Three months after World War II , on 5 December 1945 , NAS Banana River had an ancillary role in the disappearance of Flight 19 , a formation of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers , which had departed NAS 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
Flight 19
Flight 19
Patrick Air Force Base