WWII American Aircraft Found in Pacific

An American aircraft, a TBM-1C Avenger, missing since July 1944, was recently located by Project RECOVER in the waters surrounding the Pacific Island nation of Palau.

Project RECOVER is a public-private partnership to enlist 21st century science and technology combined with in-depth archival and historical research in a quest to find the final underwater resting places of Americans missing in action since World War II.

Established in 2012 with initial support from the Office of Naval Research and now private funding, Project RECOVER is a partnership among researchers at 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.

Upon locating this TBM-1C Avenger and other U.S. aircraft, Project RECOVER provides detailed information about discovered wrecks and possible links to airmen listed as missing in action to the Department of Defense’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). DPAA is tasked with recovery and repatriation efforts, including notification of the families of these MIAs.

“The importance of our mission is reinforced with each new discovery of a missing aircraft,” said Eric Terrill, an oceanographer from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego. “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.”