Quote:
Originally Posted by SteamWake
I suppose its possible that one of them if not the leader doinked the PBM and it went from bad to worst.
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One thing comes to mind.
Rammstein airshow - frecce tricolori.
a single small jet plowed through a tight formation of other small jets of the same type causing the loss of 3 of the aircraft.
now
imagine a tightly grouped formation of TBMs... in a similar spread and formation size of the Frecce Tricolori chrash.
now, instead of plowing another TBM avenger through the formation, lets take an aircraft roughly 80 feet long, with a wingspan of almost 120 feet and plow it through the formation.
even if one Avenger bomber from flight 19 survived with light damage... he would have been flying a crippled aircraft in the dark, in less than ideal weather conditions, lost over rough seas... a sure recipe for disaster.
sure, the flight leader lost his situational awareness - possibly due to some equipment malfunctions. I further notice through research that not one of the aircraft in flight 19 was equipped with a functioning clock... an essential piece of navigational equipment.
things snowballed on the flight leader (who at one time placed another pilot in command of the flight) - this hints to me that they had finally talked him into heading west against all of his instinct.
unfortunately - and this is only my theory - but the flight headed west right into the point of collision with this PBM.
