The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) has confirmed the identity of U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Franklin H. McKinney, a 21-year-old pilot who disappeared during a World War II spy mission in 1944. The agency announced on May 15, 2026, that McKinney, a member of the 35th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron (PRS), 14th Air Force, was accounted for after his remains were recovered and identified through modern forensic techniques.
McKinney, from Rhode Island, vanished on November 5, 1944, while piloting an F-5 Lightning aircraft on a reconnaissance mission from Yunnanyi, China, to photograph targets in Thailand and Burma. His squadron, known as the "Redhawks," conducted critical aerial espionage missions deep into Japanese-controlled territory, providing intelligence that helped turn the tide of the war in China.
After losing contact with McKinney shortly after takeoff, search efforts by the American Graves Registration Service failed to locate any crash evidence. However, a wartime report from the Royal Thai Air Force Museum suggested that an aircraft struck by lightning exploded and crashed near Ban Mae Kua in Lampang Province, Thailand. In 2018, third-party researchers discovered a crash site in a rice paddy in the same region, which was later investigated by DPAA teams in 2019 and 2021. Human remains found at the site in 2022 were identified as McKinney's through forensic analysis.
The DPAA's announcement marks the resolution of a decades-long effort to account for McKinney, whose name had been engraved on the Tablets of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines. The agency's work involved collaboration with Thai authorities and researchers, highlighting the ongoing efforts to recover and identify missing service members from past conflicts.