Taigh Ramey wrote:
They said that they explored the cockpit of the F6F last night. I missed it. I wonder how they determined it was a F6F-5N? Did they see the radar scope in the panel?
The cockpit was almost completely filled with silt and the ROV was severely restricted in its movements by the various debris within the elevator well. An extreme zoom revealed some of the throttle assembly and a few instruments (but, no sign of the radar scope). Likewise, the radome was gone.. along with the out right wingtip.
The night fighter determination was made through deduction based on archival research. Reports from Operation Crossroads state that there were a number of Hellcats staged on Independence .. all of them "5N" models. An aerial photo taken prior to the Able blast shows two F6F-5Ns (obvious by the radomes mounted on their right wings) parked just aft of the forward elevator. The first survey teams to reboard the ship noted that there was a fighter crumpled at the bottom of the open shaft .. likely thrown there by the shockwave and 40 degree starboard list immediately following the nuclear detonation.
Presumably that plane is the one still in the wreck. Unfortunately, the tail is broken off so there was no way to confirm the BuNo for certain.