WWII pilot missing after secret spy mission finally accounted for more than 80 years later

A pilot who disappeared during a World War II spy mission has been accounted for, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced Wednesday. Officials said U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Franklin H. McKinney, 21, of Rhode Island, was accounted for on May 15, 2026. He served as an airman with the 35th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron (PRS), 14th Air Force. McKinney reportedly failed to return after departing from Yunnanyi, China, on a reconnaissance mission to photograph targets in Thailand and