PITTSBURGH - Pittsburgh's most famous mystery was solved yesterday when a B-25 bomber that crashed into the Monongahela River in January 1956, then seemingly vanished, was pulled from the miniature river of Carnegie Science Center's Miniature Railroad and Village. For two weeks after the plane crashed fifty years ago, the Army Corps of Engineers searched in vain for it. Urban legends sprang up about secret government divers whisking the plane away in the dark of night. Rumors spread as to what the plane was carrying, running from nuclear weapons to Howard Hughes.
Yesterday morning, Adam Swayne, 9, was visiting the Miniature Railroad and Village when he spotted a piece of metal sticking up from the miniature river. Adam alerted a volunteer. It was quickly apparent that a full-sized plane was lodged in the water. A snagboat was brought in to dredge the river, and the long-missing B-25 was brought to the surface.
Ben Clark of the Carnegie Science Center was both delighted and saddened. "Mystery solved," said Clark. "But now all the magic is gone." A perplexed look shot across his face. "Of course, we have no idea how a full-sized plane ended up inside a three-inch deep river in the Miniature Village," he said.
