Long-Sought Plane
p. 118 · Read in the full issue
Pacific War Echo
Found In Santo
From Our Noumea Correspondent WRECKAGE of an America! plane lost near Cape Cumber land at the northern tip of Espiriti Santo, New Hebrides, in 1943, ha! been found by Wong Boukc villagers. In the wreckage were the remains of the pilot and a gol(
identity plate and chain.
It has been recalled that in 1943 s United States Army listening post at Santo made contact with tw( American planes which were run ning out of fuel and asked aboul landing possibilities near Cap( Cumberland. It was night; then were no landing-grounds in th( area and the mountain-and-jungh country made landing impossible.
One plane came down in the set and disappeared without trace. Tin other flew on and crashed against i mountain.
A few days later, Wong Bouki people found an airman, badly in jured and exhausted, who said tha] when the plane crashed he wai flung from his seat. His companioi had been killed instantly. The in jured man had wandered in thi jungle for two days, trying to react the coast.
Guided to a nearby American camp the survivor gave the approximate position of the wrecked plane, but despite an intensive search, it coul( not be found.
In 1954, the brother of the losi pilot (whose name was Howi( Faltin) travelled to the New Hebrides from America in an at tempt to find traces of the plane but his search was also a failure, j At the end of last April th( French Resident in the New Hebrides (M. P. Anthonioz) and M Roux were touring the northern islands in the Don Quixote. A 1 Wong Bouko, villagers told then that recently they had found wreckj age of a plane and human remainj in the mountains a long way frori the village.
Guided by the villagers, the official party, after hours of hard travelling, found the wreckage or a heavily-wooded mountain top. I Among the bones was a gold plate bearing on one side the name “Howie Faltin, USMC,” and on the other a woman’s Christian name, j The remains and the identification plate, with its gold chain, were carried to Port Vila, later to be handed over to the United State| Consul at Noumea. If Mr. R. P. A. Probert has been elected to the Latuoka Town CounciS Fiji, in the place of the late Mr. S.
Hollander.