Schematics: Courtesy of Air Corps library
One of Pittsburgh’s best-known urban legends is mostly a true story.
At first glance, the details of the incident are simple: on Jan. 31, 1956, a B-25 Mitchell bomber made an emergency landing in the Monongahela River, was ditched by its crew, sank, and hasn’t been seen since. But nearly 60 years later, the story of the “lost bomber” or “ghost bomber” of the Mon has become the center of local conspiracy theories.
This is because “things don’t add up,” says Andy Masich, CEO of the Heinz History Center, which maintains a B-25 “Ghost Bomber” collection in its Detre Library and Archives.
Before it disappeared, the B-25 was flown by experienced pilots, Maj. William Dotson and Capt. John Jameson. Also aboard were two more pilots and two airmen, making a total of six passengers, according to the official Air Force report — itself an object of speculation.
The bomber set out from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada the night of Jan. 30 with a mission of flying to Olmstead Air Force Base near Harrisburg to retrieve aircraft parts. It made two refueling stops along the way, the first in Tinker, Okla. where it stayed overnight, and the second scheduled for the next day at Selfridge Air Force Base near Detroit.
Masich says by the time the crew got to Selfridge, “it was raining and sleeting, very cold outside.” Planes were lined up waiting to refuel, making for a two- to three-hour delay.
“Dotson and his crew looked at their fuel gauges, which were notoriously inaccurate, and it was cold and … nobody wanted to go out on the wings with the dipstick [to check the amount of fuel]. So they just relied on their gauges, looked at each other and said, ‘You know what … I think we could make it to Olmstead.’”
As the flight pushed onward over Western Pennsylvania, Dotson noticed significant fuel loss — to this day, it’s unclear if there was a leak or malfunction…
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