in May 1944, the B-17 "Miss Ponnie" crashed while on a bombing mission over Nazi-occupied Austria. Georg Reutter's mother watched the plane go down from her house. 75 years later, Goerg picked up his metal detector, trying to confirm this bit of family lore by finding the crash site. He found the entire airplane.

A simple act of curiosity would lead to Georg reuniting the descendants of the 10-man bomber crew for the 75th anniversary of the crash. 

After putting together some of the wreckage, Reutter found the aircraft's tail number, which led him to the local library, where he discovered a list of World War II plane crashes and corresponding tail numbers. The numbers led him to a plane name, which led to a crash date, which led to the names of the 10-man crew. He even tracked the plane's flight path. From there, he found an American veterans website, which led him to the names of descendants.

One of those descendants is actor Mick Berry, who performs a one-man show about his father in San Francisco. When Reutter called Berry, he hit paydirt: Berry's father Dan was the ball turret gunner on the crashed B-17. After coming home from the war, he dictated the entire event to his secretary, leaving behind a detailed, 25-page account of the incident. Berry's show is his father's recollection of bailing out over Austria.

Filmmaker Brendan Hughes captured the reunion and details Reutter's painstaking but resilient efforts to bring them all together in a new documentary, "The Metal Detector," which is now available on PBS and at PBS.org.

https://weta.org/watch/shows/metal-detector

https://www.military.com/off-duty/television/2023/11/13/metal-detector-reunites-descendants-of-b-17-crew-shot-down-world-war-ii.html