Disappearance of US Navy Martin PBM-5 59225
United States Navy Martin PBM-5 Mariner · Unknown
From Banana River Naval Air Station, Florida, United States to Banana River Naval Air Station, Florida, United States
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 13 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
Martin PBM-5 Mariner
- Aircraft type
- Martin PBM-5
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- 59225
- Operator
- United States Navy
- Onboard fatalities
- 13
- Route
- From Banana River Naval Air Station, Florida, United StatesTo Banana River Naval Air Station, Florida, United States
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
The disappearance of US Navy Martin PBM-5 59225 occurred on a search flight of the United States Navy starting and ending at Banana River Naval Air Station on 5 December 1945. The Martin PBM-5 Mariner aircraft, which had itself set out to find the five TBF Avengers of Flight 19 that had disappeared that day, disappeared and presumably crashed. All 13 occupants of the aircraft were presumably killed.
Accident sequence
The aircraft took off from Banana River Naval Air Station at 19:27. At 19:30 a routine radio message was sent; this was the last contact with the aircraft.
At 19:50 the crew of the tanker SS Gaines Mills reported that they had observed an explosion in the sky. There had been flames 30 metres high, and the fire had continued on the water surface for 10 minutes. The ship's captain, Shona Stanley, later reported that shortly afterwards they had reached an oil slick on the sea and searched for survivors, but had found none. The escort carrier USS Solomons had lost radio contact with an aircraft at the same time and at the same position. Remains of the aircraft and its occupants were never found.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Verschwinden der Martin PBM-5 59225 der US Navy” (revision 252345813, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Verschwinden der Martin PBM-5 59225 der US Navy
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 252345813 · 2025-01-17 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q116303949
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Verschwinden der Martin PBM-5 59225 der US Navy" (page 12461538, revision 252345813), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.