Lady Be Good (aircraft)

Lady Be Good

Parts were strewn by the Consolidated B-24D Liberator Lady Be Good as it skidded to a halt amid the otherwise empty Libyan desert. Engines 1, 2 and 3 visible in the photograph had their propellers feathered.
Accident summary
Date	April 4, 1943
Summary	Navigation error
Site	Libyan desert 26°42′45.7″N 24°01′27″E / 26.712694°N 24.02417°E / 26.712694; 24.02417Coordinates: 26°42′45.7″N 24°01′27″E / 26.712694°N 24.02417°E / 26.712694; 24.02417
Crew	9
Fatalities	9 (1 initially, 8 subsequently)
Aircraft type	B-24D Liberator
Operator	United States Army Air Force
Flight origin	Soluch Airfield
Destination	Soluch Airfield or Malta

Lady Be Good was an USAAF B-24D Liberator that disappeared without a trace on its first combat mission during World War II. The plane, which was from 376th Bomb Group, was believed to have been lost - with its nine-man crew - in the Mediterranean Sea while returning to its base in Libya following a bombing raid on Naples on April 4, 1943. However, the wreck was accidentally discovered 710 km (440 mi) inland in the Libyan Desert by an oil exploration team from British Petroleum on November 9, 1958.

Investigations concluded the first-time (all new) crew failed to realize they had overflown their air base in a sandstorm. After continuing to fly south into the desert for many hours, the crew bailed out when the plane's fuel ran out. The survivors then died in the desert trying to walk to safety. All but one of the crew's remains were recovered between February and August 1960. The wreckage of the Lady Be Good was taken to a Libyan Air Force base after being removed from the crash site in August 1994.

In 1943, the Lady Be Good was a new Liberator bomber that had just been assigned to the 514th Bomb Squadron on March 25. The squadron was part of the 376th Bombardment Group (Heavy) based at Soluch Field in Soluch in Libya. The plane, which had the AAF serial number 41-24301, had the group identification number 64 stencil-painted on its nose. Its given name, Lady Be Good, was hand-painted on the starboard, front side of the forward fuselage.

The Lady Be Good crew were also new as they had only arrived in Libya a week before on March 18. On their first mission together, they would be flying one of the twenty-five B-24s assigned to bomb the harbor of Naples late in the afternoon of April 4 in a two-part attack. A flight of twelve B-24s would go first followed by a second wave of 13 planes, including the Lady Be Good. After the attack, all planes were expected to return to their bases in North Africa. The crew of the Lady Be Good on the Naples mission were: