WW2 pilot found in Papua NG

[aviate1138]

Extraordinary picture.


Skeleton hangs in Kokoda Track jungle - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) (http://www.abc.net.au/news/photos/2008/08/28/2348711.htm)


Wonder if it will be closure for a family if he is identified [tags etc]

[Dream Land]

Wow, what a picture, poor guy.

[TEEEJ]

'AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE MEDIA RELEASE

MSPA 287/08 Thursday, 4 September 2008

DISCOUNTED - KOKODA TRACK REPORT

Australian Defence Force staff from the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby today reached an isolated site on the Kokoda Track to check reports that the body of an airman was located in the jungle canopy.

No remains were located.

While the location, near Kagi, is below a flight path that was commonly used by allied aircraft during WWII sorties, the find has been confirmed by ADF staff as a moss covered branch.

It appears the branch has broken off the main tree and fallen across some vines, which from the ground, could have been confused with the body of an airman.'

TJ

[Zoom]

I have certainly met some airman who could be confused with trees.

[onetrack]

After a period of approximately 65 years .. anyone with even a modest amount of knowledge, would realise that it would be impossible for a body to still be intact.
Decomposition of body tissue sets in very rapidly .. and within days, bodies come to pieces .. and even more so, if wet. Within months, there is only a skeleton remaining, with bones detached from each other.
After a few years, the smaller bones have decayed, leaving only large bones. Add in feral predators, ants, and organisms that thrive on decaying bones .. and you only have a collection of fragments that tell you, there was once a body there.

The chances of finding ANY body remains in PNG nowadays, are so slim, I could practically wager a carton of booze that none will ever be found from this point on .. and safely keep the booze.

There MAY be found, remnants of body indications .. durable items such as dog tags .. items of clothing attachments such as insignia, and buttons .. but little else. To report a body intact hanging in a tree after 65 years is gross stupidity, and alarmism that rates up there with the fringe media.

I am reminded of the Vultee Vengeance crash, SE of Narembeen in Western Australia in August 1944. Lost in bad weather and low on fuel, P/O Allan Ingram and Navigator W/O Clyde King both baled out. P/O Ingram was later found by search crews, approximately 70 miles South of Southern Cross .. but not a trace of W/O King was ever found. All of this area overflown by the Vultee is now farmland .. it practically all has been cleared .. every acre/hectare worked over, walked over, and driven over .. on a regular basis .. and no-one has ever found, so much as even a bone.
Imagine the chances of finding remains in a jungle .. so inpenetrable in many places .. that you are in gloom on the ground at midday.

[StbdD]

While the original 'topic' of this thread is a crock, JPAC still recovers and identifies lost servicemen in such jungles….

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2008/Mar/24/br/hawaii80324024.html

[stevef]

I think there's a fair difference between bodies found above ground and those below it, as would occur after a high speed penetration for example. Some remains can be relatively well preserved, depending on the depth and soil constituency.

[B Fraser]

sorry to spoil a good story

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/04/2355921.htm?section=justin

best call the special investigation branch ;)

[FakePilot]

Good post onetrack.

[Union Jack]

Surely FakePilot's monniker says it all!:)

Jack

[barnstormer1968]

Why cannot this moss covered item be an allied pilot anyway?
I was always taught there were three branches in the British forces (excluding marines),
maybe this was one of them!:}

What an awful end to this pilot...broken limbs, and sapped of all energy. let's just leaf him in peace.

Barnstormer1968:E

(OK, so maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree here)

[aviate1138]

When I posted the thread I thought the 'pilot' looked a little wooden. What a sap
was I? :rolleyes:

I guess a higher resolution picture would have told the truth. And my one remaining brain cell
could have been more active!

That and the probability that the vegetation above had more than likely recycled itself anyway.

Doh!