An Army Air Force pilot from Pennsylvania killed during World War II has been accounted for almost eight decades later, military authorities said.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said last week that 2nd Lt. James Litherland, 25, of South Williamsport was accounted for in March.
In February 1944, Litherland was co-piloting a B-17F Flying Fortress that was struck by anti-aircraft fire after a bombing raid on a German V-2 rocket site in Bois-Coquerel, France. Three airmen parachuted to safety but Litherland and six other crew members were still on board when the plane crashed near Le Translay, France, authorities said.
Six sets of remains were recovered near the crash site but only five were identified. In 2018, more material was recovered from the crash site and the unknown remains were exhumed from a cemetery in France. Dental and anthropological analysis and DNA evidence was used to identify the remains as those of Litherland, officials said….