American pilot missing during Vietnam War spy mission finally found

An American pilot who went missing while flying a spy mission during the Vietnam War has finally been found, military officials announced Tuesday.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Donald W. Downing was assigned to the 557th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 12th Tactical Fighter Wing, 7th Air Force in September 1967, the Defense POW/MIA accounting agency said in a statement press. Downing, 33, was piloting one of two planes on a nighttime armed reconnaissance mission over what was then known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on September 5, 1967.

As the two planes raced toward the target, the first saw a “large, bright ball of fire in the air,” according to the agency. Downing did not respond to radio calls to his F-4C Phantom II. And although search and rescue efforts began at daylight, electronic and visual searches of the area found nothing.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Donald W. Downing. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

More than a decade later, on April 28, 1978, Downing was reportedly killed in action. He was later posthumously promoted to lieutenant colonel, DPAA said. His name was recorded on the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. and on the American Battle Monuments Commission's Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, along with the names of other missing soldiers from the Vietnam War.

The incident was investigated for decades, with little result, the DPAA said. Finally, in the spring of 2024, a recovery team found survival gear, possible physical evidence, plane wreckage, unexploded ordnance, and possible skeletal material – bones – at a site in the province of Quang Binh, Vietnam.

DPAA uses the intersection of “history, diplomacy and science” to make identifications, Ashley Wright, a public affairs specialist at the agency, told CBS News in 2024. Researchers and Experts search archives to learn more about the circumstances in which a fallen soldier was killed. last seen, and investigation teams speak to surviving witnesses and examine the area for clues. Recovery teams, like those that found the evidence at the Downings crash site in 2024, are then sent to the scene, Wright said.

Then, once everything is back in the lab, several scientists combine their expertise to help make the identifications. Forensic odontologists, a type of dentist, can match evidence to dental records. Tests revealing a deceased person's diet are used to determine which country a soldier was from: Americans are more likely to eat a corn-based diet, Wright said. Family members are asked for DNA reference samples, which can help demonstrate a genetic match.

Evidence from the Downings crash was brought to the DPAA laboratory in June 2024. DPAA said its scientists used anthropological analyses, multiple forms of DNA analysis, and physical and circumstantial evidence to identify the remains as those of Downings.

His family received full information on his identification, the DPAA said, without specifying which members they were. Downing is survived by his wife and four children, as well as his parents and four siblings, according to a news clipping published after his disappearance. The clipping said Downing was reported missing just days before the couple's seventh wedding anniversary.

A rosette will be placed next to his name on the Courts of the Disappeared to indicate that he has been found. He will be honored with a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery.

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Kerry Breen

Kerry Breen is editor-in-chief of CBSNews.com. A graduate of New York University's Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism, she previously worked at NBC News' TODAY Digital. She covers current affairs, breaking news and issues such as substance use.

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