Maritime Mystery: New Search for Missing American Aeroplane in Australian Waters

A new expedition has been launched to find a missing American aeroplane in Australia's northern waters, more than 80 years after it crashed, killing over a dozen men.

The search is part of a series of expeditions aimed at finding thousands of unrecorded shipwrecks and sunken planes in Australian waters, many of which contain human remains.

Search for the Liberator

The latest search was funded by the US Department of Defense, in a bid to recover the remains of soldiers killed when a US Liberator plane was shot down by Japanese fighter planes near Broome in 1942.

Sergeant Fred Foster, from Arkansas, was among an unknown number of American soldiers killed when the Liberator aircraft was shot down.

"It's a bit of needle in a haystack kind of scenario," says maritime archaeologist Jane Mitchell, who led the expedition.

"We didn't find it this time, but we've been able to rule out an area of about 15 square kilometres, so in that sense, no result is still a result."

"[The crash] is still in living memory and there are families wanting to know what happened to their loved one, so it's an honour to have the opportunity to try to answer some of those questions."

Thousands of wrecks

More than 11,000 boat and plane wrecks lie in Australian waters, but only about one-quarter of them have been located.

Some are boats sunk hundreds of years ago, such as Makassan and Dutch vessels.

Others are aeroplanes shot down in wartime, navy boats sunk in battle, or luxury liners such as the SS Koombana, which sank, killing 150 people.

"We've really seen in the last 10 years how technology has come along, and suddenly it's making these sites much more accessible," says maritime archaeologist Ross Anderson.

"Along with increased seabed mapping, I think we're going to see a peak and a rise in new discoveries."

A global search

The most recent search for the Liberator was commissioned by the US Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which oversees a database of more than 80,000 defence personnel whose bodies have not been recovered.

The agency's historian Dan Kosasa says about 280 of those are believed to have died in Australian territory.

"Recovering the remains of our missing personnel and returning them to their families is our agency's mission, and we go to exceptional lengths to accomplish this mission," he says.

"Just recently, the agency learnt of a lead in which some personnel working at a navy yard in Australia during the war may have discovered American remains in the wreckage of a vessel they were repairing and buried them without notifying the US government."

Amateur enthusiasts

Helping solve the maritime mysteries are amateur enthusiasts such as Jim Miles.

The retired military pilot has been searching for the Broome Liberator wreck for 15 years, towing a side-scan sonar from his catamaran to scour the sea floor.

"It's hard to believe that all around Australia there are still these missing wrecks," he says.

"Finding them is a bit of drug, to be honest."

"And finding this Liberator is, for me, the Holy Grail."

A spiritual moment

Pinpointing an underwater grave requires historical detective work, involving flight manifests, black-and-white photos, tidal charts and witness testimony.

"When you find a wreck and descend down knowing no-one's seen it since 1942 or whenever … it's a really spiritual moment," Mr Miles says.

"It's always on your mind that you're looking for a site where potentially a lot of people died, and there are families waiting to learn of a final resting place."

'Leave no-one behind'

It's likely human remains could still be recovered from the Liberator wreckage once it's found.

"It's a sensitive subject, but human remains that are buried in the seabed can be well-preserved," says Dr Anderson.

"It's always a paramount thing to locate personnel, and lay them to rest and respect their sacrifice."