What happened to the a/c? Salvaged or abandoned?
Selected extracts from Sniffing and Bottling but best buy the book for the full and I must say the exciting story. the book is a steal at $7 via
Self Publishing, Book Printing and Publishing Online - Lulu
Edited extracts:' The island was 3.5 miles long and 200 yards wide covered in coconut palms and dense vegetation to the waters edge. A narrow beach running down one side. The pilot elected a landing on the beach wheels down rather than wheels up. The beach turned out to be a mud covered shelf of coral under shallow water. A successful landing was made with only cuts to the tyres and spray damage to the flaps.
The island was Bigatyelang part of Ailinglaplap Atoll and approx. 115 miles SE of the destination Kwajalein. A few hours after landing the pilot started up the Canberra and taxied closer to the palm trees in an attempt to get the aircraft further away from the sea. It was low tide.
After the final shut down the crew fitted the intake covers to preserve the engines from spray damage. A party of islanders one of whom spoke English, arrived by outrigger canoe and the head man of the party agreed to send a note to Kwajalein via a copra boat which fortuitously was making its thrice a year visits to the islands.
Word of the ditching reached Kwajalein on 12 March and the US Duty officer was given a grubby sweat stained scrap of paper on which were the pencilled words "We're down but safe come and get us" A US Navy PBM-5A Mariner amphibious SAR aircraft took off at first light to inspect the Canberra and retrieve the crew. The sea was heavy and it took three attempts before the amphibian was able to land in the lagoon. The Canberra crew were signalled by Aldis lamp to paddle out to the amphibian in the islanders outrigger canoe.
Two aircrew from the Canberra were seen to strip to their underwear and wade through the breakers into the lagoon intending to swim to the rescue aircraft. This was extremely risky due to the likelihood of sharks and the amphibian crew tried to wave them back. A rope was let out to recover the pair.
20 days later a salvage operation was mounted to recover the Canberra. Inspection showed the Canberra was extensively corroded by salt water and damaged beyond repair. At high tide the surf had reached a third of the way up the fuselage. The engines were removed and the entire aircraft dragged over the coral reef by ropes from the salvage vessel.
It was dragged into deep water to be sunk. The Canberra proved unexpectedly buoyant and refused to sink even when subject to small-arms and 20mm cannon fire, the latter starting a small fire in the No 1 fuel tank.
The Canberra continued to float even after being rammed by the salvage vessel nose-on. A further ramming knocked off the fin and tailplane. Soon after the Canberra nose dipped under water and the fuselage reared to a vertical position, taking a further five minutes to sink slowly out of sight. In all, it had taken one hour and five minutes to sink the Canberra. Centaurus comment: How sad - it was like shooting Bambi's mother...
At least some of the parts salvaged from the Canberra were put to good use. The wingtip tanks were donated to the local islanders who wanted them for water tanks. In exchange, the grateful headman presented the salvage team with a dozen hula skirts and a rush mat.
The US Navy Mariner aircraft used in the rescue was later returned to Hawaii for repairs. However, the damage sustained during the take off from Bigatyelang Lagoon was so serious the aircraft was deemed beyond repair and written off.