The Incident That Could Have Killed Pittsburgh

by Robert H. Johns, Robert E. Cole (Editor)

Looking Back into Pittsburgh History...Man's quest to solve a mystery results in a manuscript published seventeen years after his death, but not an end to the mystery. Conclusions point to a deception intended for the great good in the true story of the infamous B-25 bomber that crash-landed and then vanished in the Monongahela River on January 31, 1956. Witnesses claim that the plane was secretly recovered. Fifty-two years later the story is still a mystery. The book is borne out of Johns' writing. Published with minimal changes by Robert E. Cole, editor, this book presents the facts behind the incident just as Mr. Johns encountered them, bit-by-bit and surprising piece-by-piece. Johns says in his notes that those facts, when assembled, present a picture inescapably different from what we were intended to accept. Without this deception, he asserts, Pittsburgh might very well have disappeared. What happened to the B-25 bomber that crashed in the Mon in 1956 -- then vanished? The Search - The Failures - The Research -The Incident. Read Robert Johns' quest for answers and see for yourself how baffling, how compelling, and ultimately how revealing The Incident That Could Have Killed Pittsburgh is. This book is not the end of the story. Robert A. Goerman, close friend and investigative consultant to the author, has reopened the cold case investigation. Another book may be in the making.

245 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2008

Reviews

[phil breidenbach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, I'll say that. Living in Pittsburgh, I have heard many different stories about the disappearance of the B-25 in the river near the city. The author's theory was one of them. What do I believe? I really don't know and really, don't care. Still, I enjoy reading things such as this dealing with the city of Pittsburgh.

The book could've used a little more editing, I feel as if he could have given less facts and discoveries. Nevertheless, I enjoyed his book.

[Patrick Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is the story of one man's search for the truth. In 1956 an Air Force bomber plane crashed in the Monongahela River, Pittsburgh, PA. The crash is a documented fact but everything after the crash gets murky. The author interviews some of the air force personnel who were involved in the crash, military experts, flight experts, and local reporters to try and piece together the story. Why were the FBI and CIA involved in the investigation? What happened to the plane that was never discovered in only 30 feet of water. What was on the plane? Why the secrecy.

The author comes to a conclusion, which is only his thoughts based on what he found during his research. Nothing can be prove, there is a lot of conjecture, but the possibility is real and the thought process is solid. If true, it's an amazing cover up that you couldn't get by with today. If it's not true it leaves many unanswered questions.

Not a great book but an interesting read, even though it's drags at a few points.

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe my expectations were too high for this book. But honestly, I only made it about thirty pages in. I almost never, or very rarely, give up on books. I was expecting some sort of well-researched, scholarly approach to this topic. Instead, I found that it was shoddily written, full of the author's bizarre interjections, with little actual research aside from the occasional news article. When the author discussed a call-in radio show that sparked his interest, for example, he had no tape, no transcript, and no date for the show. He only had his memory. This does not qualify as a reliable source. Furthermore, the author based some of his findings on hearsay and personal experience. Despite his background as a military aviator, he did not effectively establish his expertise in this area. I stopped reading when the author brought up the existence of UFOs. The author also failed to make a case that Pittsburgh could not have survived the truth. One thing that the author did get: the most plausible explanation of what happened to the B-25 was that it was taken out of the river secretly. "The Incident that Could Have Killed Pittsburgh" is merely the ramblings of an individual obsessed with conspiracy theories interspersed with a small spattering of fact. I cannot recommend this book to anyone.