Photo By Master Sgt. Jocelyn Ford | U.S. Army Sgt. James Bedillion, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) explosive...... read more read more
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HONOLULU, Hawaii – It was late morning July 20, 1944, when a bomber escort team of P-38 aircraft were returning to Vencenzo, Italy, from the target in Germany. One pilot pulled away from the formation, last seen slumped over his controls before spiraling down below the clouds.
More than 60 years later, a man came across a crash site by chance. Ronland Domanig, whose hobby is in aviation and the history of aviation, was researching a crash of a P-24 aircraft in northern Italy. When asking witnesses about the P-24 he was informed by many that this aircraft was never seen, however there was a crash on the mountain.
“Of course, if you are a friend of aviation you are interested in this crash site as well,” said Domanig. “I started to interview people about this crash site and I found out that there is no real knowledge on this crash site.”
The owner of a local hotel escorted Domanig to a crater in the mountain side.
“I found parts of aluminum, parts of the engine - little parts of the engine, rubber, and so on,” said Domanig. “And from this moment we were sure this is a crash site and it’s our task and duty to find out what happened here.”
It wasn’t until he conducted more interviews and obtained a diary from a priest’s house, that he was able to determine that this crash site was from July 1944. Being familiar with many aircraft, the special aluminum and English inscriptions led him to conclude that he was dealing with an American plane.
“I very soon found that it must be an American plane,” said Domanig. “By numbers on the parts we could approach the lightening, to the American plane P-38.”
After many years of doing his own research, completing forms stating he had a known location of a crash site, and even working with connections at the University of Innsbruck’s DNA laboratory, he received an email from a friend stating that a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) team was in the area researching crash sites.
In 2015 a small dig team arrived to break ground and start excavating the area. One year later a second team arrived to continue the search.
“I was interested in how this search would go on,” said Domanig. “I was surprised really that a second team was announced to come here with more people, with more diggers and a bigger team.”
Nine members of DPAA continued the work started the year before. Every day they dug, they screened, and they remained vigilant and hopeful to recover something identifying to an American pilot.
“The team is very diligent and really admire them for their work,” said Domanig.
He continued to tell how they worked with heart with a will to be successful.
| Date Taken: | 12.02.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 12.05.2016 16:52 |
| Story ID: | 216279 |
| Location: | HONOLULU, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 27 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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