The Most Mysterious Ghost Plane of WW2 

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In February 1960, the United States Army initiated a search for the bodies of the crew members. Five of the crew’s remains were found 78 miles north of the crash site. A sixth was discovered 24 miles northwest of the first five. Meanwhile, a seventh crew member - Sgt. Rip Ripslinger - was found 200 miles away from the crash site. The eighth crew member was not discovered until August 1960, while the last body was never found.

2:03: For when you want to skip the Ad.

The Navigators documents were found unopened indicating he never even attempted to do his job until the oh sh1t moment when they found themselves separated from the rest of the formation up to that point he had just been playing follow-the-leader and had no idea of their actual navigational position if he had survived he might have been court-martialed for a clear dereliction of Duty

9:40 Why would you reuse a seat armrest from a B-24 Liberator that sat in the desert for 16 years on a U-1A Otter?!?! This doesn't make sense and smells of BS.

I remember seeing this history on tv like 20 years ago. I remembered that in one of the dairies , the young crewman wrote in the final pages that due to exposure and dehydration they felt like needles all over their eyes. After a short period of time all of them died. I went thru the same symptoms in my eyes while crossing the southwest deserts in the USA in an old Ford Taurus with no ac. It took me like 3 days to recover from that. RIP to these brave men.

I use VPN myself, but that ad implies a lot more than a VPN could actually do.

Make a documentary about how effing inadequate navigator training was during WWII.

5:01 I am loving the C-130 search and rescue plane... in WW2.

The picture of a plane christened "Lady Be Good" with the five camels is a B-29, 10th Air Force, China-Burma-India theater. Each camel is for flying "the Hump"(southern Himalayans)

8:12 is that the shadow of a RAF Vulcan?

It'sa good doc until the 'supposedly's' and 'haunted' start slipping in. You don't need to make this story sensational, it's a good tale as it is.

The fact that a Twin Bonanza was used when the B-24 was found was even more remarkable than finding the aircraft. That's a pretty rare aircraft :)

There was a terrific TV movie "Sole Survivor" (1970) based on this with Vince Edwards and William Shatner as USAAF investigators, Richard Basehart as the navigator who survived and become a general and Patrick Wayne as the bomber pilot.

People complain, but I know I'd much rather hear the voice of someone who I already enjoy listening to advertise a product than hear one of the awful youtube ads that are always really loud and play annoying "upbeat" music and advertise products that aren't even related to anything I care about. Especially if it means that the youtuber can actually afford to continue making videos and that RU-vid doesn't get any money out of the sponsorship.

My relative Harold Ripslinger was on the Lady Be Good. Sad outcome. Jim walker wrote the most accurate book on the crew.

This is back when naming your military aircraft after a musical didn’t make you insecure about your masculinity.

Thank you for this episode. My late father served in the army in North Africa in Bir Hakim, and told us how easy it is to get disoriented and lost in the vast desert, where the landscape changes every so often. Sad.

From what I was told about this some years ago (and my memory may be a bit hazy) it seemed that the crew didn't make a regular check on their coordinates to plot their course and position. They seem to have relied on both formation flying and the radio direction finder for their home base. The direction finder only gave you an axis, not info on whether the source was behind or in front or distance. Therefore when the formation broke up they had only a line back to base which, not knowing how far they had travelled, they accidentally flew past. I believe the investigators found some of the navigator's tools still boxed and unused. An inexperienced crew, probably not following procedure, seems to have been the cause of this tragedy.

This was such a good one!

The production quality of Dark Docs goes up & up. Often it's the little things not noticed conciously that help a change in mood say.... For example, the piano notes that appear at 08:16. All this has to be thought of, sourced, implemented by the channel's owner to increase the tension, move the story on or as here, shift the mood of the viewer. These short films are getting better & better. Nice one Dark Docs. I've been subscribed, on & off, for a long time now. I thoroughly enjoy each one but they always leave me wanting more! If you move into longer format productions please let us know. I think you've got an audience here with it's tongue hanging out! (Hopefully that brit phrase has jumped the Atlantic.)

9:16 - I used to work in the automotive industry. One of my jobs was to destroy lemons that were buy backs (repurchased by the manufacturer). Here was the catch: every single part on that car had to be destroyed, and I had to both witness and photograph specific parts as they were destroyed. Nothing could be taken off the vehicle, regardless of whether or not it was part of the reason it was being bought back as a lemon (which usually had something to do with the drive-train). The thinking was that, say the GM dealership where the car was returned decided to take the wheels and tires off and put them on one of their used vehicles (because the one on the lemon were newer and nicer)... then, after it sells, the owner of the used car ran over and killed a little girl because he was intoxicated, or playing on his phone or whatever. If that asshole's lawyer discovered the wheels on his clients car came from a lemon, he'd argue that it was the wheels and that GM is who the parents should be suing... _"they murdered your little girl, not my client! He never would have hit little Jennifer, and turned her body into a giant pink smear, if he'd been on tires and wheels that hadn't come from vehicle GM classified as 'defective'"._

The big point missed is that when the bodies were located and the artifacts analyzed, they walked far, far beyond what was thought possible at the time. This unfortunate crew rewrote the survival manuals used by future US aircrew. Google for the fate of the wreck over the years.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR DOING THIS CASE!! My Grandfather was the Bombarder on The “Lady Be Good” & I’ve been interested in WW2 for as long as I can remember. I think that’s why I absolutely love everything about DarkDocs not just for the historical content but because you make them interesting & you always speak on facts about every case! I still speak to & have become great friends with many of the other families from the crew on that doomed flight today. I’m the youngest of our group at 34 & we all video conference at least once a month to discuss anything new about the “Lady Be Good” or any other neat details of WW2. We have come to the conclusion in our minds at least that SSGT. Moore more than likely landed from the jump safely but either didnt have his sidearm or flare gun when he jumped or just chose not to use them when he landed for fear of being seen by an enemy or local that may not of been happy to see him. We think he landed safely & started walking in the opposite direction, & as the other members began firing shots to find each other SSGT. Moore mistook those shots as enemy fire and began walking the opposite direction as the other crew & got further separated as a result. The next part we have a few thoughts about what came of SSGT. Moore first being he wandered aimlessly alone through the desert surviving alone long as he could & eventually ran out of water and anything else in his airborne survival kit & succumb to dehydration rather than starvation. The second theory is that he wandered so far for so long & did run out of supplies but continued to press on from the sheer will to live & reunite with his crew but after so long without supplies in the desert he became severely dehydrated which led to severe confusion, weakness, hallucinations & more that he started seeing things that weren’t particularly there and succumb while trying to reach said mirages. The last theory is that while wandering aimlessly & confused that he walked right into a tribe that instead of being an always welcoming Pygmy tribe that would’ve helped SSGT. Moore anyway they could instead he wandered into a tribe that perhaps had never seen a white man & was also violent so they killed him or worse than that he ran into a cannibal tribe that likely kept him as prisoner and cannibalized him! I love every video DarkDocs makes & you have an awesome narrator voice as well! DarkDocs & Dark 5 are the ONLY channels that I have notifications turned on for! Soon as I get a notification I immediately watch the new video(s)! I’ve been waiting on NORD VPN to partner with you so I could finally join a VPN while also helping my favorite channel out as well!

In this particular instance, the video most of this footage came from had a good explanation for why the plane ended up 430 miles past base when it was low on fuel. In the video "Signposts Aloft" by the Moody Science institute, Dr Irwin Moon suggested that at the altitude the aircraft was flying, the plane was likely caught by a stiff tailwind. This carried it past its base quick. This same phenomenon is how the fastest transatlantic subsonic flight was achieved a year or two ago. I might also add that all of the instruments (including the direction finder) were working correctly. They were tested extensively after the discovery of the plane.

I like how on the thumbnail it shows a shadow of a Avro Vulcan nuclear bomber...

That plane was the inspiration for the classic Twilight Zone episode "King 9 will Not Return"

2:58 B-24s were constructed at the following locations: • Consolidated - Fort Worth, Texas. • Consolidated - San Diego, California. • Douglas - Tulsa, Oklahoma. • Ford - Willow Run, Michigan. • North American - Dallas, Texas. I did not want to start a thread, but rather, point out how brief some of the major points are. This guy only covers a minimum and is not in any way shape or form, correct. He is really good at making entertainment. These are by no means, documentaries. As always, do some more research yourself.

One of the crew had polio when he was young and came back from it. I think Sgt. Rip Ripslinger since he was the one who had gone the farthest. A man who had an iron will. Also recall that the navigator's tools hadn't been used, as in the navigator wasn't doing his job or had been incapacitated. sm

I love your videos, I learn so much & your narration is clear & makes u want to keep watching. RIP the crew that was lost

I live in Tucson Arizona. I go to the Pima county Air And Space museum nearly every weekend. The tail gun section of "Lady be Good" is on display there, next to a diorama of the wreck

This was totally the inspiration for the Twilight Zone episode "King Nine will not return".

Such a tragedy, those brave young men...what a terrible misfortune...a terrible way to die 😔

I'm so glad to run into this video. My six grade teacher told us this story when we were learning about the dangers of the Sahara desert.

What an incredible account of those events and so very sad. Your vids are some of the absolute best! Dark Docs, I love your channel. Really interesting and incredible work you’re doing. 👍🏻👍🏻

I'm so very sad for these brave young men, who were just doing their duty. I knew of this story before and the Twilight Zone episode. But, it is still so tragically sad, said a prayer for them. May they all rest in peace for enternity!

I can't imagine using anything off an air plane sitting sixteen years in the desert. The plane is a grave marker at that point. RIP brave men.

Another great 'Dark Doc' - I love ALL your docs. Very well researched and presented. Best of all, your voice for the narration couldn't be better. Kudos! ❤

DarkDocs KILLIN' IT in 2020! Seriously, bravo on ALL your research, work, editing, AND narration.

I worked with the first Air Force photographer who went to the crash site of Lady Be Good, in 1979/80. He had copies of all of his photos, including one showing a fellow airman drinking coffee out of a thermos found in the plane, as well as the Pilot's diary kept while waiting to be rescued. Also, the state of the bodies of the last two men, including the pilot. They had buried the other crewmen who made it to the plane. These last two men were skeletal on one side which was exposed to wind driven sand and mummified on the other. It came to their attention that this was an Army Air Corps plane, not an Air Force plane, so they left the site. However, because they had come to the site in a helicopter, they had to wait until the air became cooler, and more dense, to take off again. His name was Sonny Pippen, worked at the Biloxi-Gulfport, Mississippi, Sun and Daily Herald.

Really, using images of C 130s and Bell helicopters when talking about a WW2 "search" for the lost Liberator, appropriate footage please.

Ok, at first I was apprehensive to having a narrator on "dark" channel (I was always used to reading everything), but now watching these have become a requirement before bed. Watching these are eerily soothing and I can't go to bed without hearing them in the background.

I was about to write that this is one of the best episodes I've seen. Then realizing, that this is the normal exceptional standard. Thank's a lot! 👍

Was the Twilight Zone episode “King Nine Will Not Return” based off of this event?

ADF is Automatic *Direction* Finder.

This is a great story dark docs,keep -em coming.

The episode is true to your form. I found myself literally on the edge of my seat...

There was a movie about this, it fascinated me when I was a kid.

watched a movie with this, that one soldier that his body has yet to be recovered, i wish to go find him

Love the Photo of the Vulcan's Shadow overflying the Wreck,

My mother's brother, Lt. Harvey Lester Lock was the pilot of a B 24 in that same area of the war. He and his crew died when, while avoiding a midair collision in bad weather, they were last seen spinning toward the sea with a full load of bombs. I still have a photograph of him and his crew beside a B 24.

“ do you want more mystery in your life?“ ok I just want to know my dad! Stop calling me out like that :(

Different and interesting ~ RIP the airmen! Cheers

Thanks for sharing!

This is truly...Dark stuff to be sure.....Many thanks...Dark Docs....!

RIP to all those who lost their lives in the war

Finally. An early comment for a dark docs video..love your videos. Love from jamaica ❤❤

Thanks for this, new is good never knew this story before. A almost complete loop

Outstanding video. Well done.

0:37 it's from a movie that they tought that they are still alive. 10:36 a military training film about to survive and save water. 😊

"....soft underbelly of the Continent." Lol, tell us how you really feel, Winston.

Well done Dark Docs as always amazing information about WW2 and I love all the Nuke information

Thanks for yet another well made video. You're appreciated. :)

I saw a shadow of the Vulcan bomber and was about to get pissed because I damn well know that wasn't made in the 40s

Hey Dark Docs!!!! Make an episode about biological warfare!

I remember when this plane was found, my dad was stationed at Wheelus AFB at the time and it was big news.

Thank you sir.

I've read a book & seen a-few articles/documentaries on this & they generally seem to pretty much agree on one major point & that is that when the plane was on it's return journey, they didn't have a navigator. The navigator was there but for whatever reasons he basically wasn't doing any navigation to speak of. No one is able to give a logical explanation for this. The charts which were in use that night were found & it was clear he had been navigating up to the point they turned around however, after this he seems to have stopped navigating & there wasn't any further details added to the charts. The navigator instead seems to have been doodling on his notebook & chart with his pencil. Something which no one has been able to definitively explain.

I remember that a British patrol reported finding a dead man in the desert and burying him. This may have been the missing crew man. I also remember that the plane was recovered be the Libyan government under Momar Qaddafi and is supposedly stored somewhere in Libya. I wonder if it still survives today?

Thank you for sharing, my compliments sir

Really makes you appreciate the art and science of navigation.

Love the channel and its content, the 2 min ad was a little much. I hope future videos aren’t like that. Keep up the good work.

You lost me when you said that parts of a WW2 plane lost in the desert for 16 years got used on many different active aircraft. Yea. Right.

Always haunting to hear of crewmen that were never found, such as the SSgt here. I wonder what became of him, and what he did in his final hours?

The silhouette of what looks like a Vulcan bomber in the thumbnail confused me and I didn't recognize the wreckage next to it. So when I started listening and I realized What the video was actually about I lit up! Love this story!

This event inspired a couple of decent TV productions: "King Nine Will not Return", a Twilight Zone episode; and "Sole Survivor", an ABC Movie Of The Week.

In search of TP. Willing to trade and deal.

And Thank you for telling their story

I could imagine the guilt the Navigator must have felt after they got lost and their situation became dire.

Actual start: 2:03. great content but my god - keep your ads in check please...

Nord vpn until2:04.

Love the nose art @ 3:41. My buddy frank claims he found the Lady be Good while deadheading back to ben ghazi while flying drillers around. In the 70s. The wreck was eventually recovered and is in a air museum

CORRECTION at @2:25: It was actually Labour MP Aneurin Beven, not Clement Attlee, who spoke of Churchill as a prime minister who "wins debate after debate but loses battle after battle." (July 1942) It would have been vastly more awkward for Attlee to say such a thing, as he was then serving as Churchill's deputy prime minister.

Search footage has a C130 and a Bell H-13? Poor continuity.

This made me think of this movie about a B-25 crew that crashed in the desert. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sole_Survivor_(1970_film)

First, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress didn't replace either the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress or the Consolidated B-24 Liberator, all three bombers were used up to the end of WWII. Only one B-29 was ever sent to the European Theatre, and that was for testing purposes, the rest were used in both the Pacific Theatre & the China/Burma/Indian Theatre of Operations due to their ability to utilize both a higher operational altitude & distance, but didn't replace the B-24 or the B-17. In fact, more B-29's were lost due to mechanical issues than to enemy action, as they were put into service too soon with too little testing. Not only that, but their high altitude bombing accuracy, (from 37,000 ft.), was no better than their predecessors, so they were instructed to bomb from no higher than 12,000 ft. Which put them in danger from both Japanese fighter aircraft & anti-aircraft fire. Secondly, the diarys of the two crewmen were found only when their remains were found, minus John Woravka & Vernon Moore, (John Woravka's body was found about two weeks after finding the first 6 bodies. It turned out that his parachute didn't open properly & he just slammed onto the desert hardpan). There is speculation that Vernon Moore's body was found some 200 miles past Ripslinger's body, (not Ripslinger himself) by bedouins, (there's a photo on another video, but the remains were never positively identified). but the fact that all of the crew made it as far as they did, living literally on one capful of water a day blew away all of the 'expert's' theories on desert survival. There is a really excellent book by Dennis McClendon about the whole story, (Lady Be Good, Ghost Bomber of WWII), my dad was a B-24 waist gunner during WWII & had done gunnery training with three of the crew, but he wound up being stationed in Tobruk at what became Wheelus Field USAAC, and managed to live through the first Ploesti, Romania Oil Field raid in August of 1943, which was a major clusterfuck in itself. He bought the book when it first came out in 1961 & gave it to me in 1965. When he talked about what had happened to the crew of LBG was the only time I believe that I ever saw him cry. Oh, and "Lady Be Good" was only lettered on the port side, just forward of the cockpit, but had no nose art, just it's unit number '64' on both sides of the aircraft, just aft of the nose plexiglass, and all of the holes you see in the photos were not made by enemy aircraft, they were made by the investigation teams to let 'cooler' 120 degree air into the cockpit area, which tells you just how hot it really was inside. Note: The Libyan military gathered up what remained of the LBG sometime back in the late 70's/early 80's & it all sat out behind a building at the former Wheelus AFB in a big pile at least up until the late 90's-early 2000's. They wouldn't let anybody go examine any of it, but a few brave visitors managed to get a few photos of the wreckage before they were chased off by the police. To my knowledge it's now gone, having been sold for scrap. Note 2: The first program about the LBG was an Armstrong Circle Presentation, hastily made after the crew had been found, then the Twilight Zone Episode, "King Nine Will Not Return", and finally, there was a film made in 1970, called, "Sole Survivor" Starring Richard Basehart, Vince Edwards & William Shatner. It was a ghost story of sorts, only they used a B-25 Mitchell for that, (by that time surplus B-24D's were hard to find & expensive to obtain, while there were still a lot of B-25 models sitting around). The one they used had also been used as a flyable aircraft in both episodes of "12 o'Clock High" & the Movie "Catch 22". It was filmed out on the El Mirage Dry Lake Bed during the late spring of 1969

I love your videos! Keep up the good work.. 👍🏻

2 minutes of ad is a little excessive

3:20 says B-24D's but the footage shows an B-17

Outstanding video!

Excellent enunciation and tempo.

When RU-vid runs out of shitty suggestions I'm not interested in -- it starts suggesting the videos that they KNOW I've watched in the last 3 months again. Short RU-vid stock, because this ship is going down.

Hard to believe the ENTIRE crew couldn't read a compass or recognize the stars to ascertain which way they were going.

I remember seeing this on tv in the late 50's. First one was about the Lady Be Good being lost. Then a week later another one on how they just found it. I thought WOW what a coincidence. I'm sure now that it had already been found before the first one.

That final zoom was haunting

"Search and rescue" shows Korean war footage. Come on mate, if your going to use stock footage, at least use the right decade.

It's an old and well known story. However, it is very interesting, especially to laymen that are 1st hearing of it. So, good show I guess.

DarkDocs and Dark5 need to merge into one ultimate darkness channel where all the declassified documents and operations are kept and documented for history.

Thank you for this video and Thank You to those our children for their service

4:49 wait ac-130’s existed in ww2