US begins new search for plane shot down near Broome in 1942 — ABC News Australia
The US government has launched a new search mission in northern Australian waters to find a US Liberator aircraft shot down by Japanese fighters near the town of Broome in 1942. The expedition aims to locate the crash site and, if possible, recover the remains of US service members who died in the crash, ABC News Australia reports.
Search near Broome
The aircraft was shot down in March 1942, seven minutes after takeoff. On board were wounded and sick US military personnel being evacuated from Java to Australia. The exact list of people on board is unknown, but available data indicate that at least 20 people died.
One serviceman survived: Sergeant Melvin Donoho reached shore after 33 hours in the water. Two days after the crash, he arrived at the air base in Broome exhausted, sunburned and close to collapse.
Marine archaeologist Jane Mitchell, who led the latest expedition, said the aircraft could not be found. However, researchers ruled out around 15 square kilometers of seabed from the search area. According to searchers, the wreckage may be located within about 20 kilometers of Broome.
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Military and volunteers
The search operation was funded by the US Department of Defense. It was commissioned by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which maintains a database of more than 80,000 service members whose remains have not been recovered. According to the agency's historian Dan Kosasa, about 280 of them may have died in Australia.
Local enthusiasts are also taking part in the search. Retired military pilot Jim Miles has been searching for the Liberator for 15 years using a side-scan sonar towed behind his catamaran. In 2014, Miles and his partner Dion Marinis found the crash site of another US aircraft, a Beaufighter, also shot down during the Japanese attack on Broome.
Thousands of undiscovered crash sites
According to the cited data, Australian waters contain more than 11,000 sunken ships and aircraft, but only about a quarter of them have been located. Geoscience Australia reports that 39% of Australia's 14 million square kilometers of seabed has been mapped.
Researchers expect that technological advances and expanded seabed mapping will contribute to new discoveries. At the same time, searching for deep-sea objects remains expensive and dangerous. The US agency holds monthly meetings with Australian Defence Force units working on historic unrecovered war losses to exchange data and discuss new evidence.
