Wreckage of WWII plane that vanished found in South Pacific after 80 years

A US Marines plane that went down during World War II has been discovered in the South Pacific, 80 years after it went missing.

The wreckage of the Douglas SBD Dauntless was found by locals in the Papua New Guinea jungle last month, according to the Daily Mail .

The Dauntless went down on Jan. 14, 1944, with pilot Lt. Billy Ray Ramsey and gunner Sgt. Charlie J. Sciara aboard, and tales of the crash had been passed on for generations in the area.

“The story was told by some of our grandparents and passed on to us that there was a plane crash on the mountain part of the jungle, but they did not know where exactly it crashed,” Kilala Kindau, who led the team that made the discovery, told the outlet.

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“The plane was crashed and broke into three pieces, leaving the pilot trapped inside and unable to escape.”

On the day it went missing, the light bomber left from Munda Airfield on the coast of New Georgia in the Solomon Islands to target a Japanese shipping area near Rabaul Harbor in Papua New Guinea, with a fleet of other planes.

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The mission faced heavy anti-aircraft fire and the Dauntless’ tail was shot off, according to war records.

The two Marines on board, Ramsey of Texas and Sciara, a Brooklyn native, were declared dead within a year of the crash, but their remains still have not been recovered, so they are both considered missing in action.

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It is believed that Sciara survived the crash and ultimately died in a Japanese prison camp.

“After the war my parents received a letter from the Marine Corps stating Sgt Charles Sciara did not die on January 14, 1944,” said his brother John Sciara in a post on Pacific Wrecks .

“He somehow survived the crash and was taken prisoner by the Japanese and died in an unknown prison camp.”

Those who discovered the plane reported there were human remains in the wreckage, but they have not yet been identified.

Officials from the US Department of Defense told the outlet they are planning to send investigators to the site, where the engine, propeller and wreckage from the plane are scattered.

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