American Notes BERMUDA TRIANGLE

When a cluster of five Navy Avenger planes was found off the coast of Fort Lauderdale last month, salvage experts were sure they had at last found Flight 19. Known as the Lost Squadron, its disappearance in 1945 had helped launch the legend of the Bermuda Triangle. Preliminary evidence seemed to support the experts' conclusion: the identifying numbers of two of the planes were the same, as was the number of downed aircraft.

But in a surprise about-face last week, high-tech salvagers who found the planes announced they were not the Lost Squadron after all. They appeared to be five separate aircraft that had crashed within 1 1/2 miles of each other on individual training missions. Still, Graham Hawkes, who headed the search, resisted the legend of the Triangle. "I don't know where Flight 19 is," he said. "But it's certainly in the ocean and not up with the aliens anywhere."