SAN DIEGO, May 26 (UPI) — A U.S. Navy TBM-1C Avenger torpedo bomber that was lost during World War II was found in the waters near the Pacific island nation of Palau more than 70 years after it was downed, researchers said.
The aircraft, missing since July 1944, was found concealed under the dense mangroves in the tropical waters, adding to the long list of wrecks found by Project Recover, a collaborative effort between 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. It is the sixth aircraft recovered through Project Recover.
“The importance of our mission is reinforced with each new discovery of a missing aircraft,” Eric Terrill, an oceanographer with Scripps Institution, said.
“But this is more than reconnecting with history. It’s about locating the missing to enable the U.S. government to bring them home for a proper burial. With potential recovery sites around the world, Project Recover and its team of researchers and volunteers are expanding to intensify its searches using modern science and technology.”
Located in the western Pacific, the Republic of Palau is spread across 250 islands, sharing borders with Indonesia, the Philippines and Micronesia. During World War II, the United States captured Palau from Japan, a mission that resulted in the highest death toll of any other amphibious assault in U.S. military history. Some 2,300 people were killed and more than 8,400 were wounded.
Project Recover did not disclose if any human remains were found in the sunken aircraft.
