Aircraft History
Assigned to the 360th Service Group, CRTC School. Engines: R-1830-65 Serial Numbers BP-433062, BP-433157, 42-44211, BP-432769. Machine gun serial numbers were not recorded.

Mission History
Took off from Nadzab Airfield at 8:00 on a training mission to bomb But Airfield flying in the first squadron, sixth position. Last sighted near Gusap at 9:00am, seen to turn left into a cloud bank where mountain peaks were impossible to fly over at his altitude of 5,500', and failed to rejoin the bomber formation.

Search
At noon, a B-25 and B-24 #544 piloted by Lt Palmer flew a search mission for this bomber, but found nothing. The next day, six B-25s also searched the Markham Valley, but found nothing.

Wreckage
Crashed near Kassam Pass, 2-3 km into the jungle on the north side (Goroka side) of the nearest road.

This site was visited by US Army CILHI and remains recovered during April 1979. A second recovery mission happened during October 1980.

References
ABMC does not list all crew members of this aircraft, only Wilson, Irvine, Gibson and Hamric.
ABMC lists Gibson and Hamric are listed as "remains recovered".

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Last Updated
November 21, 2009

B-24

6.13 146.01