This and the “Lady Be Good” story always was spooky. Lady Be Good was a B24 Liberator that got lost and crashed landed in the Lybian desert. It was found like 20 years later and all but one of bodies were found. The USAF salvaged the plane for whatever parts they could use for other planes. Every plane that got a part started having problems, including a Armrest from the plane. The USAF decided to gather all the parts and got rid of them. I guess you might say the plane was jinxed.
The story of the Lady Be Good inspired a Twilight Zone episode and I believe was the inspiration for the novel and movie Flight of the Phoenix. Had they known where they were they could have walked south to an oasis, but that was the problem, they didn’t know. New in country, they probably thought they were still over the Mediterranean.