In WW2, Royal Air Force bombers
carried homing pigeons as emergency survival equipment in watertight containers (photo of one in
this article) This article says: "The British Royal Air Force determined that one in every seven of its crewmen who were rescued after being forced down at sea owed his life to a message sent by pigeon."
Here are two articles on the most famous case:
The pigeon that saved a World War II bomber crew Winkie the RAF Pigeon who Saved the Life of a Bomber Crew Here's a wartime report citing this and two other cases as "a few examples", from 15 Feb 1944
The use of Pigeons by the RAF Reading the citations, it seems that 7 of the 32 homing pigeons awarded the
Dickin Medal in WW2 were released from crashed RAF aircraft:
Pigeons at War the RAF and the National Pigeon ServiceHowever, these days,
personal locator beacons (PLBs) are less bulky and require less feeding than pigeons.