Ensign Roger Murray Allen had been in the service since 1940. He had switched to aviation later-on. He was a training co-pilot.
Charles Arceneaux, Ensign and radar operator. From the stark clarity of a similar genome, a nephew wrote a dogmatic conclusion to the Mariner by insisting a crewman simply lit a cigarette and blew up the plane. The whole purpose of the article was merely to denigrate smoking rather than find any answers. The author is even ignorant of his uncle’s rank.
The Crew
Walter George Jeffery, Lt. jg
Harrie Grimes Cone, Lt. jg
Roger Murray Allen, Ensign
Lloyd Arlin Eliason, Ensign
Charles Donald Arceneaux, Ensign
Robert Charles Cameron, radioman 3rd class.
Cargill, Wiley Davis Sr. , seaman 1st
James Frederick Jordan, Aviation radioman 3rd class
John Thomas Menendez, Aviation ordnanceman 3rd
Philip Bird Neeman, Seaman 1st
James Frederick Osterheld, Aviation ordnanceman 3rd
Donald Edward Peterson, Aviation machinist’s mate 1st
Alfred Joseph Zywicki, Seaman 1st class.
Lt. jg Harrie Grimes Cone was the co-pilot. He was an experienced Navy pilot. Walter Jeffrey was the pilot.
Lloyd Arlin Eliason, Ensign, another co-pilot.
Because of the sensational nature of Flight 19’s disappearance, the disappearance of the Martin Mariner during the search operations is often only a footnote. However, it deserves a lot more attention than what it has been given.
It more than dramatically added to the mystery of that confusing night. To recap: A search had been delayed for several hours due to the belief that Flight 19 would make it back and the fact that a storm front was moving in. By 7 p.m. that night there was heavy overcast over Florida. Out to sea there was increasing wind and isolated rain showers.
The much anticipated order was given for a limited search when it was clear Flight 19 would not make it back. Two night training flights, Training 49 and Training 32, had been scheduled for that evening as a part of Banana River’s nightly training schedule. This base, located north of Fort Lauderdale and now a part of Cape Canaveral, was set aside for this purpose during the war.
The Paonessa family began on this quest because of nagging questions surrounding a telegram sent to Joseph Paonessa on December 26, 1945, 21 days after Flight 19 disappeared. This telegram, signed with his brother George’s family nickname, reads: “You have been misinformed about me. Am very much alive. Georgie.”
The first question is, naturally, How could it have been from George? Flight 19 was long gone. But the family is certain nobody in Jacksonville knew George’s nickname. Why was Joe sent the telegram? Does Jacksonville and its proximity to the final “official” place where Flight 19 vanished off the coast have anything to do with it? Was it a sick “friend” that
The Eldridge. This vessel is reputed to have been the experiment vessel in question for the “Philadelphia Experiment,” but with little evidence. Her crew refutes it ever happened. The vessel was promoted as the one by the dubious research methods of Charles Berlitz and William L. Moore. However, there is some evidence to suggest there were such experiments on electromagnetism and that they expanded to at-sea experiments by 1945 , though the experiment ship name remains unknown.
They were scheduled to take off around 7 p.m. One was to be piloted by Harrie Cone, with 2 other co-pilots and 9 crew under training. But when it became clear that Flight 19 was not going to make it back, the flights were commandeered, and a command pilot had to be placed aboard. Lt. Walt Jeffrey was scheduled for only a local flight and therefore volunteered to command Training 49 into the Atlantic in search of the flight.
Training 49 and Training 32 departed Banana River Naval Air Station around 7:27 p.m. Training 32 headed straight out into the Atlantic while Training 49 went north along the coast and then cut out to sea to home-in on Flight 19’s 6 o’clock radio position fix.
So far, so good. But mystery was to strike, sudden and without warning. Training 32 reported in on time, but nothing was ever heard from Training 49 again. It wasn’t until 9:12 p.m. that night that a message came over the teletype reporting the freighter Gaines Mill saw a huge fireball explode.
The Martin Mariner was a key aircraft in long Pacific patrols, for scouting purposes and rescue operations for downed pilots. It was also used extensively in the Atlantic for anti-sub patrol. As such, the Mariner could land on water and carried a huge amount of fuel. Due to this fact Maintenance Dept. Order 6-45 forbidding smoking was posted in several parts of the aircraft.
For whatever reasons, some have sought to magically place themselves into the PBM and assert with dogma that it simply blew up from poor maintenance. The testimony of the officer-in-charge of training at Banana River, Commander Robert D. Cox, is relevant: “The policy of VB2 ATU-3 is to assign the newest and the best aircraft available to extended training flights and these aircraft, of which PBM-5 BuNo. 59225 , Squadron No. 49, is one, is not used for other training flights. Also special attention is given to aviation equipment aboard these planes . . .All of this equipment is sighted and visually inspected before each flight.”
Fifteen minutes before takeoff, aviation machinist mate Clarence Urgin left Training 49 after checking all equipment. The plane captain, Don Peterson, was observed to make all the necessary preflight checks as well. This was, furthermore, the plane’s first flight after its intensive and periodical “90-hour” inspection. The aircraft had run aground after one landing. But this was carefully inspected and there was absolutely no sign of any damage whatsoever. There is still no explanation why it exploded.
The first flight to arrive at the location of the explosion (about 25 miles off New Smyrna Beach) was Training 32. They had been searching Flight 19’s last reported position and then diverted to investigate, arriving at about 10:45 p.m. Lt. Gerald Brammerlin, the pilot, testified to the Board that no trace of any explosion could be found, nor any debris. They saw some lights (also reported by the s.s. Thomas Paine later on), but nothing that shed any light on the explosion. No vessel reported finding any trace as well, including the Gaines Mill which was in the immediate vicinity. However, the captain reported that members of his crew claimed to have seen oil and debris. (A sample of oily water brought back for examination proved not to be oil at all.) He confirmed there were no rain showers, no
lightning, or anything that could have caused the explosion.
The Navy confessed to having no answer for anything that went on that night, and news headlines as much as 5 months later still read this was the “number one mystery of the naval air arm.”
Nevertheless, there is little reason to doubt that the explosion seen by the freighter s.s. Gaines Mill at 7:50 p.m. that night was the Mariner. But what caused the Mariner to explode? Mariners underwent rigorous preflight checks by a ground technician and then by the plane captain, a machinist’s mate who always flew on his assigned plane. These guys flew with the plane; they didn’t cut corners in their inspection.
There is also some confusion, even within the records of the Board proceedings, as to what exactly was seen by the Gaines Mill. Some say that the crew saw a plane on fire, then hit the ocean and explode, while most reports claim there was merely a huge fireball indicative of a mid-air explosion. The first report sent, read: “At 7:50 pm hundred foot burst of flame lasting several minutes seen” doesn’t clarify too much, as well as the later reports trying to clarify it further. Coast Guard Lt. Commander William T. Murphy was called
upon to testify to what exactly went on. But his testimony sometimes does not help either. At his first appearance he made no mention of the carrier Solomons report that a blip believed to have been the Mariner dropped off their radar scope at the precise time and location as the explosion. But when recalled days later, after the Board had been pursuing the case, he produced the statement in court. There remained, however, a lackadaisical attitude about pursuing an explanation to the Mariner. Although he admitted the water in the area is only 78 feet deep, he was negative to the Board question of diving for the wreck since precise coordinates were known.
Living up to their moniker, some “uninformed” insist the
Now we come to a phenomenon of the Triangle. These odd glows and corona manifestations have been seen up until the present, often in the wake of a disappearance, and sometimes at a distance labeled a “weird version” of St. Elmo’s Fire. Although aircraft are equipped with “static lines” to discharge electrical charges, aircraft have been seen to glow green with a charge from “regular” St. Elmo’s Fire until, as in one case (observed by famed pilot Martin Caidin), it simply exploded. In the case of another pilot Chuck Wakely, in 1964, his Cessna glowed iridescent green, his navigational equipment went erratic, his radio dead, and his plane was under its own control, before the manifestation finally dissipated and he came back onto course. Could the glows on the night of December 5, 1945, be related to these mysterious green “auras and glows” seen during other Triangle incidents? There is an unusual electric component to them, one that might be powerful enough to set off a plane known as a “flying gas tank.”
plane merely exploded— a fuel leak no doubt. They have little familiarity with the actual proceedings of the Board of Inquiry or simply make little use of something they wish to portray as banal to begin with.
They overlook the brilliance of the explosion was beyond that of any regular explosion, even granting the nickname of the Mariner as a “flying gas tank.” If the plane was in flames in mid-air, they also overlook why no SOS was received first, no matter how terse. A pilot who knows his plane is going down is able to shout something into the mike.
They also overlook the reports of unusual lights along the east coast described as white, hovering, descending then simply winking out— the reason why they were described as “parachute flares” at a distance. Another type of odd light was seen off the east coast of Florida, in and about the area where the Mariner vanished. These were odd green lights or glowing auroras and were even reported from civilian land observers on shore. Their sources were never determined, though the Coast Guard and Navy made attempts.
In the 1970s the interest in the “Philadelphia Experiment” seemed little relevant to the case at hand, but it laid the groundwork for an unusual event in the 1990s. The Paonessa family, (George Paonessa was a radioman on Powers’ plane, FT-36)
named Philadelphia Experiment. That is only a popular name for it.
But there does appear to have been an experiment at Philadelphia, then later at sea, involving a destroyer. The first experiment (project name unknown) was carried out in 1943. During this experiment, possibly associated with making a ship deflect a magnetic mine by use of degaussers or other high voltage equipment, unexpected phenomena occurred. The most appreciable were wild corona manifestations, often greenish lights. Some claim invisibility and other forms of electromagnetic effects like fusion of dissimilar substances also occurred. But the most visible were bright corona manifestations and auroras.
Since this was doubtlessly not expected, it is possible the Navy halted the experiment and decided to probe more deeply into the value to these accidental discoveries. A project “Rainbow” may have been the result. The name is more than interesting in that it may recall, and have been inspired by, the corona auroras produced during the alleged earlier experiment (It should be noted here for clarification that such corona glows, invisibility of metallic objects, and fusion of dissimilar substances, have been produced in electromagnetic tests, such as in the Hutchison Effect. These effects were not known during the decade in which the “Philadelphia Experiment” claims publicly emerged but have later been produced.)
George Paonessa and his father, Frank. The telegram the family was to receive from “George” after he disappeared adds a bizarre dimension to Flight 19 and to the Mariner.
Furthermore, because of the high profile of such manifestations, it has been rumored that the Navy preferred to conduct “RAINBOW” at sea by 1945. Theoretically, the unexplained green auroras add a link with it to the Mariner explosion. If in the vicinity of the test vessel it could have taken an electromagnetic charge in the atmosphere created by a disturbance during the test. It is interesting to report that Training 32 did report another ship in the vicinity of where the explosion occurred, but no other ship but Gaines Mill bothered to report the very noticeable fireball.
There is still no real way to tangibly connect the “Philadelphia Experiment” with Flight 19, but one discovery adds a bizarre twist to Flight 19 especially in light of why the Paonessa family was still pursuing an answer in the 1990s.
Hard to explain. George Paonessa’s pilot was Captain Ed Powers. His widow, Joan, was certain her husband did not go down at sea. She had a nagging feeling he was alive or something else happened to him.
knew Joe’s brother was on Flight 19 and who also knew George’s family nickname? Conspiracy theorists might like to speculate that George briefly escaped from whatever detention the crew were put in, after having seen “too much” of some experiment, then sent a telegram to his nearest relative before he was recaptured.
In reality, the “Philadelphia Experiment” has a tenuous connection with Flight 19 at best. The scenario, of course, seems too farfetched. It is easier to credit Lowey with having made a mistake and having repeated mere sensational rumor (especially since she used what is only a popular name for the project and one that is known not to have been its actual Navy code name).
But if there was such an experiment at sea it is far more imaginable to suppose a connection between the Mariner and some electromagnetic test involving a vessel. But at best this also seems a stretch of the imagination. On a more acceptable level of theory are the green electric glows of the Triangle. Whether they are a form of St. Elmo’s Fire or a dangerous electrical charge created by the area’s unique climate, they have been reported to cause electromagnetic fritzes of navigational equipment along with them. It is possible then that this “Triangle phenomenon” caused the Mariner to explode.
Either way, the Mariner did not simply “explode,” as more mystery and possible explanations continue to be dug up about that night. Remember, six aircraft vanished in one night. It did not rate headline news because such occurrences are commonplace or can be easily dismissed. That fashion came with the territory of debunking in the 1970s, a profitable pastime for those who were sure they could carve out a niche for themselves amongst the audience of people who believe that what does not occur between their home and office cannot occur. The green glows reported in the Triangle are worth pursuing in the case of the Mariner since there is circumstantial evidence for them in the reports of greenish glows in the area. The mundane dismissal it was simply a fuel leak has none. A debunker may be able to open his gesture and implore his audience to believe him with “after all have you experienced anything like this?” Those who believe that life is not so bland can equally implore logic to their audience by simply recalling the facts—6 aircraft in one night: no trace, weird lights, a telegram from the missing, rumors of secret experiments: “Has anything like this night happened before or since?” Whose skepticism seems justified?
finally tried to get information on what might have happened that confusing night so long ago. They pursued the matter even to their congresswoman, Nita Lowey, and received in reply, on letterhead, a statement that all she could find out was that Flight 19 was associated with some at-sea experiment called the “Philadelphia Experiment.”
This has to be the biggest gaff and congressional letterhead, but it reveals that Lowey did try to probe into it, though was confronted only by governmental rumors since there was no project
The Mariner: a footnote with a big kick
