Nation IN BRIEF : FLORIDA : U.S. to Claim Planes of ‘Lost Squadron’

The U.S. government will lay claim to the remains of five Navy planes that were found earlier this month, a Justice Department spokesman said. What appear to be the wrecks of Flight 19--often called the “Lost Squadron” after vanishing on a training flight Dec. 5, 1945, in the Bermuda Triangle--were located by a high-tech salvage ship. Scientific Search Project, which found the five TBM Avengers planes just off Ft. Lauderdale, has filed a salvage claim in federal court in Miami. But Joe Krovisky, a Justice Department spokesman in Washington, said: “The government’s position is the planes have always been the property of the government. . . . “