Mystery on the Mon

To fly around the world spreading my mysterious story and to uncover the truth about what happened to me.

 


At 4:10PM on January 31st, 1956, a B-25 Mitchell Bomber headed from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada to Olmstead Air Force Base in Harrisburg, PA crashed into the Monongahela River (known to locals as the Mon) just outside of Pittsburgh, PA, just East of the Glenwood Bridge heading up-river. The Crew of 6 made it through the intial impact but only 4 survived the freezing Mon, 2 drowned in the cold water.  For 14 days the Army and Coast Guard searched in vain for the sunken bomber. No trace was ever found.

Local urban legends and conspiracy theories have developed ever since.  Many think the flight was carrying Mafia Money from Vegas, others think that the flight was carrying a UFO or even Howard Hughes. Some believe the flight was secretly recovered by the government and taken by rail to a local Steel Mill to be melted down for security reasons. There was also a report of locals claiming a 7th "mystery" airman that was pulled from the water.

In 1995, local businessmen calling themselves the B-25 Recovery Group decided to take up a project to get the plane out of the river. They mapped the river bottom in the area with side-scanning sonar and gathered information from local and governmental sources. They think it is buried approximately 150 feet off the left bank of the Mon, at Mile 4.9, at a place called Bird's landing. Due to lack of funds, the final raising of the aircraft was never completed.

 

A nice video of this story is availiable here: http://youtu.be/ch56Np4q8Gk