During World War II, hundreds of U.S. aircraft flew across the North Atlantic to bases in England via the perilous "Snowball Route," which necessitated landing in Greenland to refuel and then taking off again, sometimes into the path of brutal snowstorms. About 10 percent of the planes crashed, and sometimes the planes sent out to rescue them suffered a similar fate, according to Nicholas A. Veronico's book "隐藏的战鸟：发现，恢复和重建丢失飞机的史诗般的故事。”
七十年后，一个名为“堕落的美国MIA遣返基金会”的小组说，它使用了配备了装备的重型无人机飞机ground penetrating radarto locate one of those lost planes, aLockheed P-38 Lightning格陵兰东海岸几百英尺的冰块藏在几百英尺的冰下。这P-38是著名的“失落中队”的一部分，这是一组六个P-38和两个B-17S乘飞机飞往冰岛，由于1942年7月的天气恶劣而不得不回头，被迫坠毁。尽管船员被救出，但飞机被抛弃并逐渐被冰雪笼罩。（1992年，另一组从中队中回收了另一个P-38文章）
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Jim Salazar, a southern California businessman and pilot who has joined forces with fellow lost-aircraft searcher Ken McBride, hopes that this P-38 discovery will be the prelude to an even more momentous find. Salazar says in an interview that the search team plans to return to Greenland in 2019. In addition to retrieving the P-38 from the ice, searchers will head to nearby Koge Bay and deploy several more radar-equipped drones in an effort to locate a Coast Guard Grumman J2F-4 Duck, a small, single-engine amphibious plane that vanished in a storm during an effort to rescue a crashed B-17 crew in late November 1942. They hope not only to locate the wreckage, but also to retrieve the remains of the decorated pilot, Lt. John A. Pritchard, Jr. along with those of his radioman, Petty Officer 1st Class Benjamin Bottoms and U.S. Army Air Corps Cpl. Loren Howarth, who also were on board.
"Our idea is to recover these heroes," Salazar says.
无人机和地面穿透雷达（GPR）的结合可能是在格陵兰岛和其他地方定位久违的飞机的潜在游戏规则。以前，搜索者不得不将雷达设备放在雪橇上，然后慢慢梳理表面，面对陷入冰上裂缝的持续风险。萨拉萨尔说：“你在冰盖上拉一个雪橇，不知道你是否要跌落。”通过使用离地面32英尺（10米）的机器人飞机，可以更快地覆盖更大的区域。
这search team spent several years figuring out how to couple a lightweight GPR system with a drone and develop the software needed to operate it. The technology performed well in tests in Europe, but "that's not the same as the Greenland ice cap," Salazar explains.
But when they got to Greenland, the technology exceeded expectations. "We had two teams, a conventional sled team and the newly developed drone team," Salazar explains. "By the time our guys on the sled team had put their harnesses on and had the equipment ready to go, the drone already had gone up, made radar contact with the P-38, and landed. You could实时查看what the drone actually was seeing. It was incredible."
Since the radar could only confirm the existence of a large object under the ice, the team lowered a steam probe. The latter brought up hydraulic oil, indicating the presence of an aircraft. (Here's amore detailed accountof the search and discovery that the team provided to Warbird Digest, a publication for military aircraft enthusiasts.)
Salazar says that finding the Duck will be a tougher challenge. The amphibious aircraft was smaller than the P-38, and unlike the fighter, was an old-fashioned aircraft made from wood and canvas, so didn't produce big radar echoes. "We're looking for the engine case," Salazar explains.
Previous efforts to find the plane have been unsuccessful. A U.S. military team went to what was believed to be the location in 2013, but were unable to find anything,美联社在2014年报告。
发现鸭子将为一个悲惨的传奇提供解决，该传奇从1942年11月28日开始，当时Pritchard和Bottoms起飞，以营救A批准的B-17的9名船员，他们被困在冰上。。根据米切尔·扎科夫（Mitchell Zuckoff）的2013年书籍，Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II，“当天，普里查德（Pritchard）到达了B-17，不仅设法降落在冰上，而且还与两名轰炸机的船员再次起飞，这是飞行员第一次在格陵兰岛实现这一壮举。
在返回北国之后，他们的基准船，普里查德（Pritchard）和底部于第二天11月29日飞回坠机现场，以接收更多的人。到那时，电动机雪橇上的救援人员也已经到达了轰炸机。但是一个救援人员陷入了裂缝，处于危险之中。普里查德（Pritchard）和底部（Bottoms）坐在飞机上，霍华斯（Howarth）陪同他们，并试图飞回北国寻求帮助。但是，相反，他们陷入了一场暴风雨中，该暴风雨比预期的要早。
一周后，B-17飞行员在海岸发现了鸭子的无翼机身。但是，据Zuckoff说，但是关于确切位置的恶劣天气和不确定性迫使搜索者放弃努力到达残骸，Pritchard，Bottoms和Howarth被遗弃在他们去世的冰上。普里查德（Pritchard）和底部被授予杰出的飞行十字架。救援人员在裂缝中输了，也死了，B-17的幸存成员不得不在冰上度过一个痛苦的冬天，然后最终在春季被救出。
Salazar is hopeful that the new technology will enable his team to find the Duck and the remains of the three servicemen. "Once success is achieved in this mission, we plan to bring the same kind of effort to other possible recovery sites," he says.
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