All language subtitles for S02 E05 - The White Whale _ ENG

narrator: Tonight on
"The Bermuda Triangle:

Into Cursed Waters"...

- Definitely an
18-cylinder engine.

narrator: In 1945,
a rescue plane vanishes--

one of six navy planes
that go missing in one night.

- No wreckage, no bodies
ever recovered to this day.

And it set off one of the
largest search and rescue

operations in U.S. history.

- There's so many puzzle pieces
that we don't have.

narrator: Now the team goes
in search of the real story

and investigates
a controversial new theory.

- Nobody's ever figured out
what that second blip was.

- All right, so we're left
with a mystery aircraft.

- This potentially
could be a grave site.

narrator:
Following a fresh trail

of evidence from the sea...

- It's still a whole plane
that should be down there.

narrator:
To the swamp...

- Pretty close
to the actual crash site.

narrator: In an attempt
to solve the mystery

that started it all.

- [laughs]

- You got a whole
new ball game.

[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.

[loud bang]
- Aah!

- 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.

♪ ♪

- Good morning, Jimmy.
How you doing?

- Good.
- Good to see you again.

♪ ♪

- Head off today
to check out a target

off shore of Cape Canaveral.

We have intelligence that says
it's most likely an aircraft.

- Hoping we find
something out there.

Looks like
it's a pretty solid site.

They've been fishing it,
so this should be good.

narrator: Mike Barnette
and Jimmy Gadomski

are investigating
a mystery aircraft wreck

just north
of the Bermuda Triangle.

It's called Mickey's Wreck.

It's named for their
dive boat captain,

Mickey Gressinger,
who found it by accident.

- A lot of times, these wrecks
are found by shrimp boats

that drag their nets
on the ground

and they snag something
in their nets.

And that's basically what
happened this time, I think.

narrator: Mickey's wreck
and another target

called the 250 Wreck,

which the team plans
to dive later in the week,

could hold clues
to the greatest mystery

in Bermuda Triangle history.

♪ ♪

[indistinct radio chatter]

December 5, 1945.

Five navy bombers take off

from Fort Lauderdale
Naval Air Station

on a training patrol
designated Flight 19.

[indistinct radio chatter]

90 minutes after takeoff,

the planes radio in
that they're lost.

Their compass is out.

Then they vanish somewhere
in the Bermuda Triangle.

♪ ♪

At 7:00 p.m.,
less than an hour

after all contact is lost
with Flight 19,

a Martin Mariner rescue plane

with callsign Training 49
is sent to search.

It, too,
vanishes without a trace.

- No wreckage, no bodies
ever recovered to this day.

And it set off one of the
largest search and rescue

operations in U.S. history.

narrator: The loss of 6 planes
and 27 men shocks the nation

and launches
the modern mystery

of the Bermuda Triangle.

Authorities struggle
to explain what happened.

- Yeah, you get
a whole bunch of hypotheses

that come out of this, right,
all these possibilities

of what could happen.

It's like having a bunch
of jigsaw puzzle pieces.

And every time
there's another one

that's dropped into the lid,
sometimes it gets clearer,

sometimes it gets
a bit more obscure.

narrator: While there are
no solid leads

on the fate of the
five bombers of Flight 19,

one big clue could point
to the location

of the Martin Mariner.

- Everything came
down to a ship

called the "Gaines Mill"
that was just

sailing through that area.

And all reports
at around 7:50 that night,

they saw a fireball
100 feet high

off the ocean floor
that burned for 10 minutes.

narrator:
Many believe that fireball

was the Martin Mariner.

♪ ♪

In a time before GPS,
the "Gaines Mill's"

exact location
can only be estimated.

But both Mickey's Wreck
and the 250 Wreck

are in the vicinity
of the witness sighting.

♪ ♪

- That'd be something that
no one's ever documented.

It'd be an amazing
piece of history.

- Yeah.

narrator: And it's far
from the first time

Barnette searched
these waters.

♪ ♪

Last year alone, he and Jimmy
dove more than a dozen

other sites
in the general area,

and during the course of that,
made headlines discovering

remnants of the
space shuttle "Challenger"

outside the triangle.

But they never found a trace
of the Martin Mariner--

a fact that still
nags at Barnette.

- I thought it would
be easy to find

based on
available information.

But I quickly found out
that that's not so.

We know it's just
a matter of time.

It's a process of elimination.

We're narrowing in
where this aircraft is.

So to find that aircraft
and finally put the mystery

to rest, we can really tell
the story of those 13 men

that went out looking
for their comrades.

That story resonates
with me when rescuers

need rescuing themselves.

I'm definitely stubborn.
My wife would attest to that.

And some of my fellow divers
have mentioned

that I'm like a dog
with a bone,

and I just, I gotta get
to the bottom of it,

and I won't give up until I do.

♪ ♪

narrator: Mickey starts
a sonar sweep

of the target area.

- Looks like two
kind of clumps.

- Yeah, no, there is--
but there's--

and there's more in between.

That's just little small stuff

I think you might not even
be able to see.

Might be under the sand.

narrator:
The intel is good.

He sees signs of a wreck here
in 60 feet of water.

And then, a clue.

- There's scattered bait all
throughout this whole thing,

so it's obviously
more metal that's--

- Yeah, it's definitely
holding a lot of fish.

I mean, there's a good mark
on the bottom there.

- A lot might be buried too,
I mean--

- Yeah, no, I know.

narrator: Fish are attracted
to the shimmer of aluminum.

The metal can remain
partially reflective

in the water for decades.

The Martin Mariner,
like other planes,

was made from aluminum.

♪ ♪

- Its giving the signature
of an aircraft,

so we need to get on the
bottom and put eyes on it

and figure out what
we're dealing with here.

♪ ♪

- Ready?

- All right, captain daddy.

- Go ahead.

- Dive, dive, dive.

[water splashing]

♪ ♪

narrator:
At a depth of 60 feet,

Mike and Jimmy can take
more than an hour

exploring the wreck site

since there is a low risk
for decompression sickness,

or the bends,
on a dive this shallow.

♪ ♪

narrator: But then,
something unexpected...

♪ ♪

A fierce bottom current.

♪ ♪

- We dropped in.

We missed the wreck because
we had so much current.

We were shallower,
but the current

was screaming through here.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

narrator:
Mike and Jimmy struggle

to reach the target area.

And worse, there's no sign
of wreckage.

♪ ♪

Until...

♪ ♪

- Whoo!

♪ ♪

narrator: Mike's discovered
a World War II-era

airplane engine.

At first glance,
it's too small

to be a Martin Mariner engine
with only nine cylinders.

♪ ♪

- Then we started digging
a little bit.

♪ ♪

As we were digging...

♪ ♪

Another row of cylinders.

narrator: There's more
buried in the sand.

They count the cylinders...

♪ ♪

18, just like
the Martin Mariner.

[dramatic music]

narrator: Technical divers
Mike Barnette

and Jimmy Gadomski
have found what looks to be

a World War II
aircraft engine.

They're just north
of the Bermuda Triangle,

searching the first
of two targets

they hope could
connect to a mystery

on the top of their list--

the disappearance of
Flight 19 and, specifically,

the Martin Mariner seaplane
sent to rescue them.

♪ ♪

The engine has 18 cylinders,

just like the Martin Mariner's
engines.

It's possible the rest
of the wreck is buried.

narrator:
They continue to search.

♪ ♪

But then...

narrator:
Time's up.

♪ ♪

- Found one engine.
- No fuselage, though?

- Yeah.

- Definitely an
18-cylinder engine,

which is consistent with what
PBM Martin Mariner had.

Several manufacturers have
made a 18-cylinder engine,

so we need to basically
take the footage we got

and bring it back to the team
and talk to some experts

and see what
they can make from it.

♪ ♪

narrator: Back on shore, while
Mike plans out the next dive,

Jimmy heads to meet the team's
land-based investigators

to share the intel
on the engine.

Military historian
David O'Keefe,

historical investigator
Wayne Abbott,

and retired U.S. Air Force
pilot Jason Harris

are eager to review
Jimmy's dive footage.

- So we have
the engine right here.

♪ ♪

narrator: Jason is
resident aviation expert,

so his opinion is key.

Could the engine be
from the Martin Mariner?

- We have 18 cylinders
in total on this engine.

- Knowing that it has
18 cylinders,

it's likely a Pratt & Whitney
R-2800 engine.

♪ ♪

narrator:
The Pratt & Whitney R-2800

was a workhorse
powerful enough

to keep the Martin Mariner
aloft on missions

that pushed 13 hours--

critical for the plane's role
in search and rescue.

♪ ♪

But there's one hitch.

- The Martin Mariner
had that particular type

of engine on it,
but multiple aircraft

had this type of engine.

It could have been on any
number of type of aircraft.

narrator: The team needs
to find more wreckage

to tie the engine
to the Martin Mariner.

♪ ♪

Next, they turn to theories
on why

the Martin Mariner
disappeared.

♪ ♪

A Naval inquiry in 1945
provides clues

but no definitive answers.

- I think one of the
big problems, of course,

with the Naval report is,
usually these investigations

take a year, maybe two years.

This was out in about
three to four weeks,

which means, you know,

they really rushed
to get this out.

narrator: The inquiry
reveals a surprise--

the navy
had a favorite theory.

- The navy theory
for Training Flight 49

was the idea that
one of the crew members

lit a cigarette in-flight

with all of this fuel
on board...

♪ ♪

Which would have caused
a catastrophic explosion

of the aircraft.

♪ ♪

narrator: The cigarette theory
would explain

the explosion witnesses saw
from the "Gaines Mill."

But the report provides
little evidence to back it up.

- Yeah, I mean, this is one of
the big problems, of course.

Some of the best evidence
that we've had so far

is admittedly pretty thin.

narrator: Wayne and David
zero in on another detail

in the report--
unexplained radar blips.

- USS "Solomons" was nearby
and picked up two radar blips

at the time
the Martin Mariner disappeared.

- Interesting.
- And that's one that

Dave and I have talked about
for a long time going,

what was the second blip?

narrator: The aircraft carrier
USS "Solomons"

was also part of the search
for Flight 19.

The "Solomons" radar operator
had been following

the Martin Mariner
after takeoff, then noted

a second unidentified blip
closing in on it.

♪ ♪

The Martin Mariner
drops off radar.

And it happened
at the same time

that the "Gaines Mill"
sees the explosion.

- Nobody's ever figured out
what that second blip was.

- When you explain the idea
of two radar signatures

that come in contact
with each other on a radar,

then that would start leading
me down the path of wondering,

was this a potential
near mid-air collision?

♪ ♪

narrator: Or was the explosion
really the result

of a cigarette
igniting gas fumes?

♪ ♪

- All sounds like we have
a lot to research

and see if we can get
some more fidelity

on these different theories.

narrator: The team splits up
to chase down the leads.

♪ ♪

Two days later, Mike and Jimmy
are ready for dive number two.

Bottom conditions are still
producing swirling sand

around Mickey's Wreck,
so they decide

to head to their
second target of interest.

The team refers to this as
the 250 Wreck after its depth.

- We have an unidentified
suspected aircraft

in about 250 feet of water
that we wanna check out today

to find out what it is.

- You gotta rule out
every possibility.

If it looks like an aircraft,
we gotta look at it,

make sure what kind
of aircraft it is,

make sure it's not associated
with the Martin Mariner.

That's our job.

♪ ♪

narrator:
2,000 miles away,

Jason Harris is
in Tucson, Arizona,

trying to piece together why
the Martin Mariner crashed.

He's examining
the last Martin Mariner

in existence for clues.

- But just to get that feeling

of what it would have been
like to be in that aircraft,

how cramped the quarters are,
it just changes my perspective

to understand how much was
going on at any given time

while they were
flying this airplane.

♪ ♪

narrator: The PBM
Martin Mariner was originally

designed as a bomber...

♪ ♪

With a glass nose
and multiple viewing ports

that also made it an ideal
search-and-rescue plane.

But could it have simply
exploded mid-air

as the navy's
cigarette theory suggests?

♪ ♪

Scott Marchand,
the executive director

of the Pima Air
and Space Museum,

has doubts about that theory.

- If you take a look here,

these are
the specific regulations

that govern smoking
on aircraft operations.

- They actually had no smoking
signs posted on the aircraft?

- Oh, yeah, yeah.

I mean, you know, they were
all conscious of the risk,

and none of them wanted to,
you know,

die in a fireball
unnecessarily.

narrator: Is it possible
someone broke the rule?

Just months earlier,
a C-47 Skytrain blew up

when the pilot's lighter
ignited an oxygen tube.

But even if someone did smoke,

Scott says Martin Mariners
could take it.

- In the history
of the Mariners,

there were 84 losses.

Only three were
directly attributable

to fire or explosion.

So 3 out of 1,300 aircraft
constructed.

narrator: But he does offer
another scenario.

- We talked about the potential
for crew migration

throughout the airplane
possibly destabilizing

the aircraft in flight,
leading to a crash.

narrator: If the crew suddenly
switched positions,

the center of gravity
for the aircraft

could have been thrown off,

sending the plane
suddenly downward.

- It's entirely possible
the ship that reported

an aerial explosion
may have actually

been seeing the aircraft
impacting upon the water

and bursting into flame there.

narrator:
But what would cause the crew

to shift position so rapidly?

Jason thinks this may connect
to the team's theory

about a close call
with the second radar blip.

- And it's possible
that the pilot

could have made
an evasive maneuver.

And at that point,
it's potential that

crew members
could have come forward,

not by their own doing,

but by the abrupt movement
of the controls

from the aircraft commander.

- Oh, sure, yeah,
an unplanned evasive maneuver

is entirely possible.

narrator: If so, it's back
to that question--

what was the Martin Mariner
trying to evade?

narrator: Wreck divers Mike
Barnette and Jimmy Gadomski

are unable to get back
on Mickey's Wreck for now

due to offshore conditions.

So they're investigating
a second target

in the Martin Mariner
search area--

the 250 Wreck,
named for its depth.

♪ ♪

- Throwing.

narrator:
The team has intel suggesting

the target has two wings

and sits at a depth
of 250 feet.

- First thing we wanna do
is actually

get down to the bottom and
confirm this is an aircraft.

And then the next step is,
what kind of aircraft this is?

- Dive, dive, dive.

♪ ♪

- Current wasn't too bad,
so we were able to scoot

next to our shot line.

- Got colder and colder,
and darker and darker.

♪ ♪

narrator:
The frigid temperature adds

another layer of difficulty.

♪ ♪

- So we got to the bottom,
and the hook was actually

just laying there on the sand.

We had to basically
find the wreck first.

♪ ♪

narrator: At this depth,
Mike and Jimmy

have 15 minutes of bottom time
to explore the wreck

before they need to slowly
surface over 90 minutes.

If they stay down too long
or come up too fast,

they risk getting
decompression sickness,

also known as the bends.

narrator: But right now,
they need to find the wreck.

Mike's strategy is simple.

narrator:
Follow the fish,

which tend to gather
around wrecks.

- All the way down, though,

I saw a fish
coming up behind us.

I'm pretty sure
the wreck was behind us.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

narrator:
There it is.

♪ ♪

The divers start a forensic
sweep of the wreck site.

♪ ♪

But it's not
what they expected.

There's nothing here that
matches the Martin Mariner

or any other kind of aircraft.

It's a ship,

but which one?

Mike and Jimmy look
for diagnostic features.

It appears to be
an approximately

70-foot fishing trawler.

Trawlers routinely
sink in these waters,

and this one is broken down

with no
distinguishing features.

Putting a name on it will
have to wait for another time.

♪ ♪

The dive clock goes off.

♪ ♪

- I was so confused.

[laughs] I was like,
this was the weirdest plane

I've ever seen.

- We were hoping
to find an aircraft.

That's not what we found.

We found a trawler that,
I would say it sunk.

It's been down for a long time

'cause the hull
is totally disintegrated.

narrator: Instead of wings,
the mysterious structures

are the fishing boat's
outriggers.

- Outriggers are
basically the--

basically a big boom
sticks off the side

of each side of the boat.

They would run the nets
behind the boat.

Obviously this was
not an aircraft.

And more so, it wasn't
the Martin Mariner

we're looking for.

So we just mark this off the
list, and search goes on.

narrator: Mike and Jimmy
will now wait for conditions

to clear over Mickey's Wreck.

♪ ♪

- How are you doing?

- Good.
- Okay.

narrator: Meanwhile,
David O'Keefe and Wayne Abbott

are in Florida's interior,
west of Cape Canaveral,

to chase a different theory.

A navy report notes that
radar picked up a second blip

in the Mariner's airspace

just before the rescue plane
disappeared.

Did the Martin Mariner
collide with another aircraft,

or did it become unstable
and crash

while trying
to avert collision?

- So basically,
if that theory is correct,

then we have two aircraft
coming together.

And basically somehow,
one of them ends up going down

and the other one keeps going.

- Well, I think it's plausible
Training 49 saw something

and made
just a very drastic maneuver

that caused it
to crash into the ocean.

- Well quite surprising,
mid-air collisions

are actually a bit more common
than we'd like to think.

narrator: In aviation, even
close calls can be deadly.

There are on average
20 mid-air collisions

and 200 near-collisions
each year,

even with modern
avoidance technology.

The deadliest was a 1996
mid-air collision

west of New Delhi, India,
that killed 349 people.

In December 1945,
the chaotic search and rescue

for Flight 19 would have been
the perfect recipe

for this kind of disaster.

- All right, so we're left
with a mystery aircraft.

All right, so what was
out there that night?

- Well--
- Well, everything.

narrator: But the official
report contains few clues.

No other plane
reported a close call.

None of them saw
the Martin Mariner crash,

and no other planes
went missing that night,

except for the five bombers
in Flight 19.

- There's the one possibility,
and it's a long shot.

- There's the one possibility,
and it's a long shot.

What if that second
radar blip is Flight 19?

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

- So where the crash site is,
how deep is the water?

- Right now,
it's about 2 1/2 feet.

narrator:
Historical investigators

Wayne Abbott and David O'Keefe

are in an unlikely location,
looking for leads

on how the Martin Mariner
vanished in 1945.

They've come to the swamps
near Christmas, Florida,

chasing a theory:

that while
the Martin Mariner searched

for the five planes
of Flight 19,

another craft entered
the rescue plane's airspace,

forcing the Mariner to evade
the unidentified craft,

becoming unstable,
and crashing into the ocean.

♪ ♪

Dave and Wayne are with

retired police officer
Nate Ingram.

- We're pretty close
to the actual crash site.

narrator: Nate believes
the final crash site

for some
of the Flight 19 planes

wasn't deep out to sea,
but incredibly,

here in these swamps.

- Nate actually was out here
a few months ago

and apparently
stumbled across a wreck

that he thinks
is tied to Flight 19.

♪ ♪

narrator: Nate has been
researching the theories

of a legendary
Flight 19 investigator,

Jon Myhre, who died in 2019.

- Jon pieced together
what he thought

was the reconstruction
of Flight 19

and where it went that night
on December 5, 1945.

narrator: Myhre was
interviewed by Wayne and David

during a previous
investigation.

- Everything that we hear
so far about what happened

with Flight 19 suggests
that all the planes

ended up ditching together.

Why do you think
that's different?

narrator: While most
researchers believe Flight 19

was heading out to sea
and into the Bermuda Triangle

when it became lost,

Myhre believed
the lost planes were actually

headed back toward land.

- I think there's two of them
crashed on land.

One of them crashed here.

- Jon's big theory
when it came to Flight 19

was that after flying around
without any resolution

to the situation they were in,
there was an argument

that was building up.

- Damn it,
we need to fly west.

If we fly west,
we will get home.

- And instead of
staying together

and all ditching together
as one unit,

he thought that the planes
actually split up.

And at least two of them
ended up making it

back to the Coast of Florida.

narrator: Myhre's argument is
based upon his interpretation

of Flight 19's
final cryptic radio calls.

If true, that put
elements of Flight 19

on a collision course
with the Martin Mariner.

Could that second radar blip
have been one or more

of the Flight 19 bombers
trying to make it home?

Did it accidentally cause the
Mariner rescue plane to crash?

And if that's the case,
what became

of the Flight 19 bombers?

- Jon's theory is that
the two pilots actually

made it back to Florida.

He believes that both of them
ditched in a swamp

somewhere in the interior
of Florida.

♪ ♪

narrator: It's a theory
Nate's been chasing for years.

Now he believes he's located
the Flight 19 wreck site.

♪ ♪

- This is the site?
- Yeah.

- So how close are we
to the site right now?

- You're actually
on the wreck site.

It's about 12 feet behind us

buried in the water
in the weeds.

- Being a researcher
from Canada,

you know, you don't actually
get out into the swampland

like this very much.

This is hostile territory.

I mean, if you were a pilot
and you

had to ditch
or bail out of a plane,

this is not the area
where you'd wanna be.

If a plane did crash in 1945,
it's highly likely

that plane and pilot
would have just

disappeared into the swamp.

- I was able to go out there
and search for it and find it.

We were able to go out
and gather up

some of the artifacts
from the crash site.

narrator: After inspecting
the crash site,

Wayne and David are eager
to look over

some of the artifacts
Nate recovered.

- This particular canister
here was recovered from the top

of the heap in the crater.

narrator:
To help ID the wreckage,

the team has brought in
World War II aircraft

mechanic John Mackinson.

- Well, looking at this,

this basically looks like
a starter.

It's definitely World War II
radial engine aircraft.

- Let's see what else you have.

narrator: John carefully
inspects each piece, looking

for anything
that can identify this plane.

- Maybe this will give us
a definitive answer.

It's in very,
very poor condition.

- Okay, this is most
definitely a cylinder head.

- Okay.

- And we got a big valve here.

And looking at the cylinder,
I can tell definitely

it's built by Curtiss-Wright.

And it's very distinctive
by the rocker box cover.

It's a big, long oval shape.

- Layman's terms?

- Layman's terms,
this is a Curtiss-Wright engine

used on a TBM.

- You kidding me?
- [laughs]

- Really?

- Well, that's groundbreaking
right there, gentlemen.

- No kidding.

narrator:
The cylinder head is unique

to Curtiss-Wright engines,

including the 14-cylinder
double radial engine

that powered the Avengers
of the missing Flight 19.

It's the right engine.

But is it the right plane?

John needs to examine the rest
of the wreckage to be sure.

- I could not say with,
you know, 100% confidence

that this is a TBM Avenger.

I can confidently say
it's an aircraft that ran

a Curtiss-Wright engine in it.

And that's what
the TBM Avenger used.

narrator:
It's a stunning development

that could offer the first
real evidence in 80 years

to solve the Bermuda
Triangle's biggest mystery

to solve the Bermuda
Triangle's biggest mystery

and help validate
a theory that Flight 19

had a fatal near-miss
with the rescue plane

sent to find them.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

narrator: Wreck divers Mike
Barnette and Jimmy Gadomski

are finally getting
a second chance

to dive on Mickey's Wreck.

- We need to go down
and get a second look

at the wreckage on the bottom.

If this is indeed
a two-engine plane,

there's gotta be
more down there.

narrator: On the first dive,
they discovered an engine

that matched
Training 49 Martin Mariner.

This time, the team will
widen their bottom search

to see if they can
find more wreckage.

- I think this one
is the fuselage area,

and this one up here
is the actual engine.

But there's scattered bait all
throughout this whole thing.

So there's obviously
more metal that's--

narrator: Mickey's bottom
sonar is picking up

potential wreckage the team

didn't see
on their first dive.

- What's the overall distance
from north and south?

How big of an area are
we talking about here?

- 240 feet.

narrator: As Mike and Jimmy
prepare to splash in

to see if they can tie this
engine to the Martin Mariner,

back on land, Wayne and David
get the phone call

they've been waiting for.

- Oh, very good.
Dave's here as well.

- How are you doing, Nate?

- Good.

narrator: Wayne and David
suspect an aircraft wreck

found in a swamp to be from
a TBM Avenger torpedo bomber,

possibly part of Flight 19,
the very planes

the Martin Mariner was trying
to search for

and rescue in December 1945.

Their initial analysis
of the wreck

indicated the parts
were a match

for a Curtiss-Wright engine,

the same used
by the lost planes.

Researcher Nate Ingram
has an update.

- Any luck?

- Wildcat?

I thought they only used
Pratt & Whitney's?

- Really?

narrator: Curtiss-Wright did
build the Avenger's engine.

But they also built an engine
for a smaller plane

called the FM-2 Wildcat.

- Very disappointing
to find out

that the wreckage that
we found in the swamp

is a Wildcat
and not an Avenger.

And on top of it, it doesn't
prove John Myhre's theory.

We knew it was a long shot at
best, searching in the swamp.

But I felt that we needed
to take the shot.

narrator: The swamp wreck
didn't prove

that Flight 19 had a close
call with the Martin Mariner.

But it sure seems
like something did.

For now, the mystery
of the second radar blip

remains unsolved.

But 45 miles offshore,
Mike and Jimmy are hoping

that they'll
find the Martin Mariner

and answer once and for all
how and why she crashed.

- Dive, dive, dive.

♪ ♪

narrator:
But as they reach bottom...

narrator: Conditions are,
again, a challenge.

- On the bottom,
the visibility was not great,

maybe 15 feet.

♪ ♪

narrator:
Then a shape appears.

It's a large piece
of wreckage the team

didn't see
on their first dive.

- So we get down there.
We find this wing.

narrator: Any aircraft wreck
is a potential grave site.

The team must proceed
with great care.

So they decide to use a
process called photogrammetry.

Jimmy circles the wreckage,

taking hundreds
of still photos.

He'll process these images
to create

a 3D model of the
wreck site that allows

a more in-depth analysis.

- There's only part
of a wing here,

and obviously,
it's pretty degraded,

so it's clearly been
in the water a long time.

narrator:
Then another potential clue--

an unusual structure
lies near the wing.

an unusual structure
lies near the wing.

But what is it?

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

narrator:
45 miles off the coast

of Central Florida...

narrator: Mike and Jimmy
have discovered tantalizing

new pieces
of an aircraft wreck

they suspect to be the
Martin Mariner rescue plane.

- It's important
to find Training 49.

It's a huge Bermuda Triangle
mystery,

and we wanna put closure
to that.

narrator:
The team has already located

an 18-cylinder aircraft engine

and a piece of the wing.

♪ ♪

Mike swims a larger perimeter
but turns up no new clues.

Any other wreckage remains
buried in the sand.

- Where are the two pieces?

- Not far.

- Like 50 feet?
- 50 feet, yeah, yeah.

We were able to swim
from one to another.

Then I went back to the wing.

- It's definitely
a section of wing.

♪ ♪

narrator:
More clues are pointing

toward the Martin Mariner.

But a grizzled wreck hunter
like Mike Barnette

needs firmer evidence.

- We don't have a smoking gun.

We don't know what aircraft
this engine went to.

We can't rule out
the Martin Mariner,

so it's gonna take
a little bit more work.

narrator: One thing
is becoming clearer.

The wing has
military grade features.

This is a military aircraft.

That means permission
from the navy is needed

for a more
intensive excavation.

- We know
there's other material

that has to be there somewhere,
most likely buried.

Hopefully we can
reach out to the navy,

get some assistance from them.

narrator: Mike begins
the long process of seeking

the navy's official permission

for a fuller excavation
of the site.

But the team does have
one last shot

to make an ID
with evidence in hand--

Jimmy's 3D model.

It may reveal a key detail
that Mike and Jimmy missed

on their visual inspection.

♪ ♪

- Let me start out
with the wing.

♪ ♪

About 100 to 150 feet
to the south of where

we had started
on that engine site.

- 100 feet from the engine?

- Very close.

- Yeah,
but definitely scattered.

- How long was it?

- Exposed, I'd say
about 10 to 15 feet.

narrator: Then Jason Harris
spots something in the model.

- I'm really wondering
what this piece of material

is right there.

'Cause it, like,
has a perfectly round shape

in the center.

narrator: To Jason,
this could be the remains

of a fuel bladder.

If so, that would be a major
tell for the Martin Mariner.

It had both
an 18-cylinder radial engine

and a fuel bladder
in the wing.

♪ ♪

And Jason sees more clues
in the shape of the wing.

- This area here,
that looks like

it's kind of the edges
of the wings.

- I do have a few photos
of the Martin Mariner.

Now, when you look at this
wing, Jason, what do you think?

♪ ♪

- Look at the wing.
It's rounded.

- Yeah.
- It's a rounded wing.

- I cannot say
definitively that

this aircraft wing structure
belongs to a Martin Mariner.

What I can say is that
there is a possibility,

because the wing structure
is rounded,

similar to the diagram
of a Martin Mariner.

And it has a rounded
wing structure.

narrator:
The 18-cylinder engine,

the potential fuel bladder,

and the rounded wing
are all features

of the missing rescue plane.

But Jason, Dave, and Wayne
agree with Mike Barnett.

There simply isn't enough
to make a definitive call.

- So is it possible? Yeah.

- Wow.
- But--

- We don't have
enough to confirm,

but we can't rule out, either.

narrator: It's been a
whirlwind of an investigation.

The team has broken new ground
on a provocative theory,

and the mysterious radar blip
demands further investigation.

- But that's how
you do research.

You pose hypotheses.
You test those hypotheses.

And at the end of the day,
some of them may hold water,

some of them may not.

And that's the one thing
with the Flight 19 mystery

and the Martin Mariner.

There's just so much more data
to be discovered.

narrator: And there's
more work to be done

exploring Mickey's Wreck.

- I mean, this site
bears watching,

because if we have a hurricane
come through here,

it could uncover
a bunch of other wreckage.

So if we can't get
permission from the navy,

maybe Mother Nature
can help us.

We would love for this
to be a one-off dive,

go down,
find the Martin Mariner.

But we've been at this
long enough to realize

this is gonna be a slow,
steady just struggle.

We're gonna get to a point
where the last site

we dive is gonna be
the Martin Mariner.

And that's what they
always say, right?

It's always
the last place you look.

♪ ♪