STRANGE BUT (MOSTLY) TRUE STORIES
22
The bombers took off at 2:10 p.m. At 3:40
p.m., Taylor radioed in. He was lost. His
compass did not seem to be working. Taylor
thought he was flying over the Florida Keys.
To reach the mainland, he decided to fly north.
This was a bad idea. Flight 19 headed farther
out to sea.
Two hours later, an air station located the
planes. There was not a strong enough signal
to radio directions. Meanwhile, the weather
was getting bad. The five bombers were also
running low on fuel.
Taylor radioed the other planes. “When
the first plane gets down to ten gallons of gas,
we’ll land in the water together. Do you all
understand?”
The air station heard one last radio call from
Taylor. But the signal was weak. They could not
understand his message.
Several search planes were sent to look
for Flight 19. Shortly after takeoff, one of
them disappeared. A ship reported seeing an
explosion. Many believe this was the search
plane.
