When you purchase through links on our web site , we may gain an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it work .
Three WWII aircraft that were shoot down during a decisive U.S. victory in the Pacific Ocean were missing for decades . Now , 76 years later , they have been found .
A retrieval operation discovered opus of the long - lost planes at the bottom of Truk Lagoon in Chuuk State , part of the Federated States of Micronesia .
Punched holes in a panel from an SBD-5 Dauntless dive bomber are visible in wreckage resting on the floor of Truk Lagoon near the main debris site.
Hundreds of U.S. aircraft establish from toter on Feb. 17 , 1944 , during " Operation Hailstone , " pommel a Nipponese naval base in Truk Lagoon that was so well bastioned it was known as " the Gibraltar of the Pacific,“representatives of the retrieval expedition enunciate in a argument .
When the smoking from the two - day battle cleared , more than 250 Nipponese aircraft and nearly 50 ships were destroyed . But 30 American aircraft were also turn a loss , along with 23 aviators and crewmen . The three planes that were recovered go undetected until 2019 , even though the spot is a popular finish for diver , according to the statement .
relate : The 20 most mysterious shipwrecks ever
U.S. Navy Grumman Avengers torpedo bombers flying from the USS Intrepid in 1944.
The missionary work to retrieve the plane was led by scientists and military volunteer withProject Recover , a partnership between researchers at the University of Delaware ; Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego ; and the BentProp Project , a secret arrangement of divers , aeronaut and historiographer dedicated to finding WWII service members missing in military action in the South Pacific . Since 2012 , Project Recover has channel underwater search for missing U.S. military craft and personnel , combine data from official records , eyewitness accounting and underwater hunting technologies such as sonar , thermal cameras and diving robots , fit in to the project ’s website .
Launched from the American aircraft carriers USS Enterprise and USS Intrepid during Operation Hailstone , two Dauntless dive bombers and one Avenger torpedo hero sandwich were among the miss U.S. planes . Researchers suspected that the planes sank in Truk Lagoon based on consultation with Chuuk island-dweller , prescribed reports and memoirs from survivor of the battle , enunciate Colin Colbourn , lead historian with Project Recover .
One lucky objet d’art of information come from a U.S. serviceman — an plane machine gunner in Operation Hailstone — who mentioned in a memoir that he visualise one of the Dauntless dive wedge struck just as he was firing at a Nipponese transport ship , which also sank . The historiographer quickly substantiate that pinpointing the location of that recessed ship could lead them to the wreckage of the lost bomber , Colbourn told Live Science .
A coral-covered propeller of an SBD-5 Dauntless dive bomber rests on the sand in Truk Lagoon.
" We were able to line up this piece of the puzzle with this other piece of the teaser , in ordination to say , ' OK , rent ’s sharpen our search around this ship . ' And that was actually where we terminate up finding this airplane , " Colbourn said .
Underwater surveys , conducted by Project Recover from April 2018 through December 2019 , covered near to 27 square miles ( 70 square kilometers ) of the sea bottom in Truk Lagoon . Sonar scans distinguish possible airplane debris , which the scientists then investigated more closely by deploy divers and robots fit with high - definition camera . They bump debris fields with cadaver of the three aircraft at depths from 100 feet to 215 infantry ( 31 to 66 time ) , according to the statement .
Diving destination
Many of the liberal Japanese ships — rock oil tankers and merchandiser vessel measure hundreds of human foot long — that were fall off in Truk Lagoon in 1944 have since become overgrown with coral and are now democratic destinations for divers to inflict .
" The holds of some of these ship are really filled with Japanese airplanes and trucks , " said Colbourn . " These are awing places to go scuba diving . "
By comparison , airplanes that break-dance into fragments are n’t inevitably recognizable to unpaid divers , which could explicate why the miss planes — or what was leave alone of them — were overlook for so long , Colbourn explained .
As for the crewmen who were aboard the planes , there ’s " a high likelihood " that entire cadaver could be found inside the wreckage , particularly in the case of the TBM / F-1 Avenger numbfish bomber , in which two bunch members " were moderately much locked inside the back of the plane , " Colbourn say .
Now that the crash sites have been locate , archaeologically survey and mapped , Project Recover will turn its data over to the U.S. Department of Defense ’s Defense POW / MIA Accounting Agency , Colbourn explain . The federal agency will then evaluate the sites for the possible convalescence and designation of any clay .
" We wo n’t have a go at it until that recovery really hap , whether anyone is still inside the aircraft . But from our experience , I ’d say that there is a very good chance that that is the case , " Colbourn suppose .
Originally publish onLive Science .
OFFER : Save at least 53 % with our latest magazine deal !
With impressive cutaway drawing illustrations that show how thing operate , and mindblowing photography of the world ’s most inspiring eyeglasses , How It Worksrepresents the pinnacle of engaging , factual merriment for a mainstream consultation knifelike to keep up with the latest tech and the most telling phenomena on the planet and beyond . write and presented in a dash that hold even the most complex subjects interesting and leisurely to understand , How It Worksis enjoyed by readers of all ages .
