US team to search for missing WW II-era American fighter plane

SIBSAGAR: A five-member US team will search for a missing World War II American fighter plane that crashed at Kathiakhunda village in Charaideo sub-division of Sibsagar district in upper Assam.

Superintendent of Police Bijoy Kouli confirmed that the team was here for exploration to locate the remnants of the aircraft.

The team, led by US Army Capt Goss, would search for the plane in the village under Sapekhati police station area till November 5 next, official sources said.

The US will be helped by Rimo Expedition of India in the search and location of the debris of the plane that had crashed over 70 years ago, the sources said.

The US Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command (US-JPAC), which is a wing of the US Army following the Code (MACR 11367) of Missing Air Crew Report, had ascertained the location of the plane, they added.

Local octogenarians and nonagenarians recall seeing an object falling from the sky in the area in 1944 when the Second World War was on.

Aircraft remnants were found by the villagers from time to time and one Nagen Sarma had recently handed over a 7.5 kg steel cylinder believed to be of the aircraft to the government.