PNG P38 Swamp Revovery

The content of the original link…

Major Mathis and his P-38 Lightning Recovered from Swamp
in Recovery / Warbirds News — by Editor — November 14, 2014
Major Mathis’s P-38 rising from the swamp in late 2013. (AEM photo via Jack Cook)

Jack Cook reports:

Lockheed P-38J Lightning s/n 43-28570 #400 flown by Major Peyton S. Mathis Jr. of Montgomery, Alabama has been discovered in a fresh water swamp on Guadalcanal, and his remains have been officially identified by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC). He will be interred in his home town with full military honors. Major Mathis, CO of the 44th FS crashed while attempting to land on June 5th, 1944. Mathis was listed as being ‘MIA’ by some sources and ‘Killed in Flying Accident’ in others. 44th FS Association historian, Jack Cook first contacted JPAC eight years ago to encourage them to investigate the case. It wasn’t until the P-38 was found after a multi-year search in late 2013 and remains discovered that JPAC became involved. With the help of locals, the remains were recovered, and flown to the JPAC lab in Hawaii for DNA testing. Due to the anaerobic nature of the swamp, the P-38 was astonishingly well preserved. The aircraft was sympathetically dismantled, recovered and stored. Its future is still uncertain, but it presently remains on Guadalcanal.

The tail number on Mathis’ P-38. (AEM photo via Jack Cook)

The JPAC team working with local laborers on recovering Mathis remains. (JPAC photo)

You can find the original link here
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:_2B4v-kA4vQJ:www.warbirdsnews.com/warbirds-news/remarkably-intact-p-38-lightning-recovered-swamp.html+&cd=1&hl=de&ct=clnk&gl=de&client=opera

Martin

With all due respect. That is NOT Papua New Guinea(PNG), that is on the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.

yes – I know that – I amended my initial title in the expectation that it would change the thread title – but it was not to be – perhaps the mods could oblige.

With all due respect. That is NOT Papua New Guinea(PNG), that is on the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.

3 pages about it over on WiX
http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=54462

A great find, thanks for posting Jeepman. Amazing just how many undiscovered aircraft are still out there.

oK now probably bandwidth limited site

That prop boss looks brand new

Funny – it was ok half an hour or so ago, but it ain’t now…

Adrian

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