No survivors so far found following B-52 crash

Videos
Photos

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-07-22 20:55

HONOLULU - The Air Force continued to hold out hope of finding survivors Tuesday in the crash of a B-52 bomber off Guam, but a brigadier general said there was no evidence that any of the airmen were alive.

A 2004 file photo shows a B-52 bomber on the tarmac of the Barksdale AFB in Bossier City, La. The Air Force reported that a B-52 bomber carrying six crew members has crashed off the island of Guam, on Monday, July 21, 2008. [Agencies]

Two bodies from the six-member crew were found after the crash Monday morning. An earlier Coast Guard report said three bodies were recovered, but spokesman Lt. John Titchen later said that was in error. No names of the plane's crew had been released.

"We've seen fuel in the water, oil slicks, some pieces of what look like a plane. This is right within the area where we had planned our searches," Titchen said. "We are now planning our searches to include wind and water current, any kind of drift that may happen to someone in the water."

The unarmed Air Force bomber had been making a swing around the island from Andersen Air Force Base for a celebratory fly-over of another part of the island as part of Guam Liberation Day celebrations. The holiday marks the arrival of the US military arrived to retake the island from Japan.

An extensive military and civilian search continued to scour vast expanses of ocean on Tuesday for any sign of the remaining crew members, said the 36th Wing Commander, Brig. Gen. Douglas Owens.

"We recognize, however, that the longer this search continues the less likelihood there is that we'll find survivors," Owens said a day after the crash 30 miles northwest of Guam's Apra Harbor.

Three vessels including a destroyer, three helicopters, two F-15 fighter jets and a Navy P-3 Orion aircraft based in Japan were involved in the search, which covered roughly 3,000 square miles of the Pacific, Titchen said.

"We've basically saturated that area," said Titchen, who called search conditions "ideal," with light winds, calm seas and good visibility. "We're optimistic our search area is concentrated on the right area right now," he said.

The Air Force will investigate the accident. The two crew members were wearing their life vests when their bodies were recovered.

"This is a challenging operation when we lose people we work with on a day-to-day basis, so we're doing the best that we can to cover that area as quickly as we can," Titchen said.

Previous page 1 2 Next Page