Ep 331: The Ghost Bomber of the Monongahela

 
TRANSCRIPT available ON REQUEST
 
“One of them disappeared in that dirty water less than 50 feet from the men who were trying to get to him. That’s what hurts.”
— Assistant Superintendent Lawrence J. Maloney, of the Pittsburgh Police, from The Pittsburgh Press, February 1, 1956
 

Description:

In January 1956, rush-hour drivers crossing Pittsburgh’s icy Homestead High Level Bridge watched a nightmare descend from the sky: a silent B-25 bomber gliding just feet above the roadway with both engines dead. Veteran US Air Force pilot Major William Dotson pulled off a flawless emergency landing on the freezing Monongahela River, saving all six men from the crash itself. But within minutes, two crew members vanished into the current, and the bomber sank beneath only twenty-five feet of water… never to be seen again. How does an entire military aircraft disappear in relatively shallow water, with hundreds of witnesses watching, even after an exhaustive search, and continue to stay missing for seventy years?

 
 

Location:

Some authorities believe this is the approximate final resting spot for the B-25 bomber, buried in the river mud around 150 feet off the left descending bank at River Mile 4.9 of the Monongahela River, historically known as Bird's Landing, situated between the Homestead Grays Bridge and the Glenwood Bridge in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

 

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CREDITS:

Episode 331: The Ghost Bomber of the Monongahela. Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess. Audio Editing by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound. Music and Sound Design by Allen Carrescia. Tess Pfeifle, Producer and Lead Researcher. Ed Voccola, Technical Producer. Research Support from The Astonishing Research Corps, or "A.R.C." for short. Copyright 2026 Astonishing Legends Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Unexplainable Phenomena, VanishedForrest Burgess2026, Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Monongahela River, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Mitchell B-25 bomber, US Air Force, air crash, January 1956, Major William Dotson, missing, ditch, search and rescue2 Comments