Search is on for WWII wreckage

JCFalkenbergIII · #1 (**permalink**) February 19th, 2008, 05:14 AM

Renewed interest ... a plane like the Douglas C-47 that went missing over Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea, in 1945.

Matthew Benns
February 17, 2008

AN AUSTRALIAN payroll plane that went missing at the end of World War II with 19 people on board might have been found in just 20 metres of water in Papua New Guinea.
Divers in Milne Bay have reported seeing the remains of a twin-engined plane in the exact same spot pinpointed by documents that were recently uncovered by an aviation historian in Canberra.
Now a diving boat skipper, who has found other plane wrecks in PNG waters, is planning an expedition to find the missing plane.
Historian Bob Piper said the RAAF Douglas C-47 took off from Gurney airstrip at Milne Bay just before 10am on September 11, 1945, with pilot Flight Lieutenant Eric Beer at the controls. It was bound for an airfield near Lae on the north coast.
On board were three crew and 16 passengers including Lieutenant Noel Williams, a former Commonwealth Bank employee carrying a payroll of more than £2000, the equivalent of $500,000 in today's money.
"The pay was all in paper money and would have been completely destroyed by the water by now," Mr Piper said. "It will be worth nothing. The money was to pay native labour in PNG who had finished working for the Allies."
Just minutes after taking off, the plane was engulfed by a tropical downpour and the pilot radioed that he was "returning and asked to be homed". That was the last anyone ever heard of the aircraft.
Aerial and ground searches found nothing. But the next day a village constable in a canoe found life jackets, cushions and oil floating on the surface of the water at Milne Bay.
Sixty-two years later, divers at Milne Bay reported seeing the shape of an aircraft at the same spot. Their reports coincided with the discovery of old paperwork by Mr Piper.
The information has been enough for diving boat skipper Rod Pearce to organise a search. He is already credited with finding an American B-17 bomber called Blackjack, which is one of PNG's most popular dive sites. "We won't start looking till about March, April May due to conditions, as we need perfect conditions," Pearce said.
Source: The Sun-Herald

Search is on for WWII wreckage - World - smh.com.au