Many atomic bomb survivors, known as "hibakusha", oppose both military and civilian use of nuclear power, pointing to the tens of thousands who were killed instantly in the Hiroshima blast and the many more who later died from radiation sickness and cancer. The restored Enola Gay on display in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington Credit: Reuters. In a 2005 interview with Associated Press, Van. The last survivor of the aircrafts crew, Theodore Van Kirk, died on July 28, 2014, at the age of 93. Historians have long been at odds over whether the twin attacks brought a speedier end to the war by forcing Japan's surrender and preventing many more casualties in a planned land invasion. The last survivor of the aircraft's crew, Theodore Van Kirk, died on July 28, 2014, at the age of 93. The ground crew of the B-29 Credit: Reuters. Theodore Van Kirk was 24 when he served as navigator on that mission, and already a seasoned combat veteran, having flown 58 bombing missions in Europe. Van Kirk recalled “a sense of relief,” because he said he sensed the devastating bombing would be a turning point to finally bring the war to a close. Well, the last surviving member of the Enola Gay, the bomber that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima 69 years ago, has died at 93. 6, 1945, Tibbets' B-29 dropped the nearly five-ton bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. You could see some fires burning on the edge of the city,” he added at the time. Paul Tibbets, who piloted the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb, has died at age 92. helpful in planning the exhibit a 1990 summing up of recent histo. I describe it looking like a pot of black, boiling tar. of the b-29 Superfortress Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on. “The entire city was covered with smoke and dust and dirt. Theodore Van Kirk, the last surviving member of the Enola Gay flight crew that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in the final stages of World War II, died Monday at an assisted living. from the ground) hit the plane, the crew looked back at Hiroshima. “Shortly after the second wave, we turned to where we could look out and see the cloud, where the city of Hiroshima had been. Hiroshima time the Enola Gay released Little Boy, its.
"The plane jumped and made a sound like sheet metal snapping" after the explosion, Van Kirk told The New York Times on the 50th anniversary of the raid.