Evening star., 1951-11-23
Clearing Skies Speed
Checkup on Fate Of
Missing U. s. Plane
BY the Assoeioted Press

ROME, Nov. 23.-Clearing skies
sent ground and air searchers out
In force today to pin down reports
on a United States Air Force
plane missing since Monday with
four men aboard.
One unconflrmed report said
wreckage had been sighted among
the jagged peaks of Northeast
Italy's Dolomite Mountains, 40
miles east of Bolzano.
Another report, from a traveller
arriving in Vienna, said the plane
was shot down by Romanian Army
border guards as it touched the
iron curtain on its flight from
Germany to Belgrade.
Neither report could be con-
firmed officially.
Report Called Doubtful.
A United States Legation spokes-
man in Vienna termed very
doubtful" the report that the plane
had been shot down over Romania.
He said an unidentified Romanian
woman had called the Legation
yesterday asserting she had seen
the missing plane crashing on
Romanian territory close to the
Yugoslav border.
The woman failed to give an
exact location of the crash. At
tempts by United States agents to
locate the woman were unsuccess-
full. Later she called the Lega-
tion again to apologize for not
being able to meet United States
officials personally, saying she was
returning to Romania today.
The Romanian Foreign Office
told the United States Legation at
Bucharest it had no information
that the missing plane is on Ro-
manian soil.
Clouds and fogs which previous
ly had hampered the search
cleared today. Twenty American
planes based on Treviso Airfield,
in Northeast Italy. swept the
skies above that section and Yugo-
slavia.
Italian police and American
ground searchers were working in
the Dolomites, trying to check the
report OF the sighted wreckage.
Wreckage Reported Sighted.
The United States Embassy in
Belgrade said Tuesday that the
pilot Of the CAT transport plane
reported being fired on by Hun
Garian and Romanian border
guards.
But the Embassy report said he
apparently realized he was lost
and turned back. In two later
reports he said he was near the
Croatian capital of Zagreb, headed
toward Udine, Italy, which LIES at
the foot of the Alpine Dolomites.
An American Air Force officer
directing the search from an Ital-
Ian air base said information re-
ceived by radio from Wiesbaden,
Germany, reported the wreckage
of a plane had been sighted near
the mountain village of Pieve di
Cadore.
However, United States Air
Force headquarters at Wiesbaden
said 1t had no information on the
reported sighting of the wreckage.
Police at Pieve di Cadore said
they heard a plane flying over the
area Monday evening. A Rome
report said a farmer in the area
heard violent explosion that
night. The police said they had
not heard Of the explosion.
Weather Hampers Search.
Bad weather has hampered the
air search for the plane, which
was carrying supplies to the United
States Embassy in Belgrade.
One of the American planes
which took off from Treviso, italy
got lost over Yugoslavia in the
haze yesterday and strayed from
the triangular search area spe-
clally outlined by Premier Mar
Shal Tito's government.
A Yugoslav fighter plane forced
1t down near the port city of Pula
40 miles from Trieste at the tin
Of the Istrian Peninsula.
The plane was not damaged and
was allowed to return to its base
United States Ambassador George
Allen took up the incident with
the Yugoslav foreign Office and an