Scientific Search Project

Treasure hunters working a corner of the Bermuda Triangle may have ended one of the deepest mysteries of the last 45 years with the announcement that they had found five World War II planes sitting on the ocean floor. The aircraft, TBM Avengers, appear to be the missing Flight 19, the legendary "Lost Patrol" in which 14 Navy airmen took off on a training mission on Dec. 5, 1945, and never returned.

Treasure hunters working a corner of the Bermuda Triangle may have ended one of the deepest mysteries of the last 45 years with the announcement that they had found five World War II planes sitting on the ocean floor. The aircraft, TBM Avengers, appear to be the missing Flight 19, the legendary "Lost Patrol" in which 14 Navy airmen took off on a training mission on Dec. 5, 1945, and never returned.

The U.S. government will lay claim to the remains of five Navy planes that were found earlier this month, a Justice Department spokesman said. What appear to be the wrecks of Flight 19--often called the "Lost Squadron" after vanishing on a training flight Dec. 5, 1945, in the Bermuda Triangle--were located by a high-tech salvage ship. Scientific Search Project, which found the five TBM Avengers planes just off Ft. Lauderdale, has filed a salvage claim in federal court in Miami.

Graham Hawkes finds it tough to fathom why we spend billions of dollars to explore far-away planets when another fascinating frontier exists right here on Earth, where gold and gems, unknown species and perhaps medical miracles wait to be discovered less than seven miles away.

In a quiet marina, nestled among bobbing pleasure boats, bayside condos and sailmakers' shops, a futuristic dream is taking shape. * It began as an inventor's vision and was nurtured by volunteers when money ran low. Now it gleams inside a dockside garage, its torpedo-shaped body nearly ready to dart through the seas. Called Deep Flight I, it looks more like a stubby-winged fighter jet than a submarine--and in some ways it acts more like one too. "It's a mirror image.