His death had mistakenly been announced previously, when the US government classified him as KIA during World War II, after his B-24 Liberator aircraft went down in 1943, and no survivors were located by the military.[33] President Franklin D. Roosevelt even sent Zamperini's parents a formal condolence note in 1944.[24]
Zamperini's death came 70 years later, from pneumonia, on July 2, 2014, in Los Angeles, at home, aged 97.[24][34][35]
Honors and awards[edit]