Flight 19

[Boxman]

Looking for four guys to reenact the mysterious "Flight 19"

I think we should do it in LWO.

Then we could get an interesting answer as to what happened to them.

"Our report, based on our reenactment; indicates that flight 19 was shot down by Spitfires."

Think of it as a "Batley Town Women's Guild" kind of a thing.

Oh BTW, I'd love to start a squad called "Flight 19" if anyone's down.

[PFactorDave]

Hmmm...  Seems a bit past the poor taste line to me...  Where ever flight 19 ended up, there is the grave of 14 American Airmen...  Making light of their deaths seems a bit too much to me...

[Denholm]

I agree with PFactor. While laughter may be the best medicine, laughing at someone's torment is not the way to go.

[crazyivan]

Watch that all the time on the discovery channel.  Aviation  historian pilot said in that episode. When guages fail or lost, head west. sun set

in the west. Flying avengers around in circles for spitfires to shoot us down sounds pretty retarded  to me anyway !

[Strip]

Umm.....I will take the bait or ask the question that needs asked.

Were there any Spitfires even based near mainland United States at the time?

[Boxman]

Was it disrespectful what Steven Speilberg did with Flight 19 in Close Encounters?

[AKKuya]

Was it disrespectful what Steven Speilberg did with Flight 19 in Close Encounters?

No.  He only put to film what many believe as a possibility.  Family members of Flight 19 were divided on the issue.  The entire scene was done with historical accuracy as possible but given to some degree of drama for film purposes.

Most likely scenario would be compass heading was off and wind direction changed tpoo much causing the pilots to be way off from intended route.  They probably bailed or used water landings after fuel ran out.  They either drowned or was marooned on an island.

[Shifty]

Watch that all the time on the discovery channel.  Aviation  historian pilot said in that episode. When guages fail or lost, head west. sun set

in the west. Flying avengers around in circles for spitfires to shoot us down sounds pretty retarded  to me anyway !

I've seen an episode where the pilots of flight 19 reported small islands which possibly could have been the Florida Keys. If this was the case heading West into the sunset would only have sent them into the Gulf of Mexico where again they would have run out of fuel and ditched. It's easy for people to armchair quarterback 60 years later. Something went very wrong for none of them to return or survive. Each aircraft was piloted by a trained Navy Aviator. Not some cartoon sim pilot who thinks he has all the answers sitting in front of his computer manipulatiung pixels and eating cheetos. If they ever do find the actual aircraft maybe then they can figure out what really happened. I agree with you flying TBMs around in circles waiting to run out of fuel or the spitards to clobber you is a bad idea. This is one of the dumbest threads I've ever seen started.

[Boxman]

Actually, what I heard is the flight leader had a history of getting lost. Others in the flight were heard to say things like "if we just fly West we'll hit land."

Sucks when your boss is wrong in a situation like that.

[avionix]

I've seen an episode where the pilots of flight 19 reported small islands which possibly could have been the Florida Keys. If this was the case heading West into the sunset would only have sent them into the Gulf of Mexico where again they would have run out of fuel and ditched. It's easy for people to armchair quarterback 60 years later. Something went very wrong for none of them to return or survive. Each aircraft was piloted by a trained Navy Aviator. Not some cartoon sim pilot who thinks he has all the answers sitting in front of his computer manipulatiung pixels and eating cheetos. If they ever do find the actual aircraft maybe then they can figure out what really happened. I agree with you flying TBMs around in circles waiting to run out of fuel or the spitards to clobber you is a bad idea. This is one of the dumbest threads I've ever seen started.

The flight leader begged to get off of the mission for some reason.  He was not allowed to do so.  Their route of flight took them to the east of Florida where they did perform a simulated bombing run.  Weather conditions at the time, were said to have been gusting around 35 knots and weather moving in.  As with all aircraft accidents, there was not one issue that led to this mishap.  More like a series of events and none can be discredited.  Most likely, the flight leader got confused and after having recently come from the Keys, mistook the islands that they were flying over for the Keys.  We don't know the weather out over the ocean at that time.  I would chalk it up to several factors centering around the flight leader.  Also remember, that the trainees he was flying with had about 300 hours of flight time.  He had about 2500 IIRC.