bomber bombardier training, seaplane pilot training, and communications research. Other activities included a blimp squadron detachment, an Aviation Navigation Training School, and an experimental training unit termed Project Baker, a confidential program that developed and tested instrument landing equipment. NAS Banana River hosted a major aircraft repair and maintenance facility. Later in the war, a small detachment of German POWs from Camp Blanding worked at NAS Banana River on cleanup details. At its peak, the base complement included 278 aircraft, 587 civilian employees, and over 2800 officers and enlisted personnel. Units Transition Training Squadron Atlantic (detachment) VS-1D7 Flight 19 probe Three months after the end of World War II, on 5 December 1945, NAS Banana River had an ancillary role in the search for Flight 19, five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers which had departed Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida on a routine over-water training mission. When the flight failed to return to home station, a search and rescue operation was undertaken by multiple air and naval units. After sunset on 5 December, two PBM Mariner seaplanes from NAS Banana River, originally scheduled for their own training flights were diverted to perform square pattern searches in the area west of 29°N 79°W/29, -79. One of these aircraft, a PBM-5, Bureau Number (BuNo) 59225, took off at 19:27 Eastern Time from NAS Banana River, called in a routine radio message at 19:30 Eastern Time, and was never heard from again. At 19:50 Eastern Time, the tanker SS Gaines Mills reported seeing a mid-air explosion, then flames leaping 100 feet (30 m) high and burning on the sea for 10 minutes. The position was 28°35′N 80°15′W / 28.59, −80.25. Captain Shonna Stanley of the SS Gaines Mills reported searching for survivors through a pool of oil, but found none. The escort carrier reported losing radar contact with an aircraft at the same position and time. No wreckage of PBM-5 BuNo 59225 was ever found. During investigation by a board of inquiry regarding the entire Flight 19 incident, attention was given to the loss of the NAS Banana River-based PBM. Several witnesses from both NAS Banana River and other PBM Mariner operating locations were questioned concerning occurrences of aviation gasoline (AvGas) fumes collecting in the bilges of PBM series aircraft and associated no smoking regulations, which were reportedly well posted and rigidly enforced aboard all PBMs. Although the board's report is not a