Search and Recovery (SAR) Ops
Downed in an unknown location
Despite an exhaustive sea, air and land search conducted by the US Coast Guard (sea and air), US Navy (air only), US Air Force and the Civil Air Patrol, no trace of the missing bomber or aircrew could be located. Not only did the searchers scour the entire Gulf of Mexico and the surrounding US landmass, they also conducted high-altitude surveillance overflights of Cuba, Central and South America and the Caribbean looking at every runway capable of landing a B-52.
On 8 March 1968, and when no evidence of a crash had been located, senior US Air Force officials formally terminated all search efforts and abandoned the official investigation of the disappearance. Since that time, no search for the missing bomber or her aircrew has ever been conducted.
