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U.S. team to look for wreckage of planes

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: A team from the Pentagon has arrived here on an unusual mission – to locate the wreckage of 90 U.S. military aircraft believed to have crashed in the dense jungles of the North-East during World War II.

The planes were among the thousands that flew countless air sorties to China during the battle between the Allied and Axis forces. At least 430 airmen in these planes have been reported Missing in Action (MIA).

In all, the U.S. believes 1,365 of its servicemen are unaccounted for in the battle theatre of India-Myanmar-China during the war.

The team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, led by Rear Admiral Donna Crisp, met Defence Secretary Vijay Singh to seek the Indian military’s cooperation to reach the sites located in inaccessible terrain.

The U.S. military officer also renewed her appeal to civilians to report wreckage they have come across. “We will come back and review our requirements. We might need guidance from the Indian Army in high elevation climbing,” she said.

People in Arunachal Pradesh have reported the remains of six aircraft, positively identified as those belonging to the U.S. military.

A Pentagon team is expected to go to the sites during September-October this year in an attempt to locate the remains of the country’s service personnel and send samples back to its highly sophisticated forensic laboratory in the U.S..

The U.S. military has been scouring 11 countries for its 78,000 missing personnel during World War II of which the remains of 35,000 are deemed recoverable.

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