I was sitting here on the puter and heard this on the TV in the other room.
Anyone have any other info?
As bad as it was(is)its always better when family can put an ending(?)to it.
S/F

PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) -- The rusty remains of a U.S. Army plane that disappeared with three soldiers aboard during World War II have been discovered in the mountains of western Panama, authorities said Saturday.

The discovery came after officials from the U.S. Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii spent more than a month digging in the dense forests outside El Valle de Anton, 65 miles west of Panama City.

The 0-47 fighter was flying from a U.S. military base in Rio Hato, just outside El Valle de Anton, to the Caribbean city of Colon when it vanished without a trace June 8, 1941. Dozens of search-and-rescue missions in the following months failed to find the aircraft or its crew.

Angel Velez, a member of the Hawaii-based investigation team, said authorities found bone fragments that were believed to be human. The fragments will be sent to Panama City for testing to determine if they belong to the missing soldiers, he said.

Velez said investigators still were investigating the cause of the crash.

[url]http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/americas/02/03/panama.us.ap/[/url]

I have never heard of a 0-47 fighter. Sounds like a typo to me.

thats interesting, wonder why it crashed.

That's amazing.  It's been awhile since I've posted here, but I visit this site almost every day.

O-47 is a three man observation plane.  See the following for pictures.  [url]http://www.laahs.com/art27.htm[/url]

"O-47" is not a typo, "O" was a prefix for observation aircraft. I remember reading a good article about the O-47 in Airpower or Air Classics about twenty years ago.

The O-47 if I recall correctly was a pre-war design, carrying two or three men (Pilot, radioman/spotter, and gunner/spotter), armed with two guns (.30 cal?) meant to be used for fast battlefield recon, but by the time the lessons from the war in Europe in 1940 had come back to the US, it was deemed too big and too expensive to be used for an artillery spotter, and too slow to evade fighters and AAA. A portly, single engined aircraft, it found its only real use in the war in the Carribean and Canal Zone as an anti-sub recon and patrol  aircraft. Truly a forgotten aircraft in a forgotten theater of WW2, but there was real danger from the Japs and Germans attacking and crippling the Panama Canal.

This poor crew and its aircraft probably went off course and crashed in the jungle after running out of fuel.

Thank you for the info.As much as I looked around last night I couldn't find anything else about it.
There used to be a group,10-15 years ago(and still might be)that searched for crash sites on Borneo,the Phillipines and other S Pacific islands for WWII crashes.They found quite a few.
Also in Holland and the Netherlands people found a lot of crash sites as they drained water from land to use for farming.
It does give friends and family some closure,even at this late date.
Thanks again.

That clears it up. Thanks for the info.

Here's a cool site dedicated to WWII plane wrecks in the pacific.  Lots of cool info and pictures.  Didn't see anything about the 0-47 in Panama though.

[url]http://www.pacificwrecks.com/[/url]

blkbeard-
Thanks a bunch,that is quite a site.
I will never forget what so many did-and what their family's suffered.For so long.
S/F

[img]http://www.ixpres.com/ag1caf/usplanes/Photos/O-47A.jpg[/img]
The O-47 was developed as a replacement for O-19 and O-38 observation biplanes. It was larger and heavier than most preceding observation aircraft and its crew of three sat in tandem under the long canopy. Windows in the deep belly overcame the obstacle that the wings presented to downward observation and photography. The design for the XO-47 prototype originated in 1934 with General Aviation, a subsidiary of North American Aviation, as the GA-15. The Air Corps ordered 174 O-47s in 1937-38, 93 of which were assigned to National Guard units. In 1938, the Army ordered 74 O-47Bs with a redesigned engine cowling for better cooling, a more powerful engine, and improved radio equipment. Training maneuvers in 1941 demonstrated the shortcomings of the O-47. Light airplanes proved more capable of operating with ground troops, while fighters and twin-engine bombers showed greater ability to perform recon and photo duties. Thus, during WW II, O-47s were relegated to such duties as towing targets, coastal patrol, and anti-submarine patrol.


North American O-47A

Type:           observation
Crew:           3
Armament:       One fixed forward-firing .30-cal. machine gun
one flexible .30-cal. machine gun in rear cockpit

Specifications:
       Length:         33' 7" (10.24 m)
       Height:         12' 2" (3.71 m)
       Wing span:      46' 4" (14.12 m)
       Wing area:      350.0 sq. ft (32.51 sq. m)
       Empty Weight:   5980 lbs (2712 kg)
       Takeoff Weight: 7636 lbs (3463 kg) maximum

Propulsion:
       No. of Engines: 1
       Powerplant:     Wright R-1820-49
       Horsepower:     975 hp

Performance:
       Range:          750 miles (1207 km)
       Cruise Speed:   200 mph (322 km/hr)
       Max Speed:      221 mph (355 km/hr)
       Ceiling:        23,200 ft (7071 m)

(info courtesy of USAF)

[url]http://www.ixpres.com/ag1caf/usplanes/american.htm?http://www.ixpres.com/ag1caf/usplanes/aircraft/O-46.htm[/url]