1945: US Air Force Flight 19

US Air Force Flight 19, consisting of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers, took off from Fort Lauderdale naval base in Florida on December 15 1945, and never returned.

Led by an experienced commander with another 13 trainee aviators, Flight 19 was lost over the Bermuda Triangle during an overwater navigation training excercise. A Navy investigation failed to determine the cause of the loss and found no traces of the planes. It concluded that the commander had got lost when compasses malfunctioned. Even more mysteriously, a search plane sent to look for Flight 19 also vanished.