History’s Mystery: 1950s B-25 Still Missing After Seven Decades

How does a B-25 Bomber crash and sink into a river and stay hidden for 70 years? The story might be Pittsburgh’s most enduring mystery.

The January 1956 crash involved an Air National Guard B-25 Mitchell bomber that ran out of fuel while flying over Pittsburgh and made an emergency landing in the Monongahela River, several miles from downtown Pittsburgh.

“It’s good old folklore. It’s a story that won’t die, said Andy Masich, director of the city’s Heinz History Center, which has staged exhibits on the crash and led efforts to document it.

Seven decades later, the crash, which occurred at the height of the Cold War, is not forgotten.

Earlier this year, the B-25 Recovery Group held a commemoration at a hotel and on a bridge near the crash site. The event was held to memorialize the 70-year landmark anniversary and also to revive interest in recovering the plane’s wreckage.

“There’s a lot of special interest. We’re setting out to find it and recover it,” said Steve Byers, a Pittsburgh native who lives in Florida and heads the recovery group.

Byers served as master of ceremonies at the commemoration. The event included the playing of Taps, the national anthem and Amazing Grace and a toast for all B-25 flight crews, mechanics, and members of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Not First Recovery Attempt

Besides the anniversary commemoration, Byers and others in the group want to finally locate the plane’s wreckage.

It won’t be the first try.

There have been at least five efforts to recover the plane, including a prolonged one by the government in the two weeks after the crash.

In the hours following the crash, a Coast Guard cutter – the Forsythia – snagged a wing of the submerged plane while dragging its anchor. But the line slipped and the B-25 slid and was never seen again.

Search efforts by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers continued for 14 days, but the bomber was never recovered.

Despite extensive research, sonar scanners, and remote-controlled cameras, the recovery group has found no evidence of the plane.

Some think the plane has become buried in silt, Masich said. Or that the river’s polluted water may have dissolved the bomber’s aluminum frame and left only engines, propellers and landing gear.

The plane was traveling from a Nevada air force base and ran out of fuel while flying over Pittsburgh.

Its pilot, Maj. William Dotson, first requested permission to land at Greater Pittsburgh Airport. Running low on fuel, he then decided to try for the closer Allegheny County Airport.

Forced to make a quick decision as the aircraft began to malfunction, Dotson attempted a water landing on the Monongahela, near what is now the Homestead Grays Bridge.

Of the six crew members and passengers on board, four survived.

The crash in an urban area caught people’s attention immediately, Masich said. Four of crew’s six members swam to shore in the 34-degree water.

“It was in daytime, right next to Carson Street and startled many motorists, who stopped to offer help or watch,” he said.

All six crew members survived the crash, though only four were rescued from the 34-degree water. After floating with the plane for 11 minutes, the airmen found themselves in the icy water.

Two men, Capt. Jean Ingraham and Staff Sgt. Walter Soocey, drowned while attempting to swim to shore. Their bodies were found months later.

Over many decades, Dotson and other crew members resisted talking about the crash.

“He just didn’t want to talk about it. We never knew if he was following orders or if it was just a bad memory he did not want to revisit,” said Masich.

Wild conspiracy theories

That silence and many decades have fueled conspiracy theories.

According to the history center, some suggest the bomber carried dangerous or mysterious cargo and that the U.S. military secretly recovered the plane’s wreckage immediately after the crash landing to hide its true contents.

Some believe the mystery bomber may have been carrying a nuclear weapon or a UFO from near Las Vegas.

Others say the plane carried Soviet agents to Las Vegas or that the plane transported show girls who had entertained senators in Washington, D.C.

“This is a lot of fun. Of course, I don’t believe any of it,” Byers said of the theories. “The plane is still in the river, and we need to get it.”