Spooky Skies
Just in time for Halloween, a collection of aviation mysteries.
- By Rebecca Maksel
- Air & Space magazine, October 2012
Screen grab from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
The Mystery of Flight 19
You remember the 1977 blockbuster Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The story begins with French scientist Claude Lacombe (François Truffaut) and his American interpreter David Laughlin (Bob Balaban) arriving in Mexico’s Sonoran Desert, where they find five pristine Grumman TBM Avengers sitting in the sand. As the numbers are read off the engine blocks, Laughlin becomes confused. “Tell me something—what the hell is happening here?” he calls out. “It’s Flight number 19,” someone replies. “19 what?” Laughlin asks. “It’s that training mission from the Naval Air Station at Fort Lauderdale,” says the man. “They were doing target runs on an old hulk.” “Who flies crates like these any more?” asks Laughlin. “No one,” comes the reply. “These planes were reported missing in 1945.”
Director Steven Spielberg used an actual aviation accident for the opening scene of his iconic movie. Fourteen airmen and their five aircraft disappeared on December 5, 1945, during a navigation training flight. Accident investigators speculated that the flight leader may have become disoriented, and the aircraft crashed into the sea after running out of fuel. The five airplanes were never located. Eerily, a PBM patrol aircraft, launched at 7:30 p.m., December 5 to search for the squadron, was not seen or heard from after take-off, reports Naval History & Heritage Command.
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Comments (6)
Great story! I knew that some spiders use a strand of their silk to travel on the wind but I had no idea that they could travel to such heights.
Posted by Jim Johnson on October 26,2012 | 07:17 PM
I would bet that there are more true stories out there about aviation unit mascots. Would this be an idea for a future article?
Posted by Jim Johnson on October 26,2012 | 07:49 PM
Interesting stories! I hope that veryone has a great and safe weekend!
Posted by Mike on October 26,2012 | 08:55 PM
Catching the “spirit” of your Halloween article, as newly certified Private Pilots, eager to go...anywhere, my friend Tony and I signed out a 172 at Texas A&M Flying Club for a day trip all the way non-stop from College Station to Waco. Met up with friends from Baylor U and had enjoyable time socializing, dinner, etc. Departing an airport you are unfamiliar with after 10PM was less expectant of any challenges in that pre 9-11 world of 1987, so we flashlighted ourselves along a pitch dark ramp to our little bird for pre flight. Night flight for low timers, single engined and cross country could be thrill-inspiring enough, but when you are accustomed to crickets, distant truck-on-the-highway noise and sometimes a killdeer’s lonely cry that nocturnal airfield symphony can turn from tranquil to terror when suddenly you hear: ROAR! No, not like jet exhaust or big round engine roar. Big cat from Africa eats pilots on late night ramp, ROAR! It caught me off guard, still holding my plastic fuel sample cup. “Tony, did you just hear a…” As I turned, Tony was not to be found. I spied him in the airplane, taking cover behind the tall instrument panel. “Let’s get in the air, now!” was all he said. A succession of more ROAR followed, and each with crescendos of enthusiasm. Within moments, we were start…taxi…intentions declared…take off. We climbed into night sky, giving thanks for altitude, distance, Lycoming, not being appetizers. Later we learned that prior to the Cameron Park Zoo downtown, the Central Texas Zoological Park had exotic beasts housed off out in the middle of nowhere, near Waco Regional. It brought new meaning to Fight or Flight, for us!
Posted by Maj Hyral B (Buddy) Walker Jr, USAF on October 27,2012 | 10:05 AM
I am surprised they omitted the Ghost of Flight 401! A famous aviation ghost story of the haunting of aircraft with part salvaged from the crash of flight 401 in the Florida Everglades. Maybe next year!
Posted by Bill Greenleaf on October 31,2012 | 05:17 PM
Flight 19; there was a theory that a large quantity of gas escaped up from the ocean floor and when it mixed with the air displaced the oxygen, causing the aircrews to lose conscious and the recips to shut down. What with the shallow shale gas discoveries nowadays, that sounds plausible.
Posted by Bob Olson USAF Ret. on November 15,2012 | 05:50 PM