Warbird Information Exchange

March 30, 2007

By David C. Henley

Publisher Emeritus

For the second time in less than five years, the wreckage of a World War II military aircraft has been found at the bottom of Lake Mead southeast of Las Vegas.

I inadvertently learned of the startling discovery from Gary Warshefski, deputy superintendent of the National Park Service's Lake Mead National Recreation Area, while speaking with him on an unrelated matter (the continued lowering of the lake's water level due to the lack of significant rainfall).

Warshefski and Roxanne Dey, the recreation area's spokesperson, told me the recently-discovered plane is a Navy PBY-SA Catalina flying boat that crashed into the lake on Oct. 24, 1949. Four of the five on board were killed on impact.

The PBY accident occurred 15 months following the crash into the lake of an Air Force B-29 Superfortress bomber. The B-29's crew of four and a civilian scientist aboard that flight escaped with minor injuries and were rescued by nearby fishermen.

The B-29, which was conducting classified atmospheric research over Lake Mead, crashed into the water during a low-level pass over the lake.

The pilot apparently underestimated the plane's height. The plane is standing upright and is reportedly in excellent condition.

According to Dey, the B-29, which rests in about 170 feet of water, is in one piece. The PBY flying boat lies at a depth of 190 feet and is in two large pieces.

When it crashed into Lake Mead 58 years ago, the PBY, which can take off and land from both water and land, was no longer in the Navy's inventory. It had been sold by the government to a civilian firm in Los Angeles and had taken off from the Boulder City Airport for a test flight when the crash occurred.

The pilot was attempting a water landing in the Boulder Basin of the lake, but the landing gear was still down when the aircraft touched the water, flipping the plane and setting it afire before it sank.

Four of the crew died in the crash but the fifth man in the PBY, the only occupant who was wearing a seat belt, managed to swim from the wreckage and was rescued by boaters. He suffered a broken leg, cuts and bruises, Dey recounted.

The PBY flying boat or amphibian plane, one of the most historic and famous in the military, was developed in the mid 1930s and used by all of this nation's armed services and those of a score of foreign countries.

It was utilized for several varied missions, such as reconnaissance, search and rescue, cargo and troop hauling, as a bomber, and also to drop torpedoes and depth charges.

Although it was slow (its cruising and maximum speeds were 117 and 179 mph, respectively), the 63-foot aircraft had a crew of seven and was armed with .50-caliber and three .30-caliber machine guns. It could also carry up to 4,000 pounds of bombs or depth charges.

Just two years after it came into production in 1935, the Catalina made world headlines when it was dispatched to search for the missing aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, whose airplane had vanished in the Pacific Ocean near Howland Island.

The search by the Catalina and subsequent searches by U.S. Navy ships for the missing pair proved unsuccessful, but photos of the Catalina appeared in newspapers across the globe, giving the two-engine flying boat everlasting media exposure.

During World War II, the Catalina (named for Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles, where it underwent testing) was widely used, particularly in the Pacific Theater against the Japanese.

A Catalina flying boat is credited with spotting the Japanese fleet approaching Midway Island, beginning the Battle of Midway in June of 1942, and a British Royal Air Force Catalina flown by a U.S. Navy pilot located the German battleship Bismarck in May of 1941. Two days later, the Bismarck was sunk by a British squadron.

The Catalina also was used during the Korean War and was phased out of U.S. service in the late 1950s. Today, two or three of the craft are flown worldwide by firefighting services as well as civilian pilots.

Both the PBY (PB stands for patrol bomber, and Y is the designation of Consolidated Aircraft, which first produced the plane) and the B-29 bomber now at the bottom of Lake Mead have been designated by the National Park Service as dive sites, says park spokesperson Roxanne Dey.

But because of the great depth at which the two planes lie, special permission must be obtained from her office and divers must descend to the wrecks in groups chaperoned by Park Service employees.

Dey added that both wrecks have been listed as official U.S. archeological sites, and it is prohibited by federal law to remove any items from the wrecks.

Information for qualified divers interested in visiting the two submerged planes may be had by calling the Lake Mead Recreation Area at (702) 293-8947.