Tue Apr 16, 2013 8:20 pm
Wed Apr 17, 2013 12:43 am
Wed Apr 17, 2013 2:56 pm
ZRX61 wrote:I was wondering when someone was going to finally mention the B25...
I really like that Dupont hangar
Wed Apr 17, 2013 7:58 pm
zorro7 wrote:Wildchild:
Good day!
Where do the story comes fm may I ask?? So it flew over the Keys & then followed the W coast of Florida N to Tampa?? Price on AU nowadays is some $1200 oz!
Dreams of Cuban gold
For almost 50 years, the aircraft lay undisturbed on the sea floor.
Then, in 1990, charter guide Capt. Tim Wicburg stumbled onto the area.
“I was driving the boat and saw a big mark of fish: I fished there all summer,” he said. “One day, I caught a piece of a plane. Then I started diving it and found the plane.”
What Wicburg found were the top-turret twin .50-caliber machine guns, the aircraft’s two engines and the wing of a B-26 — the fuselage was missing.
But when he saw the wreckage, Wicburg wasn’t thinking World War II — he’d heard stories about a more recent B-26 crash in the Gulf.
Before fleeing Cuba on Jan. 1, 1959, the stories go, Cuban dictator Fulgencia Batista raided the national treasury and loaded the loot onto four B-26s; the planes took off for Tampa while Batista fled to the Dominican Republic.
Only three of the B-26s reached Tampa; the fourth crashed into the Gulf.
“Supposedly the plane that was lost had $3 billion on it, supposedly in gold,” Wicburg said. “Naturally, I wanted to find out if this was the Batista plane. I was hoping. I could have used $3 billion. That’ll keep a man digging.”
Wed Apr 17, 2013 8:48 pm
Wed Apr 17, 2013 9:24 pm
zorro7 wrote:Wildchild:
Good day!
Interesting article on aviation marine archaelogy! There are many B-26 Marauders still under water near Ft. Mayers or Tampa Bay area fm WW II training sorties.
Cuba c.1959 had B-26 Invaders particularly the glass nose "C" model among them. The article does not mention the source of the story or why the gold was sent to Tampa & the Dictator flying in the opposite direction. If more concrete evidence had emerged by now... the Titanic guys would have been all over the area & in civil courts claiming the poss piece of pie!
Thu Apr 18, 2013 7:43 am
“Supposedly the plane that was lost had $3 billion on it, supposedly in gold,”
Thu Apr 18, 2013 3:54 pm
PinecastleAAF wrote:“Supposedly the plane that was lost had $3 billion on it, supposedly in gold,”
3 billion in 1959 dollars would certainly have some heft to it. Max gross weight take off for sure.
Thu Apr 18, 2013 6:23 pm
Thu Apr 18, 2013 6:51 pm
No you're not; there are 4. The furthest appears to be in the same paint scheme as the nearest - see the top of the fin.ColeCash wrote:in the pic of the 3 Invaders, am I the only one seeing a 4th in the far background, almost completely hidden? its dark/black.