Beasley, Jesse, LT

Lieutenant Beasley was a veteran of World War II. In Korea, he was the plane commander of a P2V-5 Neptune patrol bomber with Patrol Squadron 2, US Navy. While on a night reconnaissance mission of North Korea and China coasts on January 4, 1954, contact was lost and he was declared Missing in Action.
 
According to the radio log, the crew left Iwakuni, Japan, at 2:28 p.m., Jan. 4, 1954. Lt. Beasley flew 72 miles off the coast of Manchuria and within 50 miles of China and North Korea.

At 6 p.m. the crew's radio transmissions were full of static. Twenty-three minutes later crew members sent a distress signal indicating the plane had lost an engine and they wanted to land at the nearest base, at Gunsan, South Korea. But for reasons Coble cannot explain, the crew apparently received the wrong coordinates to Gunsan. They didn't get accurate coordinates until much later in the flight, and by then it was too late.

After seven more minutes, crew members radioed for help. The log does not mention an attack by another aircraft, although the log is not complete because of the static in some transmissions.

Less than an hour later, the plane had dropped from 1,500 to 100 feet. It climbed a few hundred feet higher, then crashed into the sea.

Service number: 351146

Please also visit the 3 Cape Cod created by Satch Beasley.

All of the information contained in this profile was compiled from various internet sources as well as information from official documents as supplied by Satch Beasley - Lt Jesse Beasley's son. Photographs of Lt Beasley and the family portrait were contributed by Satch Beasley and used with his permission.