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This narrative concerns the 1954
loss of an armed Navy P2V-5 Neptune call sign 3 Cape Cod and piloted by Lt.
Jesse Beasley. It was supplied by Mr. Satch Beasley.
The plane reportedly crashed and disappeared
into the Yellow Sea while on a training mission on January 4, 1954.
The information in this account has been
gathered from various sources, but also includes theories postulated while
trying to locate the missing aircraft and what remains of it’s crew.
Currently there are important documents which have been requested through
the FOIA and are either denied or being withheld.
Three Cape Cod departed Iwakuni Air Base in Japan at 2:26 on the afternoon
of January 4, 1954. The crew consisted of ten; two bachelors and eight
married. The Flight was categorized as ‘COMBAT’ and it’s purpose was
reconnaissance along the coastlines of North Korea and China .
Near the coast of china the plane encountered trouble resulting in one
engine reported as disabled. Over the course of a hour and a half the plane
signaled a distress call "WE NEED AID" to Iwakuni air base and requested
co-ordinates for South Korea’s air base at Kunsan. Initially the plane made
a rapid decent and then gradually returned to stable flight. Throughout the
flight there was interference with radio communications between the plane
and its base. Locations and conditions were not shared in a timely, nor
accurate manner.
Three Cape Cod was tracked by radar at least
part of the time during its fateful flight and descent. The plane gradually
lost altitude until reporting 300 feet and it reported " PORT ENGINE ROUGH".
The last communication received from 3 Cape Cod were a series of V’s which
the base had requested and not, as the Navy has put forth, an indication
that the radio key had been tied down to signal an imminent ditching or
crash situation.
While before the enemy all practical relief and assistance may not have been
afforded 3 Cape Cod. For some unexplained reason search and rescue aircraft
were not dispatched until after the crash and then may have been diverted to
the wrong co-ordinates, causing some crew members, if any survived the
crash, to lose their lives. Autopsy reports on the two recovered crewmen
give the time of death as two days after the time of the crash.
The official Navy report is filled with inaccuracies and mistakes that have
been proven wrong or logically impossible through contemporary documents. It
is therefore believed that the official report was changed for some reason.
One reason postulated for the change is that 3 Cape Cod was on a secret
‘Ferret’ mission when it was subjected to a hostile attack, causing the
breakdown of the first engine and eventually leading to the second engine
becoming rough. The aircraft may have been improperly suffered to be
hazarded by the absence of essential onboard VHF radio equipment needed to
communicate with South Korea’s Search & Rescue as well as Air Defense.
As the crippled plane crossed
South Korean’s border it may have been mistaken as a hostile intruder and a
second aerial attack on the plane may have occurred. Due to known tension in
the area and earlier incidences of attacks which were being arbitrated at
the time of the loss, it is plausible to believe that the loss of a
reconnaissance mission under such circumstances would have been disavowed
and records changed to cover real activities.
It is further believed, however, that since the original document has been
changed, more accurate co-ordinates for the plane’s final location are
available. An effort should be made to find and return the missing crewmen.
Our great nation should publicly acknowledge and honor these men as
courageous Cold War heroes.
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