By R. NORMAN MOODY
MERRITT ISLAND -- High atop a steep mountainside in remote southwest China's Yunnan province rests the wreckage of an aircraft that likely still contains the remains of its American crew.
More than 68 years later, Merritt Island retired banker and author Bob Willett's desire to find out more about his cousin, co-pilot James S. Browne, and two others who went down in the ill-fated C-47, is driving efforts to plan an expedition to the site.
"It's something that's been in the back of the minds of the whole family since Jimmie was lost," said Willett, 84. "Now we've gotten a specific location. We know where the flight originated and what the destination was."
The China National Aviation Corp. (CNAC) Flight 60 left Kunming, China, where it had dropped off a load of gasoline and ammunition, and was headed back to Dinjan, India, when it disappeared Nov. 17, 1942. It was crossing the Himalayas, known to the aircrews as "The Hump," between India and China.
While occupying China during World War II, the Japanese cut off Burma Road, the only land route for outside supplies to get to China.
Forced to the air, the Chinese government turned to CNAC, a civilian airline it had formed with Pan American World Airways, to transport personnel and supplies to Chinese and American Forces fighting against the Japanese occupation in China, Burma and India.
American pilots flew most of the CNAC flights through cloudy skies or at night to avoid being shot down by Japanese fighter planes.
Crews, which included some British and later Chinese pilots, flew around the clock.
At first, CNAC had only a handful of planes. But at the height of the airlift, it was flying 50 round trips a day. The roughly 500-mile one-way trip would take about five hours.
The CNAC 60 crew of pilot John J. Dean, co-pilot Browne and radioman K.L. Yang had dropped off their cargo in a C47, also known in civil aviation as a DC-3.
The plane was half loaded with tin, cast into molds or blocks, and hog bristle for the trip back to India when Japanese bombers approached. The crew waited until the bombers were gone before taking off, but they were lost somewhere on the route.
It was the first CNAC aircraft and crew lost during what was known as The Hump airlift and one of the few downed CNAC planes never recovered, according to the CNAC Association, a club of former crew and associates.
There were 26 other CNAC fatal crashes in China, Burma and India. CNAC 60 is among six still not located or recovered.
Willett said the airline made 35,000 flights over The Hump during the war. The Army Air Corps made 167,000.
Dean, who was 28 from St. Peter, Minn., and Browne, who at 21 had only been in China one month, was from of Winnetka, Ill. The association said little was known about Yang.
In addition to Willett, Browne has family members in Massachusetts and Illinois.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/27/2377046/retired-banker-authors-relative.html#ixzz1WGwhRPHu
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