Mission to find crashed Plane

[Luther Moore]

Hi Everyone,

I was doing some thinking and I have come up with an idea to travel to Papua New Guinea in search of My Great Uncle's crashed plane.

I have a basic rough idea of where he crashed but i'm hoping with some information I have so far that people could point me in the right direction or help me figure out if it's going to be impossible.

I know so far that he crashed in the sea, I'm hoping it wasn't to far out and to deep to dive. I'm also hoping there will still be anything left of the plane or I hope it hasn't drifted away.

Here is some basic information I have so far-

Pilot P/O Peter Moore, 4212771 (MIA / KIA) Auckland
Crashed May 31, 1945 at 11:30am. NZ5459 coded 459

Took off from Torokina Airfield on a bombing mission over Bonis. Over the Bonis peninsula, after releasing its bomb, this aircraft entered a dive turn after releasing its bomb and crashed into the sea and exploded on impact.
Crashed in the sea on the North East tip of Bonis.

Please any help or opinions will be greatly appreciated.

[Bruce]

First job is finding the Bonis Peninsula on Google Earth! As you will probably know its on the NW end of Bouganville, with the Buka Passage separating it from Buka Island. Looking at Google earth data, the sea floor near the village of Tapsanwara shelves reasonably gently and shallow for about 1.5km off the coast then plummets to nearly 500m deep. Whether you will find anything will depend greatly on how far off shore the aircraft crashed. Buka passage area will probably also have quite a number of wrecks in the area as there were numerous airfields and combat in the area. I don't think it would be a simple case of turning up and cruising the area with a sonar - you'll probably need to get the full combat report, unit records etc to narrow things down a bit first.

[errolmartyn]

According to the 'accident' card the crash place was '1000 yds off Ronis [sic] Peninsula.'

Best place to start, if you have not already done so, is to obtain a copy of the full file from National Archives. Their Archway site is down for maintenance at the moment but if you search under 'corsair nz5459' when it becomes available again that should lead you to the file reference.

Errol

[Luther Moore]

Thanks for the reply's.

I haven't done to much research on it yet. It was just an idea for now. Thanks for the information it will come in handy.

What are your thoughts on if I should search for it? Do you think it's going to be a lost cause?

[Dave Homewood]

I think before deciding if it is worthwhile or a lost cause you really need to get hold of the accident file, and look for eye witness accounts. It may have exploded in the air before the crash. Or if the water is shallow as Bruce tates and he went in in a dive then there's unlikely to be much left of it as it will possibly have buried into the sea floor. If it however went in on a more gentle angle there may be chance to find wreckage (this is unlikely as a gentle angle would usually mean he'd have a chance to escape alive). And don't forget that as it's under shallow tropical waters it will be covered in coral now most likely, and will be hard to spot and possibly not much left resembling an aeroplane. Also the possibility that currents and tropical storms have moved the wreck has to be considered.

[Luther Moore]

That's what I was thinking Dave. I wasn't sure if it would of been covered or drifted away. Sounds like it's a lost cause, it's a dam shame too.

I wont give up just yet I'll do some more research first.

Regardless it still will be a very interesting place to visit as I'm sure it's got a lot of WWII history left over.

Cheers.

[AussieBob]

There is a record in the Australian War Memorial cas.awm.gov.au/item/077696 of a photograph of NZ5459 in its flying days.
[/img]
The photo caption is;
BOUGAINVILLE ISLAND. 1944-12-23. LEADING AIRCRAFTMAN W. FISH AND LEADING AIRCRAFTMAN L.C. INGRAM SHOWING TROOPS OF THE 1ST INDIAN HEAVY ANTI-AIRCRAFT REGIMENT THE MECHANISM OF THE MACHINE GUNS FITTED IN THE WINGS OF A CHANCE-VOUGHT "CORSAIR" FIGHTER AIRCRAFT OF NO. 16 SQUADRON, ROYAL NEW ZEALAND AIR FORCE AT PIVA STRIP. THESE TROOPS WERE CAPTURED BY THE JAPANESE IN SINGAPORE IN FEBRUARY 1942. RECENTLY THEY EVADED THEIR GUARDS AND, WITH THE AID OF A FRIENDLY NATIVE MADE THEIR WAY TO THE AUSTRALIAN LINES.

Attachments:

[errolmartyn]

Sept 25, 2011 1:01:13 GMT 12 AussieBob said:

There is a record in the Australian War Memorial cas.awm.gov.au/item/077696 of a photograph of NZ5459 in its flying days.

[/img]
The photo caption is;
BOUGAINVILLE ISLAND. 1944-12-23. LEADING AIRCRAFTMAN W. FISH AND LEADING AIRCRAFTMAN L.C. INGRAM SHOWING TROOPS OF THE 1ST INDIAN HEAVY ANTI-AIRCRAFT REGIMENT THE MECHANISM OF THE MACHINE GUNS FITTED IN THE WINGS OF A CHANCE-VOUGHT "CORSAIR" FIGHTER AIRCRAFT OF NO. 16 SQUADRON, ROYAL NEW ZEALAND AIR FORCE AT PIVA STRIP. THESE TROOPS WERE CAPTURED BY THE JAPANESE IN SINGAPORE IN FEBRUARY 1942. RECENTLY THEY EVADED THEIR GUARDS AND, WITH THE AID OF A FRIENDLY NATIVE MADE THEIR WAY TO THE AUSTRALIAN LINES.[/quote]

The two RNZAF airmen mentioned will be:

NZ416710 Winston Fish, who enlisted 5 Dec 41 as a flight mechanic

NZ414804 Lawrence Charles Ingram, who enlisted 22 Aug 41 as a flight rigger

Errol

[Luther Moore]

Thanks AussieBob, that's great!

I'm wondering why it would be in the Australian War Memorial. Was it taken by an Aussie?