WWII US bomber missing since 1944 found in Adriatic Sea - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Seventy-three-year-old Gerald Landry's search for a long-lost loved one has finally come to an end, following the discovery of a lost WWII bomber in the Adriatic Sea. Gerald has poured over archives to find what happened to American cousin First Lt Russell Landry who was on the lead bomber - the Tulsamerican. But his search, which began is 1983, is now over. Pictures taken earlier this month show First Lt Landry's huge aircraft lying on the seabed where it has rested for over 60 years. Gerald, from Azusa , California , and wife Carol, 63, will shortly travel several thousand miles to the crash site near Croatia . The pair will sail out to hold a ceremony 230ft above the wreck at the surface. "I feel I must be one of the most fortunate people on earth to actually have the opportunity to pay my respects to my cousin who has been hidden from us for so long," The Sun quoted Gerald, as saying. He added: "He held me as a small child, and now I have the chance to do something for him." Diver Darko Bojanic, a wreck diving enthusiast, stumbled across the remains of the unidentified plane in December. Using his information the Croatian Conservation Institute, in collaboration with the Department of Underwater Archeology in Zagreb , launched an investigation. On May 31, the team recovered a data plate from the pilot control panel and by matching its serial number to the one recorded for the Tulsamerican confirmed it was her. The Tulsamerican sustained serious damage during an airbattle with Luftwaffe fighters in December 1944 and during a desperate attempt to return to its Italian base crashed into the Adriatic Sea near Croatia . Seven out of the ten aboard where rescued by local fishermen and aided by a British rescue vessel. But three men on board were never seen again and the location of the craft was to remain hidden for more than half-a-century.