Lost RAF fight found in desert after 70 years

DcD said:
Seems a pretty dumb move sending a pilot to ferry a damaged plane across the desert, on his own. Would have thought they'd sent a wingman to make sure he arrives in one piece. :confused:
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I'd only be speculating but would they have the spare aircraft to fly as an escort at that point? I'd have thought they'd be needing them to fly the actual missions?

Or to put it another way if the aircraft was too damaged to fly a mission and was going for repairs then what difference would it make to the war effort to let it return alone? If it made it back for repairs then great, you've got another plane to use after it is fixed, if it doesn't well you're no worse off as you've still got the same number of working planes as before without risking another on an escort mission.
 
Saw this on BBC news. They also found and all the planes live ammunition.

Apparently the RAF Museum in London are saying they want the plane.
 
Would they transport a damaged plane with its ammo banks full? without knowing the flightpath odviosuly but you would not expect them to be flying over enemy terratory??
Surely the weight saving would be more apropriate.
 
Anyone remember this book from primary school? Thats what it reminds me of.

8qSk8.jpg
 
Nope Kwerk, but it's something I think that would have been fascinating to me at that age. Looks like it came out when I was in Primary School too.
 
semi-pro waster said:
I'd only be speculating but would they have the spare aircraft to fly as an escort at that point? I'd have thought they'd be needing them to fly the actual missions?

Or to put it another way if the aircraft was too damaged to fly a mission and was going for repairs then what difference would it make to the war effort to let it return alone? If it made it back for repairs then great, you've got another plane to use after it is fixed, if it doesn't well you're no worse off as you've still got the same number of working planes as before without risking another on an escort mission.
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Possibly this, or the report is not quite correct. The squadrons operated in very austere conditions and lacked the ability to perform a lot of maintenance. It was common practice for specialised scheduled inspections to be carried out in rear areas, so this may have just been a routine flight to one of those that went terribly wrong....
 
Amazing find, I hope they find his remains - it must have been a desperate end for him.

David Keen, an aviation historian at the RAF Museum, says the pilot broke the first rule of survival in the desert, which is to stay with your plane or vehicle.
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I don't get this - it's taken 60 years to discover the wreckage!
 
Stolly said:
Possibly this, or the report is not quite correct. The squadrons operated in very austere conditions and lacked the ability to perform a lot of maintenance. It was common practice for specialised scheduled inspections to be carried out in rear areas, so this may have just been a routine flight to one of those that went terribly wrong....
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That's perfectly possible too, I admit I don't know too much about the operating procedures but was just offering up a possible reason based on the scenario suggested.

JayMax said:
Amazing find, I hope they find his remains - it must have been a desperate end for him.

I don't get this - it's taken 60 years to discover the wreckage!
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Very true it wouldn't have helped in this case but I think it's more of a general point, the wreckage of a large vehicle is much easier to find than an individual wandering about the desert normally. Of course if you know with a fair degree of certainty that no-one is going to miss you/come looking for you and the area is not one regularly travelled then the value of the advice to stay with the vehicle is somewhat questionable because the probability may have changed to favour trying to go somewhere - you might die in the attempt but if you're almost definitely going to die from exposure/lack of food staying where you are then I'd tend to favour action over inaction.
 
It's a moot point really :D
David Keen, an aviation historian at the RAF Museum, says the pilot broke the first rule of survival in the desert, which is to stay with your plane or vehicle.
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Unless rescused one would presume!
 
Much more info here with videos:

http://storyful.com/stories/28750

Apparantly there were two planes and he wasn't solo

When 24-year-old Flt Sgt Dennis Copping was forced to crash-land here in June 1942 he probably realised he stood no chance of survival. With only rudimentary equipment and no means of contacting the nearest settlement 320km (200 miles) away, he knew his final enemy would be the burning Saharan sun.

On June 28, he and another airman from RAF’s 260 Squadron had been told to fly two damaged Kittyhawk P-40 planes from one British airbase in northern Egypt to another for repairs. During the short flight he lost his bearings, went off course and was never seen again.
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