North American P-51D Mustang similar to the one flown by
Gertrude Tompkins-Silver
Photo courtesy of aircraftwrecks.com
Gertrude's P-51
Mustang
Gertude Tompkins-Silver, circa 1943
Photo courtesy of aircraftwrecks.com
Gertrude reported to Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas in
June, 1943 to begin her training to become a WASP (Women's
Airforce Service Pilots). She graduated on November 13,
1943. She was stationed at Love Field, Dallas, Texas, with
the 5th Ferrying Group. After departing on a ferrying
mission from Los Angeles, California in a P-51D for the
East Coast, she never arrived, and no traces of her were
ever found. (She is the only WASP unaccounted for.)
North American Aviation flight line at Mines Field (LAX)
circa 1944.
Photo courtesy of aircraftwrecks.com
Gertrude was scheduled to fly a
P-51 Mustang fighter plane from Mines Field in Inglewood,
California (now Los Angeles International Airport, LAX) to
Palm Springs, California on October 26, 1944. She planned
to fly the plane to New Jersey during the following days,
but WASPs were required to make stopovers at night to avoid
flying during those hours. Gertrude taxied to one side of
the runway prior to her departure to have her cockpit hatch
repaired. She apparently departed from Mines Field at
approximately 4:00 p.m. that day, but her flight records
were lost and there is no recorded time for her takeoff.
The tower and air traffic controllers had no copies of her
flight plans for the day. She was not reported as missing
until October 30, four days after her presumed
disappearance.
The military initiated an extensive search for Gertrude and
her plane, but no evidence of a suspected crash was ever
discovered. She was classified as "missing and presumed
dead" in November 1944.
Gertrude's family members met airplane archaeologist G. Pat
Macha in the 1990s. Macha believes that her aircraft
crashed in the shallow water of Santa Monica Bay and is
buried underneath layers of sand. Sonar imagery showed an
object buried in the general vicinity in 2001. Searches of
the area have not produced any evidence, but Macha plans to
continue the search efforts. Others believe that Gertrude
may have crashed in the mountains near Palm Springs, a
theory that Macha has never discounted. Gertrude's case
remains unsolved.
Our preliminary search map of Santa Monica Bay, California.
Available multibeam sonar data was used to locate possible
deep water targets. Side scan sonar would be required to
search for targets in the unmapped near shore area. Image
by Gary Fabian.
Searching Santa Monica Bay
We have been assisting Pat
Macha in the search for Gertrude's P-51D Mustang since
2003. Unfortunately we have not been successful so far in
locating her plane. There is a real possibility that if she
did crash into shallow water that her plane may be buried
beneath sand and silt.
This side scan sonar image shows several sections of
discarded pipe sections in Santa Monica Bay. The bay is
littered with junk like this making the search that much
more difficult. To date more than 50 nautical miles of
survey lines have been run with side scan sonar.
(Left) Ray Arntz retrieving the side scan sonar towfish.
(Right) Ray gearing up to check another bottom target.
Ray describes a small sailboat wreck we found while
searching for Gertrude's P-51D Mustang. You can see the
cable and tail of our towfish laying on the deck.