P-MAN III - 12             

Ngeremlengui/Japanese Aircraft

On 17 November 2001, the CILHI team and the P-MAN III team left by 4WD trucks from Koror and drove to Ngeremlengui where we met Lazarus at his home. Earlier, he had relayed through his boss, Abby, that he had two new aircraft wreck sites to evaluate. We traveled by truck from his home northward and within 15 minutes he showed us an aircraft by the side of the dirt road upon which we were traveling.

We found a site that looks as if the aircraft had been bulldozed off the road. The propeller and water-cooled engine unit were intact, although the inverted V-configuration engine block was upside down. Beside it at right angles were part of the fuselage, parts of wings, and possibly part of the empennage. The aircraft fuselage appeared to have a faded red color. We rapidly concluded by its shape that the aircraft was Japanese - confirmed by the Japanese writing imprinted on the engine. No evidence of human remains was found. We took reference GPS readings.

From there we drove further north into a park area overlooking the western side of Babeldaob toward the ocean. We then walked southwest for ~ 10 minutes and came across an aircraft lying in the middle of a field. We immediately recognized the aircraft as a Japanese Zero fighter. It lies upright as a complete unit with the empennage, painted red, completely intact. The fuselage forward of the empennage, including cockpit area and inner wings, is burned and melted, while the wing tips, engine and propeller are relatively intact. The propeller appears to have been feathered, with its lower blades bent backwards while the third upright blade, aside from a bullet hole and some graffiti, remains undamaged. The machine guns have been removed.

Lazarus told us a story that Palauans believe the pilot was an American in disguise because when he landed, he had on clothing with American markings and American cigarettes. The story goes that he died of his wounds from the crash and Lazarus says he is buried nearby.

We took GPS reference readings. Dr. Belcher later notified the Palau Historical Preservation office of these findings.
 

Page last modified 23 April 2005