by Brad Steiger

On January 31, 1956, one of World War II’s most famous U.S. warplanes, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, ditched into the Monongahela River near Pittsburgh--and has never been seen again.

Various conspiracy theorists maintain that evidence exists that the B-25 might have been carrying an atom bomb, nerve gas, or a fragment of the UFO crash at Roswell to reverse-engineer. Because of the bomber’s clandestine cargo, some theorists contend, a top-secret crew of black-ops arrived, hoisted the plane to the surface, then cut it into pieces and shipped the parts down the river in barges.

According to official Air Force records, the B-25 was hauling absolutely nothing of interest. The sole purpose of the flight was to give the six-member crew [pilot, co-pilot, navigator-bombardier-gunner, turret gunner-engineer, radio operator-waist gunner, and tail gunner] some airtime before the bomber was retired. The B-25 Mitchell bomber took off from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, landed at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, then continued its flight to Selfridge Air Force Base in Michigan before flying to Olmstead Air Force Base in Harrisburg.

As the craft flew over Western Pennsylvania, the pilot, Major William Dotson, 33, of San Antonio, saw that his fuel was too low to make Olmstead AFB, so he decided to head for Allegheny County Airport in West Mifflin. Then, realizing that he was unable to make the Allegheny airport, he made the decision to ditch the B-25 in the Monongahela between the Glenwood and Homestead High-Level bridges.

Hundreds of witnesses viewed the crash from the vantage points of the bridges. Major Dotson, a seasoned pilot, veteran of air campaigns in World War II and Korea, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette two days after the crash, that he chose the river because he didn't want to hit anyone on the ground.

All flight personnel survived the initial impact of the crash. The pilot and four crew members managed to climb out onto the wings as the B-25 began to float downstream.

About a half-mile from Becks Run, the plane sank, and another crew member was lost. The four surviving crewmen were rescued, and the bodies of the two crew members who drowned were found a few weeks later.

The day after the crash a Coast Guard cutter snagged what searchers believe may have been one of the plane's wings and dragged it to the surface. But the anchor slipped off and whatever it had nearly hauled to the surface sank.

On a second try, the two-inch tow line snapped.

On a third attempt, a smaller anchor was lost.

Three days after the B-25 ditched into the Monongahela, an Army Corps of Engineers dredging barge swept the river 150 times and was unable to find any trace of the bomber.

The Pittsburgh River Patrol and private vessels dragged the river repeatedly to find the plane. The water was high and running fast, making their efforts even more difficult. The Coast Guard tried once more, dragging the main channel with a specially made grappling hook, but located nothing.

After 14 days, according to official Air Force reports, the search for the B-25 was abandoned.

Hundreds of witnesses saw the bomber crash into the river. Four of the six crew members were rescued. Is it possible that a World War II bomber could vanish almost immediately after it ditched?

Air Force spokespeople have commented that a common misperception in the popular mind is that a B-25 bomber is massive and that its wreckage should be easy to find. The B-25 is often confused with the B-17, the famous four-engine flying fortress. The B-25 has a wingspan of 67 feet compared to the B-17’s 103-feet-nine inches.

Forty years later in the 1990s, a sonar survey of the river located only cars, trees, and an ancient paddle wheeler. An image that at first seemed to have potential as a B-25’s fuselage turned out to be a sunken barge.

As the years go by, many researchers have become convinced that the “B-25 Mitchell Ghost Bomber�?was not swallowed up without a trace by the waters of the Monogahela. They maintain that the aircraft contained secrets so incredible that black ops scooped it up and hid it away. Some swear that the Ghost Bomber‘s cargo consisted of Nazi gold, atomic secrets, or treasures of the Illuminati.

On cold winter nights in January, some residents near the Monongahela River say that they can hear the engines of the Ghost Bomber roaring overhead just before the phantom crash occurs all over again. Some individuals have left their homes to investigate or called the police to summon rescue squads because the sounds of the disaster seem so real. Those who have succumbed to the ghostly loop trapped in time and have gone to investigate the crash site soon learn that they have been joined the number of men and women who have heard and seen the phantom B-25.