As we continue to follow the fate of the aircraft and crew, new developments keep coming in which add flavor to the tale.
For example the student pilot in the left seat who survived the crash also survived the war (and other training exercises). He died in San Diego in 2001. Born in 1918, he would have been 100 years old this year.
And here's an interesting kicker; the instructor pilot, Douglas Thornburg, who also bailed out and survived, was killed only 25 days later on a search and rescue mission around the Channel Islands west of Santa Barbara (can you belive it... looking for two crew who bailed out of ANOTHER B-24 that ditched!). Again, he had two student pilots running the ship but against orders it descended into the overcast and crashed on San Miguel Island. See the full story on www.california.rural.blogspot.com.
I continue to seek descendants of the crew as well as local witnesses who may have souvenirs of the crash to establish for certain that it was OUR B-24E, tail number 42-7119 (for example, the manufacturer was Consolidated in San Diego and they stamped "32" on most parts).
Please call me if you have any parts or stories about this aircraft. A great many local residents scoured the wreck for them and I would like to put together a museum exhibit of this incident with provable artifacts.
Editor
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