A B-24 D-1 bomber associated with 11 American servicemen missing in action from World War II was recently found and documented in Hansa Bay off Papua New Guinea by Project Recover—a collaborative team of marine scientists, archaeologists and volunteers who have combined efforts to locate aircraft associated with MIAs from WWII.
The crew of “Heaven Can Wait” was part of the 320th squadron of the “Jolly Rogers” 90th Bombardment Group and was on a mission to bomb Japanese anti-aircraft batteries around Hansa Bay on March 11, 1944 when their B-24 was shot down by enemy fire causing it to crash into the ocean. The crew had arrived in Papua New Guinea just four months prior to join the Pacific theater of combat against the Japanese during WWII.
Present-day Papua New Guinea was the site of military action in the Pacific from January 1942 to the end of the war in August 1945, with significant losses of aircraft and servicemen.
Project Recover set its sights on finding “Heaven Can Wait” after being presented with four years of research on circumstances of the crash, compiled by family members of one the B-24 crew members seeking closure for their lost relative. These data included historical eyewitness narratives from official military reports, mission documents, and diary entries from crew members on other aircraft in formation with the B-24 during its flight. Continue reading
[The following video report was produced by Project Recover. It includes historic video along with the discovery of the “Heaven Can Wait” wreckage]
Established in 2012 with initial support from the Office of Naval Research and formalized in 2016 with private funding, Project Recover is a partnership among researchers at the University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, and The BentProp Project, Limited.[/vc_message]
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