WWII pilot missing after secret spy mission finally accounted for more than 80 years later

A aviator who disappeared during a World War II spy ngo has been accounted for, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced Wednesday.

Officials said U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Franklin H. McKinney, 21, of Rhode Island, was accounted for connected May 15, 2026. He served arsenic an airman with the 35th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron (PRS), 14th Air Force.

McKinney reportedly failed to instrumentality aft departing from Yunnanyi, China, connected a reconnaissance ngo to photograph targets successful Thailand and Burma.

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The U.S. Air Force indicated that the squadron carried retired aerial espionage missions, flying heavy into Japanese-controlled territory crossed China, Burma and Thailand to stitchery captious intelligence.

A representation of U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Franklin H. McKinney, who disappeared during a World War II reconnaissance ngo successful 1944 and was accounted for successful 2026. (DPAA)

On Nov. 5, 1944, McKinney reportedly departed Yunnanyi, China, portion piloting an F-5 Lightning.

The U.S. Air Force said his squadron, known arsenic the "Redhawks," played a important relation successful helping "turn the tide of the warfare successful China" by providing captious aerial mapping and quality connected Japanese unit movements.

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However, the airbase mislaid interaction with McKinney soon aft his departure.

Despite searches on his formation way to the China-Thailand borderline by unit with the American Graves Registration Service, nary grounds of a clang was found.

His remains were not accounted for aft the war.

A Lockheed F-5A Lightning reconnaissance aircraft, portion of the F-5 Lightning family, is photographed successful 1943. (© CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Around the aforesaid time, section officials successful Thailand discovered what appeared to beryllium the wreckage of an craft that had been struck by lightning successful a wooded area, according to DPAA.

Citing a wartime study from the Royal Thai Air Force Museum, the bureau said the craft exploded earlier crashing adjacent Ban Mae Kua successful the Sop Prap District of Lampang Province.

In 2018, third-party researchers located a clang tract successful a atom paddy of the Lampang state and linked it to McKinney's aircraft.

DPAA investigators past examined the tract successful 2019 and again successful 2021 earlier a betterment squad excavated the country successful 2022, recovering imaginable quality remains.

The remains were sent to a DPAA laboratory, wherever scientists utilized modern forensic techniques to place McKinney.

A WWII F-5 Lightning craft was discovered successful a atom paddy tract successful Thailand.  (Chaiwat Subprasom/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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Officials said McKinney's household volition beryllium briefed connected the findings.

His sanction volition besides beryllium memorialized connected the Tablets of the Missing astatine the Manila American Cemetery successful the Philippines.