Search for Russian heavy bomber in Alaska

This isn't really war related, but as the plane was a bomber used in WWII, I placed the story in this forum.

In 1937, a massive Bolkhovitinov DB-A took off from Moscow on a prestige flight to North America. It disappeared.

Russians and Americans have sporadically searched for the plane ever since. Three Inupiat hunters near the mouth of the Colville river in NW Alaska reported seeing a giant aircraft go down just offshore. A man following up that report went out in the bay on the following day to look for survivors and found an oil slick.

http://www.adn.com/2013/09/29/3101863/russians-search-for-lost-30s-era.html

 

Nice find KodiakBeer! I wish them the best of luck in finding the aircraft.

Over on the warbirdsforum, there was a good write up on the Soviet side of things including a detailed account of the planes flight & loss.
http://www.warbirdsforum.com/topic/1201-got-the-bolkhovitinov-db-a/

 

Sounds interesting, keep us updated!

 

I don't think we'll hear any more about this until next summer. However, if an aircraft of this size went down there, it should be an easy matter to find it.

 

Interesting article. Thanks for posting KB.