Highland Gazette
17 May 1958
Missing Flight Clue Found
Norwegian ship captain Magnus Johanssen handed over to local police a life jacket he found three years ago on a Norwegian beach. The harbourmaster, Mr. John Douglass, advised the captain it may have come from the aircraft missing from RAF Kinloss airbase since 1952.
“It is not unusual for debris from shipping or from Britain to end up on Norwegian shores,” said Captain Johanssen, 53, from Bergen in Norway. “I found the life jacket three years ago whilst walking my dog on the shore outside of town and kept it aboard my vessel. It can still be used in an emergency.”
When asked why he took so long to inform authorities of the find, the Captain told the Gazette reporter, “I was in the Harbourside Cafe reading the newspaper to improve my English when I saw the story of Robert Bell, the missing airman. I told the harbourmaster I had an old RAF lifejacket. He checked it and called the police.”
Detective Sergeant McPherson from the local constabulary confirmed that the life jacket came from the missing aircraft: “RAF personal have identified the jacket as belonging to the flight that disappeared with five airmen on board, including Robert John Bell.”
The widow of Robert Bell, Mrs. Mae Bell, who recently spent ten weeks in the Highlands looking for information on her husband’s disappearance, was unavailable for comment. Charles Bell, brother of the missing, now presumed deceased, airman spoke to the Gazette via telephone from Paris.
“I guess finding the life jacket proves the plane ditched in the North Sea, but it doesn’t clear up the mystery of what happened on that flight.”
According to the American Air Force authorities the case remains open. The police say their case is closed. “The whereabouts of the aircraft may never be solved,” said Detective Sergeant Ann McPherson.