Searchers Find A T-33 In Santa Monica Bay While Looking For A P-51

A search team looking for a P-51D flown by WASP pilot Gertrude V. "Tommy" Tompkins Silver in Santa Monica Bay instead found the wreckage of a T-33 Shooting Star jet that had gone down in the bay 54 years ago.

T-33 Shooting Star

CNN reports that the T-33 identified by divers on the floor of the bay went down shortly after takeoff October 15th, 1955. The aircraft was on a navigation training mission at the time of the incident, and Air Force documents indicate there were two crewmen on board.  They had been presumed lost at sea.

The unpaid group of marine archaeologists, which calls its self UB88.org, has been searching for military wrecks since finding a WWI German U-Boat off the California coast in 2003. Some odd-looking pixels on a computer image of the bay floor led them to the missing aircraft.

Air Force documents identify the crew as Lt. Richard Martin Theiler and Lt. Paul Dale Smith. They had 1,244 and 430 hours of flying experience, respectively.

A manufacturers number from a machine gun ammunition feed mechanism allowed them to trace the jet.

UB88.org was joined by Missing Aircraft Search Team in locating the wreck. They kept quiet about the site until any remaining next of kin could be notified, but for another reason as well. Ray Arntz, owner and operator of a southern California dive company, told CNN "We're trying to quietly do this stuff and move on so the sites don't get ravaged."

Meanwhile, "Tommy" Tompkins Silver's P-51D is still out there, waiting to be found. A concerted search effort is planned for October 5th to the 1oth.

FMI: www.aircraftwrecks.com, www.ub88.org