Warbird Information Exchange

I realizes that there are supposedly numerous vintage Navy aircraft litering the ocean floor to the east of florida. But I found it a little odd that the Graham Hawkes Discovery of 5 TBM Avengers all ditched together in '91 wasn't Flight 19. Here we have the correct number of aircraft within the area they were thought to be lost and atleast one of them had the correct markings. Seemed like a good match right? So after reading upon it a couple of questions came to mind. Graham Hawkes raised raised one of the avengers and the numbers didn't match. Is it possible that there was a paperwork error on which aircraft serial numbers took off that fateful night? Also if not Flight 19 then has anyone ever heard of other entire flights of Avengers all ditching together? If these aircrafts aren't from Flight 19 and aren't from the same flight, then one would presume that they ditched there one by one at different times. How likely is that? Did the Navy have dedicated ditching areas if the need arise? And lastly whatever became of the aircraft that was brought to the surface? Thanks

Shay

There was a whole documentary on the Discovery channel pertaining to this subject. The five ditchings were all well documented that they were not part of Flight 19. The theory put forward on the documentary was that methane gas bubbles rising from the ocean floor would break the surface underneath the aircraft. This caused 2 things two happen: First, the engine would starve & stall out from a lack of oxygen. Second, the airplane would lose lift, as methane is thinner than our normal atmosphere. There is evidence of several methane gas "vents" on the ocean floor in the area where these planes ditched.

The whereabouts of Flight 19 still remains a mystery.