{"id":114331,"date":"2026-08-10T07:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T07:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/114331\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T07:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T07:18:10","slug":"us-south-korea-search-seabed-for-korean-war-aircraft-and-missing-troops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/114331\/","title":{"rendered":"US, South Korea search seabed for Korean War aircraft and missing troops"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/110826WRECKAGE-SEARCHphoto01.jpg\" alt=\"C-46D Commando transports sit on a Korean flight line.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n        C-46D Commando transports sit on a Korean flight line in this undated photo.  (U.S. Air Force)<br \/>\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p\">U.S. and South Korean recovery teams are searching waters off the Korean Peninsula for wreckage from three U.S. military aircraft that crashed during the Korean War, hoping to find evidence that could help account for troops still missing more than seven decades later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p\">The operation involves MAKRI \u2014 the South Korean Ministry of National Defense Agency for KIA Recovery and Identification \u2014 and DPAA \u2014 the U.S. Defense POW\/MIA Accounting Agency \u2014 along with the South Korean navy\u2019s 1st Fleet and the air force\u2019s 18th Fighter Wing, the ministry announced in a press release early this month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p\">The teams are searching two areas off Gangwon province, about 100 miles east of Seoul, in an operation that began Aug. 3 and is expected to run through Aug. 25, the ministry said.&#13;<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p\">One of the aircraft \u2014 a C-46D Commando transport \u2014 crashed Oct. 16, 1952, after departing Gangneung Air Base for Pohang. Of the 25 passengers and crew aboard, 17 remain unaccounted for, according to a DPAA casualty profile.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p\">A second C-46D crashed in November 1952, killing two people and leaving seven others missing, MAKRI spokesman Capt. Jeong Do-jun told Stars and Stripes by text message Monday.&#13;<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p\">The other aircraft \u2014 an F4U-4B Corsair fighter \u2014 crashed in February 1952, killing one service member, Jeong said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p\">About 40 personnel are participating in the search, according to the ministry\u2019s release.&#13;<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p\">DPAA deployed an underwater planner, an underwater archaeologist, roughly 10 Navy divers and mechanics, along with a combat rubber reconnaissance craft, the ministry said.&#13;<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p\">The search is being carried out through Tuesday in Yangyang and in Gangneung between Wednesday and Aug. 25. The two countries conducted a preparatory operation in April to survey the same areas, Jeong said.&#13;<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p\">Search teams first use underwater detection equipment and unmanned maritime systems to scan the seabed, according to the ministry\u2019s release. When they identify objects that appear man-made or resemble aircraft debris, divers or remote-sensing equipment are sent to investigate.&#13;<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p\">\u201cWe must find the debris of the aircraft and transport aircraft through this investigation,\u201d DPAA diver Sgt. 1st Class David Craig said in the release.&#13;<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p\">MAKRI\u2019s director, Jeon Byung-hee, said the agencies spent considerable time preparing for the mission.&#13;<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p\">\u201cI hope we can have a positive outcome since we have prepared for this project for a long time,\u201d he said in the release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"C-46D Commando transports sit on a Korean flight line in this undated photo. (U.S. Air Force) U.S. and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[58945,17834,171,4924,58946,58944],"class_list":["post-114331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-air-forces-18th-fighter-wing","tag-dpaa","tag-korean","tag-korean-war","tag-korean-war-missing","tag-south-korean-navy-1st-fleet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}