A World War II bomber has been discovered 3 miles deep in the Pacific Ocean, and it’s still fully armed with an 83-year-old bomb fixed to the wing, NOAA Ocean Exploration says.
The Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber fell to the seafloor trapped inside the USS Yorktown, which was sunk by a Japanese submarine after the 1942 Battle of Midway.
The heavily damaged aircraft is one of three vintage bombers found piled atop each other in the aircraft carrier’s hangar on Sunday, April 20, and the sight was “game-changing” for historians.
Nearly 150 aircraft were lost at the Battle of Midway and none have been located on the battlefield — until now.
“The significance of this can’t be overstated. This is a combat veteran SBD from the Battle of Midway. These are the planes that won that battle,” one historian noted during a live broadcast of the discovery. “Not just that, but for a twist of fate, a bomb that could have been dropped on a Japanese ship.”
“This is an absolutely historic moment in underwater exploration,” another historian said. “We’ve always wanted to find aircraft associated with the Battle of Midway and here it is.”
The Yorktown vanished about 1,000 miles northwest of Honolulu, and was rediscovered by a U.S. Navy and National Geographic expedition in 1998. The wreck site was documented by Ocean Exploration Trust in 2023, but cameras were not sent inside.
NOAA Ocean Exploration took that risk over the Easter holiday weekend and the three planes were located in the carrier’s #3 elevator shaft.
Historians believe the “fully armed” bomber — found upside down — was “likely part of Yorktown’s reserve force on the first morning of the battle,” NOAA says.
The other two planes have a more unique history, historians said.
“Another plane, with the figures ’B5’ boldly legible on its fuselage, is currently believed to be BuNo 4581, an SBD-3 assigned to Bombing Squadron Six from USS Enterprise,” NOAA said in a news release.
“Records show that in the chaos of battle, Yorktown recovered two Enterprise aircraft that had been badly damaged in an attack on the Imperial Japanese Navy carrier Kaga. These refugee aircraft were moved down to the hangar deck and later set afire by one of three enemy bombs that struck Yorktown. Research is ongoing.”
Researchers confirmed a 2023 report that several spare wings also remain in the hangar.
A vintage car was also found, along with a large mural depicting the carrier’s history of voyages.
Yorktown’s wreckage is a protected by the Naval History and Heritage Command and “serves as the final resting place for hundreds of servicemen that gave their lives in defense of the nation,” NOAA says.
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