According to several sources, the first rescue during an official Dumbo mission was on 1 January 1943, with the aircraft (the PBY Buno 04502 of VP-72) crashing on return to Guadalcanal.
Fatalities in the crash are reported as between 3 and 5 according to the sources:
3 (no names):
https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/cras...ocean-3-killed
4 (Lt. Roger S. Norton (pilot), AP1c. Edward G. Dennis, Jr, Rm3c. George J. Crossman, Amm2c. Benjamine H. Wist, Jr):
https://www.vpnavy.net/vp72_mishap.html
4 (Lt. Roger Stanton Norton (pilot), AP1c. Edward G. Dennis, Jr, Rm3c. George J. Crossman, Amm2c. Benjamine H. Wist, Jr): book "VPNavy! USN, USMC, USCG and NATS Patrol Aircraft Lost or Damaged During World War II", who by the way says the crash occured on 11 January
5 (no names):
https://www.vpnavy.net/vp72_1930.html
I have found three in the US roster of war dead (Norton, Dennis and "Wist", actually Benjamin Harrison West) and also found their graves (Norton in Manila US War cemetery and the other two in USA). All have 1 January 1943 as date of death.
There is no trace of a George J Crossman in the US roster of war dead, in AMBC or in findagrave. There is a George Grossmann, but he died in December 1943 aboard a US destroyer.
My guess is that there were only 3 dead in this crash, and Crossman either survived or was not there, but I would like confirmation by some official source (VP-72 diary for the period is not available on fold3).
All source agree that the rescued man was an Army fighter pilot. I will be interested to know his name too. I have not been able to identify him, and I wonder if he was not actually an USMC pilot, Capt David C Andre of VMO-251, who crashed on 23 December 1942 and was picked up by a US rescue plane at a date not known by me (see
https://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/f4f/03534.html).
If someone has the answer of one of these two questions i will be interested. Thanks in advance