“Don’t come after me … They look like they are from outer space.”

Missing aircraft, pilots and crews are of special concern to the military when no explanations fit the usual reasons outside of combat. One such incident is the disappearance of a flight of five U.S. Navy TBM-3 Avenger torpedo bombers from NAS Fort Lauderdale on 5 December 1945. While no explanation as to why navigation instruments on all five aircraft could have failed at the same time, and efforts to rescue the 14 crewmen were unsuccessful, it is believed that Flight 19 encountered a phenomenon of celestial nature. The last known radio transmission from the instructor pilot was heard by a ham operator,

“Don’t come after me … They look like they are from outer space. … I’m at 2,300 feet. Don’t come after me.” After one of the most intensive air-sea rescue operations in U.S. naval history, the Naval board of Inquiry said, “We were not able to make even a good guess as to what happened.”

Taken from MAJESTIC TWELVE document, typed “Majestic12” document, The Annual Report of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, submitted to President Truman in the late summer of 1952.