Univ. Of Delaware Scientist Helps Solve Mystery Of M.I.A.s
By Ukee Washington
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A University of Delaware marine researcher has helped solve a World War II mystery: a long-lost warplane, its crew missing in action, now one step closer to home. Eyewitness News anchor Ukee Washington met the man who helped solve the mystery of these M.I.A.s.
Deep under these blue waters is a graveyard, dozens of American warplanes and their crews lost in World War II off the coast of the Palau Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
The wrecks have been underwater for more than 70 years, gone but not forgotten. Volunteers and scientists are trying to find them. They call it the BentProp Project. Founder Pat Scannon spoke in a documentary.
"We believe there are 70 to 80 M.I.A.s potentially recoverable within the barrier reefs of Palau," Scannon said. "By finding them, we can both honor their sacrifice and answer questions that their families have never been able to get."
That Includes the family of the late Jimmy Doyle.
"Pat had been looking for my grandfather's specific B-24 for about a decade," said Casey Doyle, Jimmy Doyle's grandson. "In 2005, the aircraft was actually found, and I and my family are incredibly lucky."
Mark Moline and his team at the University of Delaware just returned from the latest BentProp search in April. They used an unmanned underwater robot to map the ocean floor using sonar.
"That pushes sound out and looks for reflecting sound coming back, just like a flashlight," Mark explained.
The scans look like the surface of Mars. These bumps could be coral or a piece of a plane.
"It's not just a plane sitting on the sea floor," especially over time, Moline said.
On this trip, one scan showed something casting a long shadow. "Doesn't look too much different than coral," Mark said. "So this shadow is actually what tipped us off."
Mark swam to check it out. He narrated video of the discovery: "So here I am, and here's Flip Colmer from the BentProp Project, and we just found a section of the aircraft underwater," Mark said. The men shared a high five underwater when they saw the long shadow was the propeller of a lost World War II Avenger plane.
"Describe for me the emotion when you laid eyes on it," asked Eyewitness News' Ukee Washington.
"You have a big regulator in your mouth and you have tanks on, and you want to scream but you can't," Mark chuckled. "It's that's kind of thing. It's pretty amazing."
Mark has a special connection to this history. His grandfather is the late Lt. Karl Olander, a U.S. Naval Reserve chaplain on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Princeton during the war. In his logbook, he wrote about the strike on Palau.
"There was one specific reference to an aircraft that left the carrier, and that plane never came back," Mark said. "He references his name and everything says he was a great guy."
One day, they hope to find everyone who has waited more than 70 years to come home.
The BentProp Project will report its findings to the Department of Defense, which will try to recover the remains of the crew, identify them, and notify their families.
For more on the BentProp Project, see them at www.bentprop.org