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Archaeological divers have recover human remains from the wreck of a U.S. bomber that crash near the Mediterranean island of Malta in May 1943 .
Scientific analytic thinking by theDefense POW / MIA Accounting Agency(DPAA ) has confirm the cadaver are those of U.S. Army Air Forces ( USAAF ) Sgt . Irving R. Newman , who was 22 long time erstwhile when the aircraft — a B-24 Liberator based in Libya — suffer engine trouble and was hit by anti - aircraft fire during a bombing raid over the southerly tip of Italy .
Divers have recovered human remains from the wreck of an American B-24 Liberator bomber that crashed into the sea near Malta in May 1943.
The poor boy then attempt to make Malta — an emergency landing internet site for Allied aircraft in trouble — but the aircraft lose power as it approach the island . Nine of the poor boy ’s work party pull round the crash landing on the piddle ’s open . They sample to rescue Newman , who had been injured by anti - aircraft fervency , but the aircraft sink after a few minutes , take Newman with it .
The wreck now lie about a naut mi ( 1.6 kilometers ) off Malta ’s southernmost point , about 190 feet ( 58 meter ) beneath the body of water ’s aerofoil .
Although the first dives to the wreck were made in 2018 , Newman ’s remains were not go back until this June , Timmy Gambin , a maritime archeologist at the University of Malta who led the dive recovery team , told Live Science .
The bomber wreck was located in 2016 but it’s taken archaeological divers from the University of Malta several years to excavate it and recover the remains.
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Deep dive
The University of Malta ’s maritime archaeology research program come out looking for the submersed bomber wreck in 2015 , follow reports that the aircraft had crashed there in 1943 .
The team located the wreck in 2016 using side - scan asdic , which make an trope of the seafloor . It was then map with asdic on an sovereign underwater fomite , and photogrammetric images were used tocreate a elaborate 3D manakin .
The site is recondite for scuba divers , so the convalescence team maximized their fourth dimension by using breathing gases with more helium and oxygen than normal and " rebreather " technology — equipment that suck up C dioxide and reuse other gases . But even with these measuring rod they were limited to lick just 45 minute a day on the crash , and the excavation to recover Newman ’s remains take two months of diving event — one in 2022 and another in 2023 , Gambin articulate .
The American bomber suffered engine trouble during a raid over occupied southern Italy in May 1943. It was then damaged by anti-aircraft fire and the crew hoped to make an emergency landing at Malta.
Newman had been a gunner on the submarine sandwich , and the excavation of his cadaver was " very thought-provoking because of the ragged boundary and the fluid nature of the site , " he allege .
American bomber
The divers also recovered a 50 - mm simple machine gunman and other artifacts , but " the main aim of the labor was to site and regain the missing flyer , " Gambin tell .
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Nine of the bomber crew survived a crash landing on the surface of the sea near Malta, but another was trapped when the aircraft sank a few minutes later.
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During World War II , more B-24 Liberators were manufactured than any other American hoagy — more than 18,000 by the war ’s remnant . The first was produced in 1941 , and they were used extensively in bombardment raid over Europe . Many B-24s were given cognomen — Hollywood actorJimmy Stewart piloted one dub " Male Call " — but the Liberator that crashed near Malta does n’t seem to have had a sobriquet .
Malta ’s waters are strewn withshipwrecks of every kind and from every age , but the B-24 Liberator wreck stands out .
More B-24 Liberators were produced than any other bomber in World War II. More than 18,000 had been built by the end of the war.
" To have a USAAF poor boy in Maltese waters is very strange because these never flew out of Malta ’s flying field , " Gambin aver . " However , we are very glad that we did find it and chip in to allow for block for Sergeant Newman ’s family . "
