Cold War · Navy patrol plane shot down off Shantou, China, Jan. 18, 1953 · Unaccounted for
Ens. Dwight C. Angell, U.S. Navy. (Angell family)
Key facts
- Who: Ens. Dwight C. Angell, U.S. Navy, Patrol Squadron 22, from Colorado.
- When and where: Jan. 18, 1953. His P2V-5 Neptune was hit by Chinese antiaircraft fire and ditched in the Formosa Strait (now Taiwan Strait) near Swatow (now Shantou).
- What was reported: Two Neptune crewmen were reported captured after drifting ashore, and a 2012 report from Chinese military archives described the burial of two American aircrew.
- Status: Unaccounted for. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency lists his case as Active Pursuit.
- Do you have information on what happened to Dwight Angell? Contact us in confidence, in English or your own language.
What is known
Dwight Clark Angell entered the Navy from Colorado and served with Patrol Squadron 22. On Jan. 18, 1953, he was a crew member aboard a Lockheed P2V-5 Neptune that left Naval Air Station Atsugi, Japan, with 13 men on a shipping surveillance flight along the China coast. Flying at about 1,000 feet near the port of Swatow, now Shantou, the Neptune was hit by Chinese antiaircraft fire and ditched in the Formosa Strait, now the Taiwan Strait.
All 13 men got out of the sinking plane, but only one raft was launched. A Coast Guard PBM-5G Mariner flew from Sangley Point in the Philippines, landed in heavy seas and took 11 of the Neptune crew aboard, Angell among them, according to his family. On takeoff an engine failed and the Mariner cartwheeled and crashed. The destroyer USS Halsey Powell later pulled 10 men from the two crews out of the water near Dome and Namoa islands. Eleven men — six from the Neptune and five from the Mariner — were never found.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency lists Ensign Angell as unaccounted for and places his case in its Active Pursuit category. Its profile says survivors reported several crew members last seen being washed toward shore, but did not report Angell among them. (DPAA)
Two men from the Neptune crew were reported captured after drifting ashore, and a 2012 report from the Chinese military archives described the salvage of an aircraft and the burial of two American aircrew. China has not identified those men to us. The full account, and our appeal for information, is on the lead page Americans hunted in Shantou. His crewmate AD3 Lloyd Smith Jr. is also missing.
His family
His stepdaughter, Megan Marx, serves the POW Investigative Project as a Family Adviser, Cold War. With other families of the 11 men, she has worked for decades to learn what happened that night.
Request for information
Please contact us if you can help with any of the following.
- Accounts from anyone in Shantou (Swatow), on the nearby coast and islands, or in Guangzhou (Canton) who saw American airmen captured, paraded or buried in 1953.
- Where the two American airmen China’s military archives say it buried are, and who they were.
- Photographs of the men in captivity, or period newspaper reports naming or picturing them.
DPAA says survivors saw several crew members washed toward shore. Two Americans were reported captured and paraded, and a 2012 report from the Chinese military archives describes the burial of two American aircrew. Was Angell one of them? Did he drown? Or was he taken alive?
If you have information about Ensign Angell or the men lost with him, please contact us.