Downed by lightning eight decades ago, a US airman is finally coming home | CNN

Downed by lightning eight decades ago, a US airman is finally coming home after the identification of pilot 1st Lt. Franklin McKinney’s remains in northern Thailand. The US Embassy in Bangkok confirmed that remains recovered from a rice paddy were those of McKinney, who disappeared on November 5, 1944, while flying an F-5E—described as the reconnaissance twin-engine, twin-tail P-38 Lightning—during a mission. He was declared dead in March 1946, but no crash site had been found for years. The case began gaining traction in 2008 through US Air Force Academy cadet Dan Jackson’s research and ongoing collaboration with Sakpinit Promthep at Thailand’s Royal Thai Air Force Museum. A flood in Bangkok in 2011 also surfaced relevant archival material. The repatriation ceremony took place in Bangkok before McKinney was set to return to the United States.