Wreckage of WWII plane found with pilot's remains

A team of divers discovered the body of a pilot while excavating the remains of a plane shot down during World War II, in 1944, in the Pacific. The wreckage was found near the island of Ngerekebesang, which belongs to the Republic of Palau.

Exploration and extraction work was carried out in the recreational limit, down to a depth of 30 metres. For about two months, twelve hours each day. During the mission many other aircraft wrecks were discovered, shot down in the area during the fighting in 1944.

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[blockquote style=”2″]”It was a very time-consuming job and the teams spent a lot of time on the bottom, making the operation a success,” said Lieutenant Commander Tim Edge an officer in the US 7th Fleet.”[/blockquote]

The next stage will be work to identify the remains and locate and notify the family of the downed pilot.

The project is led by DPAA – the US Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the government agency responsible for searching for prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action.

The search team included divers from the ground forces, air force, navy and Department of Defense, and the base of operations was the USNS search and rescue ship “Salvor”, equipped with, among other things, a decompression chamber and a 40-ton crane.

The DPAA conducts global search, recovery and laboratory work to locate personnel missing in combat, and its mission is to provide families and the American people with the fullest possible information about the fate of the missing.

Source: US Navy/DPAA

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