South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • 30

SB FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2009 SUNSENTINEL.COM SUN SENTINEL 3B 1 miiirinniiiniiii -g-imfiaimir nniifn-rinriiiirifiiiiirj THE SCHEDULED FLIGHT PATH The bombers of Flight 19 left Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station at 2:10 p.m. for a routine training mission over the Bahamas. Lost Patrol ft i The last leg should have taken them back to the Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station. They should then have turned jt -j north and passed over Grand Bahama Island. I i DISAPPEARANCE OF FLIGHT 19 Great -J-v Abaca I .) i Grand Island -v.

Bahama 'V Fort Lauderdale On Dec. 5, 1945, 14 men flying five torpedo bombers vanished without a trace somewhere off Florida's coast They had enough fuel to remain aloft for 5V2 hours, but 90 minutes after takeoff squadron leader Lt. Charles C. Taylor radioed that they were lost. A few hours later they disappeared.

i '1 BERMUDA Grumman TBM Avenger These single-engine World War II bombers could be equipped to drop torpedoes or standard bombs. FLORIDA, They were to practice bombing at the Hen and Chicken Shoals, then continue' east for 67 miles. CUBA i The bombers yf were to fty east for 56 miles over the Atlantic Ocean. 50MIIES i PUERTO RICO Smaller facility without 24-hour service to be built By Susannah Bryan STAFF WRITER DAVIE Three years after rejecting plans for a 24-hour Walmart Superstore, Davie officials have agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the retail giant. "This was a very hard thing for everybody, but hopefully we can move on and have' some closure," Mayor Judy Paul said after a spirited debate Wednesday night.

Town leaders approved the deal, 3-2, with council members Michael Crowley and Susan Starkey dissenting. Initially, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. wanted to build a 24-hour superstore at Orange and University drives. The Arkansas-based retailer now plans to build a smaller, store with regular retail hours. Councilman Marlon Luis said a federal judge gave the town no choice.

"I'm not totally in love with this agreement, but a federal judge has said there will be a Walmart built there," Luis said. Neighbors have objected to the traffic, noise and lights they say will come with a Walmart store, regardless of size. But they seemed resigned to the inevitable. "At the end of the day, we're going to get a Walmart," Jerry Licari, president of the Rolling Hills homeowners association, before the meeting. The chain sued the town in August 2006, two months after the Town Council rejected its proposal for a superstore on the commercial-zoned property.

Wal-Mart officials have argued they have the right to build on the 36-acre parcel, based on a 1989 legal agreement. In March 2007, a Broward circuit judge ruled Davie had the right to keep the retailer from building. Wal-Mart appealed and a federal judge ordered mediation last year. Town officials want the 1989 agreement declared null and void once Wal-Mart builds on the property. Wal-Mart has not yet agreed to that condition.

Wal-Mart officials have said the store would generate at least $350,000 in annual property taxes for the town. Susannah Bryan can be reached at sebryanSunSentinel.com or 954-572-2077. Andros Island TIMELINE OF RADIO CONTACT WITH FLIGHT 19 7:27 A seaplane is dispatched to look for Flight 19. It crashes 13 minutes later with 13 men aboard. piOpjn.

3:40 4:00 4:45 5:07 5:16 6:07 6:37 I Planes take Taylor Taylor's Taylor turns Taylor Taylor. From this Flight 19's off from Fort reports he is transmissions northeast instructs reports: "We point, courses lastradid Lauderdale lost. Experts are fading. "Then we will flight to turn will fly 270 flown by call. An NavalAir thinkheis flynorthto eastforlO degreeswest Rightl9are unidentified Station.

somewhere make sure minutes, until we hit undetermined, crewman east of Grand we are not the beach or asks, "What Bahama over the Gulf run out of course are Island. i of Mexico." gas." we on?" Source: Naval Historical Center Photo: Navy SUN SENTINEL CEREMONY HONORS-'LOST PATROL' OF NAVY BOMBERS 64 years ago, 14 men on training mission vanished practice dropping bombs at a range in the Bahamas and to conduct a navigational exercised About 90 minutes after takeoff, the crew members reported that they were lost. Historians think the squadron became disoriented in bad weather and nighttime darkness and crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off Daytona Beach. The flight popularized the myth of the Bermuda Triangle, the area between Bermuda, Puerto Rico and Fort Lauderdale where boats and planes have mysteriously vanished. Ken Kaye can be reached at kkayeSun Sentinel.com or 954-572-2085.

the men who died on that day," said Allan McElhiney of Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, a historical association that stages the annual ceremony. "They had their lives ahead of them." Among the guests: Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler, former Mayor Jim Naugle, aviation historian Walt Houghton and two Navy officers who were at the air station the day Flight 19 took off, Lt. Jim Westfall and Lt. Dave White. Flight 19 remains one of the great aviation mysteries.

The bombers have never been found. The single-engine planes took off from what was then the Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station, planning to By Ken Kaye STAFF WRITER The five Navy torpedo bombers took off from Fort Lauderdale on a routine flight training mission and never returned. That was Dec. 5, 1945. On Saturday, 64 years later, a ceremony will be held to remember Flight 19, also known as the Lost Patrol, and the 14 men who perished.

Aviation, military and history buffs plan to gather at 1:30 p.m. at Navy Park, near the control tower on the west side of Fort Lauderdale-Holly-wood International Airport. "I think it's important to remember Family mourns man who died in jail cell Margate man held in son's abduction O'Neal holding cell by himself, police spokesman Detective David Jones said. O'Neal was due to be taken to Broward's Main Jail around midnight, Jones said. Instead, he tore a piece of cloth from his T-shirt and tied it around a grate in the cell door to hang himself at about 11 p.m., police said.

He was found hanging during a periodic check done every 15 to 20 minutes, Jones said. Paramedics arrived and pronounced him dead. An autopsy conducted Wednesday showed he died from "asphyxia due to hanging," the Broward Medical Examiner's Office said. A police report detailing O'Neal's arrest wasn't available Thursday, police said. Jones said police are looking into whether drugs or alcohol might have been involved.

O'Neal showed no suicidal tendencies and was compliant while in custody, Jones said. The holding cell is part of a decades-old building, and did not have surveillance video, Jones said. But in about six weeks, police intend to move to a facility equipped with such technology. Juan Ortega can be reached at or 954-356-4701. N.C.

O'Neal later moved to Broward, where he lived with his wife, Do-neen, and three children, ages 3 to 12, family said. On Tuesday, he worked his regular shift, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at An-' derson's Auto Services, where he was an employee since January, said the repair shop's owner, Andy Anderson. Nothing seemed wrong with O'Neal, he said. "He was a fantastic technician who did his job well," Anderson said.

But at about 9:45 p.m., police arrested O'Neal at Palm Garden apartments, a complex adjacent to Anderson's Auto in the 2700 block of North Andrews Avenue. Residents accused him of yelling racial obscenities, beating on their doors and challenging people to fight, police said. Cleevens Frederic, 34, a witness, said the man was belligerent and may have been upset over someone asking him to leave an apartment. "He was chasing everybody," Frederic said. "He was saying obscene language, and people were telling him to leave the premises." O'Neal was charged with disorderly conduct and taken to the police station, where he was placed in a Wilton Manors police say he hung himself shortly after his arrest By Juan Ortega STAFF WRITER When he wasn't at work repairing cars, Gary O'Neal often was home, spending time with his wife of 18 years and his three children, family members said.

His family on Thursday was coping with the 43-year-old Tamarac man's death after Wilton Manors police say he committed suicide at their police station Tuesday night. "He was very loving," said O'Neal's mother-in-law, Fran Bambino, who lived with O'Neal's family in a tan, barrel-tiled home in the Lake Colony subdivision. "He rode his bicycle all the time with his kids." O'Neal's father served in the Air Force, rising to colonel, requiring his family to move often. They traveled to Spain and New York before settling in Satellite Beach, a beachside town in Brevard County near Patrick Air Force Base, said O'Neal brother-irMlaw, Mike Amos, 46, of Charlotte, By Juan Ortega STAFF WRITER. A Margate man accused of abducting his 2-year-old son and fleeing with him to Puerto Rico has been arrested, police said Thursday.

Officials in Puerto Rico took Urbano Pineda into custody this week. He is charged with violating a court-ordered custody agreement, which prohibited him from leaving South Florida with his son, said Margate Police Detective Efrain Suarez. The 2-year-old, Cedrick Pineda, is temporarily in the care of his grandmother, who lives in Puerto Rico, Suarez said. The boy was expected to be reunited soon with his mother, Sasha Vega, in South Florida, Suarez said. "He's safe, and he's in good condition," Suarez said.

Suarez said Pineda will be extradited to Broward..