No, that's not a last minute attempt by the Daily Sport for immortality but the news that a Dornier 17 has been located at the Goodwin Sands off the Kent coast.
The aircraft is believed to have taken part in the Battle of Britain and its emergence after more than seventy years from beneath the shifting sands is getting some people very excited. The Port of London Authority (PLA) has taken a whole memory card's worth of photographs and it looks like the aircraft is in pretty good nick.
The high-resolution images appear to show that the plane suffered only minor damage, to its forward cockpit and observation windows, on impact. "The bomb bay doors were open, suggesting the crew jettisoned their cargo," said PLA spokesman Martin Garside. Two of the crew members died on impact, while two others, including the pilot, were taken prisoner and survived the war.
"The fact that it was almost entirely made of aluminium and produced in one piece may have contributed to its preservation," Garside told Reuters. The plane is still vulnerable to the area's notorious shifting sands and has become the target of recreational divers* hoping to salvage souvenirs.
* Try some shop lifting in your local Arndale Centre and see if calling yourself a 'recreational consumer' will get you off a shoplifting charge!
3 comments:
Interesting point about shoplifting. Who does the plane actually belong to after all these years?
Well it's not on Royal ground so I suppose it must still belong to the Luftwaffe unless it's declared treasure trove or the RAF claims the crash site.
Don't know is the honest answer.
You can be sure that if it were a gold laden galleon the rights of ownership would well and truly known!
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