'Bring this boy home': WWll airman's body, plane found by divers in deep waters of Malta
A group of skilled archaeological divers recently made a significant discovery of human remains. The remains were found at the site of a crashed U.S. WWII bomber, which sunk near the picturesque Mediterranean island of Malta back in May of 1943. The find is of great historical importance and will likely offer new insights into the events surrounding the crash.
Air Force Sgt. Irving Newman of Los Angeles, involved in bombing the Reggio di Calabria harbor in Sicily in 1943 as part of a 10-man crew on a B-24 Liberator plane, was identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) as the retrieved body.
After experiencing engine trouble during the mission, Newman's bomber headed towards Malta, a designated emergency landing site for troubled aircraft. However, the bomber lost power and caught fire as it neared the island. Nine crew members survived the crash landing on the water's surface. They attempted to rescue Newman, who had been wounded by anti-aircraft fire, but the aircraft sank within a few minutes, taking Newman with it.
"While heading to the target, their plane began experiencing engine trouble, forcing the pilots to make a course correction away from the main bomber group, directly into enemy anti-aircraft fire," the DPAA said. "During an emergency landing, the plane caught fire and crashed into the water near Benghajsa Point, Malta."
The plane flipped upside down after its wheels hit the surface. The tail sank before the nose. The wreck now rests one mile off Malta's southernmost point at a depth of 190 feet.
The University of Malta searched for the submerged bomber wreck in 2015 working from reports of the 1943 crash.
The wreck was located in 2016 using side-scan sonar to create an image of the seafloor. It was then mapped with sonar on an autonomous underwater vehicle, and detailed 3D models were created using photogrammetric images.
Divers recovered human remains, life support equipment and other items from the crash site. DPAA later identified the remains as Newman's.
The excavation
Timmy Gambin, a maritime archaeologist at the University of Malta, led the dive recovery team, sharing with Live Science that it was a challenge to deep dive to the site. To overcome, the crew used a combination of breathing gases with higher levels of helium and oxygen and "rebreather" technology that recycles gases.
The scuba diving site was quite deep, so the recovery team utilized advanced breathing gases with higher levels of helium and oxygen, along with "rebreather" technology that recycles gases and removes carbon dioxide. Despite these measures, they were only able to work on the wreck for 45 minutes per day, and it took two months of diving (one in 2022 and another in 2023) to recover Newman's remains, according to Gambin's interview with Live Science.
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"The entire time we were working, the whole team wanted to go the extra mile to bring this boy home," Gambin told the Times of Malta. "I cannot overemphasize what it meant to every single one of them."
The DPAA has not yet determined the time and place of Newman's burial. No photo of Newman was provided.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: WWll airman's body, plane found by divers in deep waters of Malta
