Billionaire Searches for Uncle's Remains in Papua New Guinea Jungle

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.Deep in the Papua New Guinea jungle, a khaki-clad Andrew Forrest hands his sister Janie a pistol.Beneath his Akubra and a layer of sweat, Australia’s richest man is equal parts exhausted, excited and solemn when he points out the melted aluminium encasing the barrel of what turns out to be a flare gun.

The Forrest children never met their uncle. They inherited his loss through the lens of their late father, Donald Forrest. “My aunt used to write to Uncle David in her diary every few days – just in case he came back he’d have a record of having never ever given up … somehow believed that some day he’d back and read all the news.”The Forrest family’s mission launched four years ago, but has remained under wraps until now.

Dive footage from 2021, now released for the first time, shows the burnt-out fuselage of a Beaufort bomber 43 metres underwater, south of Gasmata and north-east of Port Moresby. To Keith Wiggins, this was his Uncle Clem. Forrest’s team had found him 79 years after he was listed as missing in action.While the war in the Pacific raged, the Wigginses, like the Forrests, had grieved relatives formally listed as missing in action, presumed dead, with no known grave.

His two surviving children expressed their “complete surprise” and “sincere gratitude” in an emotional letter addressed to Forrest.

Andrew Forrest Papua New Guinea Jungle World War II Plane Wreck Remains Uncle

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