Merle Fogg Airport opened on an abandoned 9-hole golf course on May 1 , 1929 . At the start of World War II , it was commissioned by the United States Navy and renamed Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale . The base was initially used for refitting civil airliners for military service before they were ferried across the Atlantic to Europe and North Africa . NAS Fort Lauderdale later became a main training base for Naval Aviators and enlisted naval air crewmen flying the Grumman TBF and TBM Avenger for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps aboard aircraft carriers and from expeditionary airfields ashore . NAS Fort Lauderdale was the home base for Flight 19 , the five TBM Avengers that disappeared in December 1945 , leading in part to the notoriety of the Bermuda Triangle
Flight 19
Flight 19
Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport