Case file · Anomaly hotspot
C-119 Flying Boxcar lost near Grand Turk
On 5 June 1965 a US Air Force C-119 cargo plane with ten aboard, flying from Homestead, Florida, to Grand Turk, vanished in its last stretch. No wreckage was found.
1965 CE · 21.47, -71.14 · status: unexplained
The account
It is a staple of Bermuda Triangle books, sometimes with claims of odd radio messages.
The sceptical view
Aircraft lost over deep water often leave no recoverable debris; the Air Force suspected a structural or engine failure.
The researched reading
A real military aircraft loss at night over deep Caribbean water. Mechanical failure or weather explains it well; only the missing wreckage keeps it open.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Something known, misidentified | 40% | C-119G 51-2680 left Homestead at night to carry mechanics to a C-119 stranded at Grand Turk with engine trouble; the type had a long record of engine and propeller failures, and a ditching at night over deep water explains a loss with no airframe recovered. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 30% | Its last call came just north of Crooked Island, about 177 miles from Grand Turk; night thunderstorms in early June and very deep water there make both a weather-related crash and a failure to find wreckage ordinary. Some floating items found near Acklins Island in August may have come from the plane. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 10% | The loss became “mysterious” mainly by being listed among Bermuda Triangle incidents, a framing that turns unsolved accidents into a pattern. |
| Undetermined | 6% | The share a generic explanation had beyond what has been shown for this case: it fits many cases like this one, but has not been demonstrated for this one. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 5% | Later retellings add details such as cut-off radio messages that are not in the accident record. |
| Secret human technology | 4% | A military flight near Cuba in 1965 invites talk of hostile action, but no evidence of a shoot-down exists. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 3% | No unusual natural event is needed for a night loss over the sea. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 2% | Nothing in the record points beyond an unexplained crash at sea. |
Official position: The US Air Force searched for several days, found no confirmed wreckage, and declared the aircraft and crew lost; the cause was never determined.