Case Two
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This case involved the loss of an F-100 fighter aircraft in January, 1967. Pulling out of a bombing run on a mission in the Central Highlands, the aircraft became engulfed in flames and broke apart. No parachute was seen, and no beeper was heard. A search patrol inserted into the jungle more than a year later reported seeing a large scatter of wreckage, but found no trace of the pilot. Work by a US excavation team in January, 1996 confirmed the loss of the F-100.

Originally designed as a fighter aircraft,
the F-10 was often used in ground support (tactical bombing) missions in the Vietnam War..

The plane's two wing cannons were found a half mile apart on opposite sides of a mountain valley, and numerous trees on the hillside were broken off 15-20 feet above the ground. This context suggested that the plane had broken up in midair, crashing into the jungle in pieces.

No single crash crater was found, and all of the crash-related debris lay in the uppermost 6-12 inches of soil and leaf litter. Excavating downslope on one of the hillsides, American service personnel and Vietnamese laborers found numerous fragments of burned, twisted wreckage consistent with a mid-air explosion. And eventually, in a side ravine, they recovered pieces of the aircraft canopy, helmet fragments, a pilot's microphone, charred parachute harness and shrouds, a Chapstick, and, finally, pieces of burned flight suit. This circumstantial evidence almost certainly confirmed the loss of the pilot in the crash.

A local villager presented the excavation team with a dog tag that he found on the hillside.

But by the close of the mission, local villagers had also presented the US team with a dog tag, a flight boot, a wool sock, and 13 human bones that they had found at the crash site.

Mitochondrial DNA analysis was conducted on the bone, using a comparative sample from a maternal relative of the pilot. The DNA analysis and forensic study of the bones quickly confirmed the identity of the pilot.

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