Suspected WWII US plane wreck found in India

EAST KAMENG: A trekker in India stumbled across the wreckage of a plane thought to be an American aircraft that crashed during operations to supply China’s army in World War II, officials said on Monday.

The wreckage was spotted earlier this month by T Bagang, 26, who had climbed to 14,000 feet in the forests of Arunachal Pradesh state’s East Kameng district, local administrator Tope Bam said.

The northeastern state, which borders China, was on the flight path used by US aircraft ferrying military supplies from hundreds of Indian airfields to Chinese forces who are trying to keep out invading Japanese soldiers.

“We have found four parts of human bones, one bullet and three aircraft pieces, and from a 1943 inscription on one of the pieces we suspect it to be an American wartime aircraft,” Bam told AFP.

He said the words “Black Hawk” were inscribed on one of the metal parts.

“We have not carried out a full search but we have informed the government,” he added.

An American B-24 bomber named “Hot As Hell” crashed into Arunachal Pradesh’s Siang district in 1944 and was first sighted by a US-based amateur investigator, Clayton Kuhles, in 2006.

Allied pilots flew the perilous route from April 1942 when the Japanese army cut off supply routes to China, and the operations continued until near the end of the war in 1945.

They ferried a total of about 650,000 tonnes of fuel, munitions and equipment over the eastern Himalayan mountains - which they nicknamed “The Hump” - to resupply the Chinese forces.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2010.