The first reported sighting of the crash site was on November 9, 1958, by a British oil exploration team working for British Petroleum (BP) in the northeast of Libya's Kufra District. The team contacted authorities at Wheelus Air Base, but no attempt to examine the aircraft was made as no records existed of any plane believed to have been lost in the area. The location of the wreckage was however marked on maps to be used by oil-prospecting teams that were due to set out to explore the Calanscio Sand Sea the next year.