The missing pilot of the Second World War

In 1943, an American bomber was shot down over the Mediterranean Sea, heading for Sicily. Of the ten crew members on board, nine managed to escape. The last, 22-year-old pilot from California, died with the plane. Eighty years later, a group of underwater archaeologists, based on Malta, found his remains .

The team under the guidance of professor of archeology Timmy Gambin from the University of Maltese in 2018 began the study of a sunken aircraft near Cape Bengheis in Malta. Having identified the plane as an American, divers contacted the Department for the Search of Prisoners of War and Missing the US Department of Defense ( Defense Pow/Mia Accounting Agency, DPAA).

“The United States promises to all its servicemen that not a single person will remain forgotten,” Professor Gambin told Times of Malta. “All the time, while we were working, the team wanted to make every effort to return this guy home.”

After the dental analysis and analysis of DNA in August this year, DPAA found out the identity of the deceased. It turned out to be sergeant Irving R. Newman from Los Angeles.

Photo: University of Malta/Heritage Malta

According to DPAA, on May 6, 1943, Newman and his team carried out the task of bombing the Sicilian port of Revio Di-Calabria. On the way to the target, the B-24 Liberator was refused by the engine, which is why the pilots deviated from the course and found themselves on the enemy fire. When trying to make a forced landing in Malta, the B-24 caught fire and fell into the sea. Nine out of ten crew members were saved, although five were injured.

A sunken plane was discovered in 2015 using remote sensing. The visible parts of the aircraft remained intact by about 80 percent. The Gambin team used a watercolor to create a 3D model of the crash site before the excavation.

The name of Irving Newman is engraved among the names of the missing at the Sicilian-Roman American military cemetery in the Italian city of the Imprunet. Now, according to DPAA, as a sign that the remains of the pilot were found, a socket will be attached next to his name.