Official Hush-Hush About Missing Canberra Jet

Missing Canberra Jet

THE loss of an RAF Canberra jet bomber somewhere between New Guinea and the Carolines at the end of February caused some interesting speculation.

Extraordinarily little publicity was given to the widespread search by ship and aircraft which was carried on unsuccessfully for five days, searching vessels including HMNZS Hawea, bound from Korea to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands.

Earlier, this and other Canberra jets had started a spate of “flying saucer” stories as their vapour trails, at very high altitude, as sumed strange shapes after the air craft had passed, non-stop, across New Guinea from an Australian air field.

It is believed that the Canberras were measuring radiation at high levels caused by atomic or hydrogen bomb tests made by the United States in the Marshalls at about that time.

It will be recalled that United States long-range bombers made unofficial flights in the vicinity of Australia at the time of the Monte Bello test, and some days later, when the atomic dust had drifted at high altitude across Australia and the Tasman Sea, a specially equipped bomber made an un heralded flight non-stop from Guam to New Zealand —remaining under close guard by US personnel while refuelling there. The object of the flight was merely reported as “a long-range flying exercise of a routine nature.”