On nearly every mission, B-29s were seen to crash at sea, or their crews radioed to report that they were attempting a controlled water landing. But recovering the castaway crews was a low-percentage proposition. Searching for little yellow rubber rafts in those blue immensities was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, especially when the weather was less than perfectly clear. The navy floatplanes employed for air-sea rescue operations lacked the range or endurance to search thoroughly in waters so far from base.
