WW2 PBY Crash Photo link

[TimAPNY]

I just came across these photos on the net and decided to post them here. It looks like it is from Alaska, on the Aleutian Islands. I think we discussed this wreck before but never really saw pictures like this of it.

http://www.mun.ca/serg/pby.html

Tim

[bdk]

I think those .50s need a little lube!

[n5151ts]

[Canso42]

Tim, do you have any more info on the wreck site? Has it been visited before. (looks pretty remote). Were there human remains there or were they recovered?
C/n 87 was an RCAF boat. David Legg can speak more to this.

Doug Ratchford, 'Canso42'

[RMAllnutt]

Looks like a high impact crash... pretty grim seeing so much evidence of crew clothing too. I would guess that this crash-site is in the Newfoundland area, as the website was attached to a university based there. The people in the photographs looked of college age too. Could be completely wrong of course.

Thanks for posting.

Richard

[David Legg]

From memory (and it is only that as I do not have time to delve tonight), the location is Kiska. It is most certainly not a "RCAF boat" as mentioned above. It was US Navy PBY-5, Bu04511 as shown on the original manufacturer's plate at the end of the second sequence of photos on the website. The number 87 denotes that it was the 87th aircraft within a 90 aircraft contract, serials Bu04425 to 04514. Such numbers could be repeated in different contract batches and its unique manufacturer's number was in fact 683.

[David Legg]

Location confirmed as Kiska

[tom d. friedman]

the fire must have been intense with all the cooked off .50 caliber rounds laying about!!

[Canso42]

Thanks for the clarification, David. I could only read the stamped numbers, not the printed ones.
Doug