
In the film

"Close Encounters
of the Third Kind,"

another famous Bermuda
Triangle disappearance,

the ship called the Cotopaxi,

was set down
by extraterrestrials

in the Gobi Desert.

Barnette recently found
the Cotopaxi

and worked out
what really happened.

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

and 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 you ever would want.

I mean, the weather can go
from flat calm

to raging, you know,

seven‐to‐ten‐foot seas
and 25‐knot winds

in the snap of a finger.

Fishburne:
To find Flight 19,

Barnette'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.

Fishburne: 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.

‐ They 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
or trawlers.

Or, in this case, I'm working
with Captain Jeff Marinko,

who is a commercial
spear fisherman.

There's a little bit
of current,

then we can do
whatever we want.

‐ Me and Barney have been
friends a long time,

and he wanted
to come out here

and check out some wrecks
off of North Florida

that we've been talking about
for 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's told us about.

No one knows what it is.

Fishburne: The dive team
includes Jimmy Gadomski

and underwater cinematographer
Evan Kovacs.

‐ What's the range?
Depth range?

‐ 130 to almost
200 feet of water.

Fishburne: 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.

‐ Now we're starting to see
some stuff.

The bottom'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 now.

‐ Cool.

Fishburne:
Below, they find not a plane,

but a 200‐foot shipwreck.

Could this be
an important piece

of the Bermuda Triangle
mystery?

Fishburne: Mike Barnette is
part of a team of investigators

exploring the legendary
Bermuda 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

and about 24 1/2‐foot beam.

We noticed it was carrying
a very bizarre cargo.

It was white clay‐like
material.

‐ We took a sample of that,
because we figured

if we can identify the cargo,

potentially we could
identify the wreck.

Fishburne: Barnette'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.

Fishburne:
After assessing the evidence,

Barnette 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 with
a 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 is used as
an insecticide or pesticide,

as well as traces of DDT.

We know the Sandra
left Savannah, Georgia,

headed south along
the North Florida coast.

It would have passed right over
where we were diving,

where this mystery wreck is.

And all the dimensions,

all the machinery matched
exactly what the Sandra was.

We put all this evidence
altogether,

cumulatively,
it was overwhelming

that the mystery wreck
was indeed the Sandra.

Fishburne: 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
the 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?

You know, we're trying
to find information

on another Bermuda Triangle
mystery,

and yet we stumble
into another one,

which just shows you
that's what happens

when you go out exploring
out here.

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

Fishburne: But the mystery
of the Sandra must wait.

Barnette is eager to return
to his primary mission:

finding the missing planes.

Forced into port
by severe weather,

Petrel is heading back to sea.

Barnette 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
onboard

and we're going to talk to him

about the PBM Mariner aspect
of Flight 19.

Fishburne:
Barnette 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 go 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.

Fishburne:
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.

‐ 2‐0‐0 departure
radar contact.

Fishburne:
Around 8:30 p. m.,

the rescue plane
suddenly drops off radar.

A passing freighter,

the S. S. 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.

Fishburne: Barnette thinks
he may have found

the missing Mariner

by digging
through the archives

of a seemingly
unrelated event.

The 1986 explosion of
the Challenger space shuttle.

‐ Tragically, it exploded
a few minutes after launch

and crashed 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,

which is a twin‐engine
aircraft, in this area here.

Fishburne: Searching for
the debris of the Challenger,

NASA identified the wreck
of a DC‐3 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.

Fishburne:
Rob Kraft adjusts course

to head towards Mike
Barnette's provocative target.

Fishburne:
It's early March 2020.

Rob Kraft and Mike Barnette

have taken RV Petrel
over the very spot

where NASA records document
a mysterious aircraft wreck.

‐ Next one,
you'll be 133 meters.

Fishburne:
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.

Fishburne:
Using the Petrel's sonar,

they search the ocean floor
for half a mile

in every direction
and turn up...

nothing.

‐ Yeah, there's‐‐
there's nothing there.

Fishburne:
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.

Fishburne:
As Kraft steers Petrel

back toward deeper water,

Barnette prepares another dive
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.

Fishburne:
Colby Cox is the daughter

of Lieutenant Robert Cox,

the first to realize
Flight 19 was in trouble

on that fateful day.

‐ Powers, you copy?

I don't know where we are.

Fishburne:
Cox was also the only person

to have more than a fleeting
contact with Flight 19.

‐ Please identify yourself
so someone can help.

Fishburne: 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 FT‐74 coming in
low on fuel.

Request permission
to immediately disembark

in ready plane.

I think I got a pretty good
fix on those lost fliers.

Fishburne: 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 fallout
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 before

definitely contributed
to the loss of Flight 19.

Fishburne:
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 think that they would have
sanitized the Board of Inquiry?

‐ Well, they 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.

male announcer:
It's official. It's all over.

It's total victory.

Fishburne:
The guns of World War II

fell silent in August 1945,

after the final
Japanese surrender.

announcer: Cameramen and
reporters of many countries

record this historic moment.

Fishburne:
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 up 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 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.

Fishburne:
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 the 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.

Fishburne:
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 look at things as a compound
series of events.

An accident doesn't just
happen with one thing.

Fishburne:
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.

Fishburne:
Jason has a way to give David

a pilot's‐eye view
of Flight 19.

‐ Whoa! Dave, jeez.
‐ There we go.

‐ I didn't realize
you weighed that much.

Fishburne: They're lifting off
in a flight simulator,

programmed for
December 5th, 1945.

‐ Are you ready?
‐ Let's go.

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

‐ Perfect.

‐ We know that
the weather report

here in Fort Lauderdale
on that day was CAVU:

"Clear skies,
visibility unrestricted."

Fishburne: But the naval
report shows that offshore,

conditions quickly
deteriorated.

‐ And 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
of the flight were not.

Fishburne:
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. When it comes in
at first,

you don't realize how quick

you can lose your visibility
and your reference points.

‐ Absolutely.

Fishburne: 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,

what 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
Taylor, 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.

Fishburne:
From the simulator,

Jason reconstructs
one possible scenario.

Unforecasted bad weather
closes in,

reducing visibility
and causing Flight 19

to drift from
their planned route.

As panic sets in,

Charles Taylor distrusts
his compasses

and leads the squadron further
out to sea toward certain doom.

‐ So there's the possibility

that there was a lot
of weather that day,

there was a lot of stress.

What I think happened
is that these guys got lost.

Fishburne:
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."

Fishburne: 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.

Fourteen families
that had to deal with that.

Not to mention the other 13 men
lost on the Martin Mariner

that went out to rescue them.

Twenty‐seven men died
in one night.

That's the real story.

Fishburne:
The trail's led them

to the suburbs
of New York City.

‐ For years I've been hoping
that we could speak to somebody

from the Paonessa family.

‐ Yeah, they've got that
one piece of cryptic evidence

we have to take a look at.

Fishburne: Wayne and David
are meeting Bill Paonessa.

‐ Hi, how are you?
‐ Good.

‐ Dave O'Keefe.
‐ Bill Paonessa.

‐ Nice to meet you.
‐ Hey. Wayne Abbott.

Fishburne:
Bill's uncle was Flight 19

radioman George Paonessa.

‐ I've got something
to show you

that's going to be piquing
your interest.

Fishburne: Today, Bill is
the keeper of a family secret.

‐ Is this all related to George?

‐ All related to George
that my Aunt Lou,

who was the matriarch,
took very good care of.

And communication.

I also have some of his effects
from Florida

where he disappeared.

And, also,
from the Pacific.

Even the 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 bombardier.

The disappearance
in Bermuda Triangle

always hung over the family.

And it's something
that 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 to 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

why this happened
to a group of servicemen

that went through
the Pacific Theater

and came back to die
in the Atlantic Ocean.

Fishburne:
In December 1945,

as families
around America prepared

for their first Christmas
together again

after years of war,

the Paonessas received
a series of telegrams.

"Your son is missing."

"The search has been
discontinued."

"Your was son killed."

And then, the day after
Christmas,

they received a telegram that
appeared to be from George.

‐ The 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

'cause it's been over 10 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?

Fishburne: George Paonessa was

Captain Ed Powers' radioman.

Some speculate Powers realized

flight instructor
Charles Taylor

was heading the wrong way,
and turned west toward land...

ultimately crashing
somewhere over Florida.

If so, could Paonessa
have survived?

‐ Was there discussion
in the family?

Like, who would have done this
as a hoax?

‐ No, no, no.
This came from Florida.

It came from the 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

that there wasn't
any satisfactory answer.

That it seemed
to be a cover‐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 you with this?

‐ Well, it'd finalize
everything

for the 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 Paonessa 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 inland

will discover something
that ties that together.

Fishburne:
The Paonessa telegram

could add more weight
to the theory

that one or more of the planes
somehow made it back to land.

Could this clue
connect to the plane

Graham Stikelether's father
allegedly found in 1962?

While Wayne and David

may be on the verge
of a major breakthrough...

back on RV Petrel,

frustration is mounting among
the deep‐sea team members.

‐ Yeah, go ahead.

Um, that was a
bad idea.

That was a terrible idea.

Fishburne:
It's now mid‐March, 2020.

‐ All right, Eric,
we're away.

Fishburne:
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.

Fishburne: 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 a thousand
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.

‐ Hold it there.
‐ Yeah.

‐ We'll start to push it
toward the target, Rob, yeah?

‐ Yeah.

Dead ahead,
what is that, Rudy?

There's something.

Fishburne:
As the target comes into view,

it's clear it's definitely
manmade.

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.

Fishburne:
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 just
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.

Fishburne: But time
is something Rob Kraft

has just run out of.

‐ The World Health
Organization

has officially named it
COVID‐19.

‐ A new 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 get everybody a chance
to get home

so they can get rested up
and we can get back out here.

Fishburne:
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.

Fishburne: 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 was security
classifications.

But 75 years later?

I mean, it should be
relatively easy

to get our hands on this
information if it still exists.

Fishburne: 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 unable
to 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 base

took their eye
off the ball a little bit?

You know,
you're no longer at war.

All you want to do
is get home.

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

Fishburne:
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.

Fishburne:
And the news for Rob Kraft

has gone from bad to worse.

The pandemic has forced
RV Petrel off the water

for seven months
and counting.

‐ We had no idea that it was
going to have

the impact that it did.

The boat went into
the dry dock period,

and so right now,
it's unavailable.

Fishburne: Hopes of
finding the missing Avengers

are dwindling.

But Rob Kraft 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

to go after a provocative
new lead,

code‐named "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.

Fishburne:
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
in sonar.

It's the right size.

It is definitely something
we need to go look at.

Fishburne: 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‐‐

We've got an ROV on it
to see what's there.

‐ Excavate a little bit
there, or...?

Fishburne: Dan and Micah are
modern‐day treasure hunters.

‐ Look at that.

Fishburne:
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.

Fishburne:
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, "Hey, what's
this airplane doing out here?"

It's not on a flight path
where you would go

with a single‐engine aircraft.

We came to the conclusion
that this could be

one of those Avengers.

Fishburne: 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.

Fishburne:
As Kraft and the Go America

head toward the mystery wreck
in deepwater...

back onshore,

Mike Barnette 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 has got

a very worthwhile target
he's going to be looking at,

and I have that cluster
of aircraft

that we're going to check out.

‐ Oh?
‐ A cluster of plane wrecks.

That's what we're looking for.
‐ Yeah.

When this fishermen told me
he's got three, four aircraft

within about five miles
of each other.

‐ No way.

‐ Which is
a pretty tight cluster

when you're talking about
80 miles offshore.

So we're going to focus
on that now.

Fishburne: Barnette's intel for
this cluster of plane wrecks

comes from spear fisherman
Jeff Marinko.

‐ 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 in the right hands.

Fishburne: The team
begins their descent.

This time,
they hit pay dirt.

The unmistakable outline
of an aircraft.

Could this be Flight 19?

Deep in the waters
off Florida's coast,

Mike Barnette 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 have great
visibility.

We got down, the marine life
came out and looked at us,

realized they can't eat 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 much
information as possible.

The prop of an aircraft,

is it three blades
versus four blades?

Basic size,
how 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
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,

or maybe even more recent.

Odds are, the U. S. Navy
probably has a report

of this crash site right here,

or at least an event
in the near vicinity.

Fishburne: Barnette
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 wreck.

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.

Barnette 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.

I mean, every hour
you can spend in a library,

in the archives, speaking
to commercial fishermen,

every little piece
of that puzzle

can come together
to solve the mystery.

Fishburne:
Back aboard Go America,

shipwreck investigator
Dan Taylor believes

the key to 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.

Fishburne: There is growing
scientific consensus

that when subsea methane
deposits explode,

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 burst
underneath you,

then you would simply
fall off the planet,

into the abyss,

and the water
would swallow you.

Fishburne:
Some even speculate

they can create
lethal turbulence

and down aircraft.

Could this explain the
disappearance of Flight 19?

Or is this another
farfetched explanation

for what may have been
a tragically 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.

Fishburne: 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 bigger
explanation.

They want something better

than the crew made
a navigational error,

because that seems 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 makes 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.

Fishburne:
Onboard 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 Taylor

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.

Fishburne:
They are 300 miles offshore

in the heart
of the Bermuda Triangle,

on a vessel that has been
retrofitted

for deep‐sea exploration.

‐ She's digging in quite hard
on the front.

‐ Gotcha.

Fishburne: 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 once that happens,
you can't really stop it.

You've got to set it down
and try again.

‐ All right, left side.
Nice and easy.

‐ Ooh, she didn't want to go,
did she?

‐ 9‐5‐0.

‐ We're off bottom.

‐ Winch all stop.

‐ Eagle has landed.

Fishburne:
Ahead,

the ROV detects
the unmistakable outline

of an aircraft.

‐ Wing, wing, nose, tail.

‐ That's an aircraft.

No doubt.

Fishburne:
Will this aircraft

finally unlock the mystery
of what happened to Flight 19?

Fishburne: In the heart
of the Bermuda Triangle,

underwater explorer
Rob Kraft watches

as a 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.

‐ Is that the cockpit
to the left?

‐ There's a windshield
there.

‐ Looks like it's white,
doesn't it?

‐ Yeah.

‐ Stripes.

Yeah.

It's not our bird.

Well, we definitely
have an airplane,

but 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.

Fishburne: From the yellow
and white paint,

it's immediately clear
this is not Flight 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,
sits down below here.

‐ This little triangular window
here is‐‐

It's a really unique feature
on this airplane.

Fishburne: The team
identify the aircraft

as a Cessna Skymaster.

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 over sea

before being rescued
by the coast 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.

Fishburne: Now, their last
chance of finding an Avenger

lies with Mike Barnette.

‐ So, guys, I think we have
the option for one more dive

before the weather really
shuts us down for good.

Fishburne: He and his team
have been exploring

a cluster of 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,

and here we are
stuck in the middle.

Being out there in 25 knots,
70 miles offshore,

that's what's caused a lot
of these shipwrecks out here.

We don't want to become
one of them.

Fishburne:
There's only a short window

before dangerous weather
moves in.

Barnette'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 to follow.

So basically,
I just have a timer running,

an approximate bottom time
that they're trying to do.

Fishburne: The team has only
about 30 minutes

on the seafloor.

But to Jeff's surprise,
they resurface way too early.

Something has gone wrong.

‐ The tide on the bottom
is running really hard.

The storm has really
stirred things up.

It's really green water.

Yeah, so the hook
had pulled out,

and 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.

Fishburne:
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.

‐ Just makes things
a little tougher,

but that's been the theme
of this, hasn't it?

It's just been one hurdle
after another.

First COVID,
now there's hurricanes.

It just doesn't stop.

‐ All right,
we'll try this again.

Fishburne: This time,
everywhere Barnette looks:

fish.

A sure sign he's close.

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

So this is good.

Fishburne: 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

that could have been
from anything.

It could have been garbage
pitched off a ship.

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

And the next thing
we come across

is a large section
of flat metal with rivets.

Looking through a rust hole
in 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 got to find something to
reveal what we're diving on.

Then, boom.

Right there,
staring us in the face:

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.

But 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?

Fishburne:
Barnette meets up

with Rob Kraft and Paul Mayer

to share the exciting
discovery.

‐ We checked out some targets,
and I can show you some footage.

We've definitely found
an aircraft.

It's spread out
pretty wide,

and it's been busted up
pretty good.

‐ Obviously this aircraft
had a really bad day.

I mean, it's ending
was catastrophic.

‐ Yeah, it wasn't pushed
over the side.

Fishburne: To find out
what the mystery wreck is,

they're joined
by Roy Stafford,

a former Navy pilot and
World War II aircraft expert.

‐ We got a three‐blade prop
and this ball turret,

which looks to me like
it's definitely a ball turret.

‐ I agree.
‐ It 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 aircraft

that had three‐bladed props.

You know, the wreckage
was kind of dispersed.

Fishburne:
One by one,

Roy identifies each piece.

The wing.

The propeller
and double‐radial engine.

And 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 the torpedo bay underneath
it and this, that and the other.

You know, you take
the landing gear,

the bulletproof glass,

the 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's looking at the footage.

He's pointing out multiple
things and saying,

"Oh, there's this
and this and this."

And we're like,
"So it's an Avenger?"

He said, "Without a doubt,
it's an Avenger."

And that 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.

This could be one of them.

Fishburne:
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 Barnette finally found
the legendary lost squadron?

Fishburne:
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 Barnette's been invited
to the Washington Navy Yard

to share a promising discovery
with Dr. Robert Neyland.

‐ This first one here obviously
is a three‐blade propeller.

Fishburne: Neyland heads
underwater archaeology

in the Navy's
History and Heritage Command.

He and naval underwater
archaeology expert

Augustin Ortiz
review Mike's dive.

‐ So I see here you were
counting the cylinders.

How many were you able
to count there?

‐ I think I saw seven.
It was definitely two rows.

‐ This really looks, you know,
positive that this could

very well could be an Avenger,

but is it one of
the Flight 19 Avengers?

‐ That's the question
that 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,

you know, tie it to a specific
aircraft.

Fishburne: 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 TBM aircraft 7‐3‐3‐7‐9

that crashed within the crash
zone of this wreck site.

Fishburne: The Navy's records,
now declassified,

reveal a botched carrier
landing in February 1945,

just three miles
from Barnette'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.

Fishburne: 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 wrecks 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.

Fishburne: If the nearby
wrecks are also Avengers,

that would strengthen the case

that Barnette has indeed
discovered Flight 19.

‐ This story with Flight 19

is important for the Navy
to see resolved,

because it highlights
the sacrifice and the service

that military personnel
have done.

If there's other Navy aircraft
out there,

we need to know
where these are located.

Fishburne: With the dive
season closed for the year,

Barnette 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.

‐ This is going
be a lifelong pursuit.

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

and hopefully Flight 19.

Fishburne: If the Avengers
crashed in shallow water,

Mike Barnette is convinced
he can find 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.

Fishburne: 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 up.

But that's the mystery
of Flight 19.

Fishburne:
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.

Fishburne: 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 Flight 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 Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching
"History's Greatest Mysteries."