Project Recover, an organization dedicated to locating downed war planes, recently documented two lost World War II bombers.
Project Recover, an organization dedicated to locating downed war planes and identifying the final resting places of those who went missing in action, recently documented two lost World War II bombers.
The B-25 planes went down in the waters off Papua New Guinea.
One, which was carrying six soldiers who have long been unaccounted for, was found during an extensive search of a roughly 3.8 square mile area.
Katy O'Connell, one of the project participants, noted, “People have this mental image of an airplane resting intact on the sea floor, but the reality is that most planes were often already damaged before crashing, or broke up upon impact. And, after soaking in the sea for decades, they are often unrecognizable to the untrained eye, often covered in corals and other sea-life. Our use of advanced technologies, which led to the discovery of the B-25, enables us to accelerate and enhance the discovery and eventual recovery of our missing servicemen."
The second downed bomber examined by the team was also carrying six soldiers. Five are known to have become prisoners of Japanese forces, while the sixth is still listed as missing.
According to Andrew Pietruszka, Project Recover's underwater archaeologist, once a site has been fully examined and documented, the information “can then be used by the U.S. government to correlate soldiers still missing in action with the aircraft site we discovered, and to evaluate that site for the possible recovery of remains."
