1944 - It was a cold day to fly on March 25th, but as they had done a number of times before, Lt. Walter S. Whitman and his PV-1 crew took off from Attu Island in Alaska's Aleutian chain to fly the route known as the Empire Express and drop bombs on the northern Japanese Kuril Island chain.  Lt Whitman's plane was one of a five plane flight. One aircraft crashed during takeoff.  Due to weather, two aircraft dropped their bombs over the ocean and returned to base.  One aircraft completed the mission. One aircraft did not return from the mission.

1962 - A Russian geologist discovered the wreckage.

1999 - It was not until now that a local historian reported finding the PV-1 to the United States.

2000 - A joint U.S. and Russian commission on POW/MIAs led a small team to the crash site. Some remains were gathered and sent to the US for analysis.

2001 - Since the 2000 team found the remains and wreckage, 6 of the 7 members have been identified and relatives have been notified. One member is still MIA.

How does this story involve the AMHF? NOVA contacted the foundation about filming our PV-2 Harpoon as part of the documentary on this fateful mission. Filming took place January 5th & 6th, 2002 in Indianapolis.

PBS first broadcast this episode on January 14, 2003. You may be fortunate to catch this episode in rerun on PBS. It is also available for purchase here.

Nova is produced for PBS by the Science Unit at WGBH Boston. Visit their web site to find out more about this award winning series. Additionally, they have created a companion web site for the "Last Flight of Bomber 31" which is available here.

Paralax Film Productions produced the film. Follow the Production Archive link at their site for their "Last Flight of Bomber 31" page.