(click for larger image)

Artist’s depiction of the five lost TBM Torpedo Bombers

The so-called "Lost Squadron", Flight 19, departed at about 2:10 P.M. from the U.S.  Naval Air Station, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They were on an authorized overwater navigational training flight. A radio message intercepted at about 4 P.M. that
afternoon was the first indication that Flight 19 was lost. They were never heard
from again. A PBM patrol plan was launched at approximately 7:30 P.M to search
for the missing squadron, but this aircraft was never seen nor heard from after it
took-off. Flight 19 remains one of the great aviation mysteries of the Bermuda
Triangle.

The Martin PBM Mariner seaplane

Flight 19’s scheduled navigation exercise

Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is a Congressionally chartered, volunteer, federally supported
non-profit organization that serves as the official civilian auxiliary of the United States
Air Force. The CAP was created with Administrative Order 9, signed by New York
Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia. Major General John F. Curry was appointed as the
first national commander. 

Major General John F. Curry

Civil Air Patrol Cessna T182T

Apollo 12 Command Module Yankee Clipper on display at the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton, Virginia

The Yankee Clipper returned to Earth at 3:58pm EST, in the Pacific Ocean, about 
500 nautical miles east of American Samoa.  After recovery by the USS Hornet,
they were flown to Pago Pago International Airport in Tafuna for a reception,
before being flown on a C-141 cargo plane to Honolulu.

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. 

Gordon is a Canadian born singer-songwriter who achieved international success
in folk, folk-rock, and country music. He has been credited for helping define the
folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s and is referred to as Canada‘s greatest
songwriter and internationally as a folk-rock legend.

Lightfoot composed the song in 1964, supposedly inspired
by seeing off a friend at the Los Angeles airport.