The US Warbird that fell out of the sky.

The B-24. 17^th February 2008

An unsanctioned walk, the two of us were lucky enough to be taken to a US plane that crashed shortly after take off during the Second World War. We had spent quite some time walking with our guides in this area over the last 18 months and they always promised to show us the plane wreck one day, and back in February we were fortunate to find the spot.

We have often thought about planning a POM Bushwalk to the wreck site but we thought we should scope it out first, and luckily we did. The Bushwalk to get there was sweet and comfortable, the scramble down and back up the cliff to get to the actual site was the hardest “bushwalking” I have done whilst in PNG, the fact that heavy rain fell while we were at the crash site and then had to climb the muddy, near vertical face whilst wet was only made possible with the help of our guides. In dry weather, the climb would not be as bad, but the rain made it treacherous.

The wreck itself is pretty awesome, it is the third wreck in PNG that I have walked to and although the plane exploded on impact with the cliff face, there is still quite a lot of interesting bits and pieces strewn all over the place, including some fairly massive machine guns and the aircraft’s radio instrument panel is still legible. The distinctive white star on a blue circle supported by the white and red ribbon of the US insignia is still noticeable on the fuselage.

We found old compressor cylinders and some fairly large gauge bullets. The wreck is strewn over a large area and this is attributed to the terrain and the fact that some of the bombs on board detonated on impact. All 12 US crew lost their lives, and the first two attempts to retrieve the dead were unsuccessful as the terrain was too difficult to navigate.

Unfortunately I wouldn’t recommend this walk for a future POM Bushwalk as you really need your guides to outnumber the bushwalkers. The local guides can climb mountains in the mud whereas we amateurs find ourselves wallowing like stuck pigs. The area is sensitive to the local people as it is good hunting ground and the ecology is such that it could only really handle a few at a time. As it was, the two of us and our guides made a bit of a mess…

We were exhausted, we were muddied, there were cuts and bruises but it was a sombre feeling to stand amidst the loss of those 12 men.

Vale.