BentProp Project

Who is BentProp Project?

The BentProp Project are volunteers whose common goal is gathering information that can lead to the location, identification and repatriation of remains of U.S. service members who were killed in action in the Republic of Palau during WWII, and who are still listed as missing in action. The effort was begun in 1993 by Dr. Pat Scannon. The BentProp team members have backgrounds in SCUBA diving, aviation and the history of American World War II involvement in the Pacific.

The BentProp team works closely with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, a joint-services organization based at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, Hawaii. Basically, the BentProp team attempts to locate and identify sites that are associated with known U.S. MIAs, and to provide sufficient information about those sites to JPAC to help them justify mounting official recovery missions.

Of the roughly 200 U.S. aircraft and their crews shot down in Palau between late March 1944 and August 1945, about half crashed outside Palau's barrier reef in water that is several thousand feet deep, putting their location and recovery well beyond the technical capability and resources of the BentProp Project. But there are still nearly 100 planes with crash sites thought to be on some of Palau's 200 or more islands, or in relatively shallow water inside the barrier reef. These sites are the targets of BentProp Project's research and field expeditions.