WWII Coast Guard Grumman Duck Crash Site Located After 70 Years

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The Defense Department's Joint POW/MIA Personnel Accounting Command said an exhaustive search by an expedition team of U.S. Coast Guard service members and North South Polar, Inc. (NSP) scientists and explorers has produced sufficient evidence that the crash site of a WWII Coast Guard Grumman Duck rescue aircraft missing for 70 years with three men aboard, beneath the ice near Koge Bay, Greenland, has been found, Coast Guard officials announced Monday.

 

 

“Locating the J2F-4 Grumman Duck was a monumental success,” said Cmdr. Jim Blow, from the U.S. Coast Guard Office of Aviation Forces. “Collectively, the Coast Guard and NSP accomplished what the Coast Guard set out to achieve in 2008 when efforts began to locate the Duck.”

 

By using historical information, ground penetrating radar, a magnetometer and metal detection equipment, the expedition team isolated the location where the aircrew crashed on Nov. 29, 1942. The team then melted five six-inch-wide holes deep into the ice and lowered a specially designed camera scope. At approximately 38 feet below the ice surface in the second hole, the team observed black cables consistent with wiring used in WWII-era J2F-4 amphibious Grumman aircraft.

 

Further analysis of video from the camera scope and photographs captured by a member of the expedition team revealed additional aircraft components similar to those found in the engine area of the J2F-4 Grumman Duck.

 

For nearly three years, Coast Guard and NSP have been working together on this project researching historical documentation about the last flight of U.S. Coast Guard Lt. John Pritchard, Petty Officer 1^st Class Benjamin Bottoms and U.S. Army Air Force Cpl. Loren Howarth aboard the Duck.

 

“The three men aboard this aircraft were heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country,” Blow added. “The story of the Grumman Duck reflects the history and the mission of the Coast Guard, and by finding the aircraft we have begun to repay our country’s debt to them.”

 

For more information on the crash and recovery of the Grumman Duck aircraft, please visit the USCG's website. http://www.uscgnews....-after-70-years

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From the USCG website:

 

 

 

 

Original caption: "THE TAKE OFF: The Coast Guard amphibian plane (J2F) has been put over the side, and Lieutenant John A. Pritchard, Jr. and Radioman Benjamin A. Bottoms, ready for the take-off, scan the Greenland icebergs over which they have spent so many hours of hazardous flying in their single-engine plane. They successfully rescued two of the U.S. Army fliers and met their death in an attempt to rescue the [sic] third flier."; no date; Photo No. (Rel. No.) 06-19-43 (03); photographer not listed.