Hikers find possible WWII skeleton hanging in New Guinea canopy

Breitbart ^ | April 27, 2008 | AP

[RDTF]

SYDNEY, Aug. 28 (AP) - (Kyodo)—A skeleton thought to belong to a World War II pilot has been discovered dangling in the jungle canopy in Papua New Guinea, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported Thursday.

Hikers on the Kokoda Track discovered the skeleton halfway along the 96-kilometer trail that was the scene of intense fighting between Japanese and Australian soldiers from 1942 to 1943.

-snip-

[JRandomFreeper]

God bless the men that fly and fight. ID him, and return him to his family and country.

/johnny

[Repeal The 17th]

Just incredible.
I wonder if we will ever hear anything else about this?

[PAR35]

I’m wondering how the bones, covered in moss, managed to stay connected for 60 years in a jungle environment.

[ANGGAPO]

I am sure that he is not the only one that met death hanging 80 feet from the ground. If you lost it over the New Guinea jungle the odds were not in your favor of getting out alive.

[concentric circles]

God rest his immortal soul.

[LiberConservative]

God bless and RIP to warriors. Regardless of how many years it takes to find them. Pray that he finally makes it home.

[WorkingClassFilth]

Me too. Nylon wasn’t in use and rayon and silk is what they had for parachutes. Both of which would deteriorate pretty quickly in that environment I’d think.

[PUGACHEV]

Not only that, but didn’t the tree grow at all in the past 65 years? If the body is 80 feet in the air now, how far off the ground was it in 1945? Three feet, maybe? Something isn’t right about that story.

[A.A. Cunningham]

The tree where what is believed to be the body of a WWII pilot has been found on the Kokoda Track in papua New Guinea.

[BBell]

Good one.

[BBell]

I’m not sure what to think though. 60 odd years is a long time for a body to left swinging in the winds intact.

[wolficatZ]

[Bean Counter]

Amelia, maybe??...

[Charlespg]

Some of those trees grow slowly for hundreds of years.So the tree might have been just a few feet shorter then now

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks BBell. Ordinarily I don't ping WWII topics, but this is pretty fascinating. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[SunkenCiv]

Trees have new growth, but at the tips; the point where branches connect with the trunk don’t move higher with time.

[BBell]

Fascinating if true. I will try to look for future updates to this. It is interesting.

[wolficatZ]

"Australian, US and Japanese authorities will check records to see if any pilots were reported missing in that area.

'Lost in the fog'

Mr Collins said a lot of planes went missing during the war in the general area where the skeleton was found.

"All of them were generally lost in the fog and bang they go in," he said.

Among those that flew in the area at the time were the Royal Australian Air Force's 75 and 76 Squadrons, which flew P-40 Kitthawk fighters.

American B-25 Mitchell bombers were also in the area at the time along with P-39 Airacobra fighters.

"There were a lot of aircraft lost up there during the war and a lot of Japanese aircraft as well," Mr Collins said.

Mr Collins described the location of the skeleton as being on the right side of the track heading north from Myola, about four days walk in from the Port Moresby end of the track.

He said the the tree with the skeleton had been marked with plastic to help future investigators find it again.

The remoteness of the site and the difficulties involving in locating and working with anything in the thick jungle canopy mean that it could be months before any identification of the skeleton is made."

[Nailbiter]

ping