Sergeant Breit was a crewmember aboard a U.S. Air Force B-29 Superfortress. After a 4,100 mile flight from March Air Force Base, in California and bound for England, the bomber got lost in poor weather conditions attempting to locate Kindley Air Force Base in Bermuda, where it needed to refuel. The pilot radioed they were out of fuel and ditched at sea. There were twenty Air Force personnel aboard. Eighteen survived the water landing, but Sgt. Breit and PFC Robert M. Dobson, both located in the tail section, perished when the tail broke apart and sank almost immediately. Due to the twenty foot high swells, the survivors were unable to pull them from the wreckage. The ditching touched off the largest peacetime air-sea search for a missing aircraft in history to that time, with more than 80 aircraft participating. Ironically, another B-29 dispatched to locate the missing bomber, crashed after takeoff from the airbase in Tampa, Florida, claiming five lives. The eighteen survivors were finally found more than 75 hours later, clinging to life in two rafts. They were rescued by the Canadian destroyer, HMSC Haida, and taken to the port in Bermuda for treatment.
{Information condensed from four seperate newspaper articles appearing in the Idaho Daily Statesman between Nov. 17-20, 1949 (all front page)} Contributed by Tim Cook (#46481904)
{Information condensed from four seperate newspaper articles appearing in the Idaho Daily Statesman between Nov. 17-20, 1949 (all front page)} Contributed by Tim Cook (#46481904)
Sergeant Breit was a crewmember aboard a U.S. Air Force B-29 Superfortress. After a 4,100 mile flight from March Air Force Base, in California and bound for England, the bomber got lost in poor weather conditions attempting to locate Kindley Air Force Base in Bermuda, where it needed to refuel. The pilot radioed they were out of fuel and ditched at sea. There were twenty Air Force personnel aboard. Eighteen survived the water landing, but Sgt. Breit and PFC Robert M. Dobson, both located in the tail section, perished when the tail broke apart and sank almost immediately. Due to the twenty foot high swells, the survivors were unable to pull them from the wreckage. The ditching touched off the largest peacetime air-sea search for a missing aircraft in history to that time, with more than 80 aircraft participating. Ironically, another B-29 dispatched to locate the missing bomber, crashed after takeoff from the airbase in Tampa, Florida, claiming five lives. The eighteen survivors were finally found more than 75 hours later, clinging to life in two rafts. They were rescued by the Canadian destroyer, HMSC Haida, and taken to the port in Bermuda for treatment.
{Information condensed from four seperate newspaper articles appearing in the Idaho Daily Statesman between Nov. 17-20, 1949 (all front page)} Contributed by Tim Cook (#46481904)
{Information condensed from four seperate newspaper articles appearing in the Idaho Daily Statesman between Nov. 17-20, 1949 (all front page)} Contributed by Tim Cook (#46481904)
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