Banana River - Banana River

On December 5, 1945 at 07:50 PM, Banana River - Banana River experienced a crash involving Martin PBM Mariner, operated by United States Navy - USN, with the event recorded near Sargasso Sea All World.

The flight was categorized as survey / patrol / reconnaissance and the reported phase was flight at a lake, sea, ocean, river crash site.

13 people were known to be on board, 13 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 13, crew fatalities: 13, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The crew left Banana River NAS at 1927LT on a SAR mission, looking for five TBM Avenger that did not return to their base. Three minutes after departure, the contact was already lost. Twenty minutes later, while cruising at low height, the aircraft went out of control and crashed in a huge explosion into the Sargasso Sea, about 30 miles off New Smyrna, Bahamas. On site, the rescuers did not find any survivors among the 13 occupants.

Aircraft reference details include registration 59225.