http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3467055.stm
Mystery plane found on sea bed
An investigation has been opened after three Royal Navy minesweepers found a mystery aircraft on the sea bed off the west coast near Oban.
The aircraft is believed to be a Cessna and it is thought it may be a plane which disappeared 28 years ago.
The pilot was found dead on land, but his aircraft was never found.
Underwater divers attempted to take video footage of the plane on Friday, but had to return to the surface because of poor underwater visibility.
The tale of the dead pilot is featured in a book titled Scottish Unsolved Mysteries, which describes how airman Peter Gibb was found but his aircraft never was.
Examine wreck
A spokesman for Clyde Coastguard said: “At first, the Royal Navy thought it could be another plane which vanished in the early 1980s.
“But the pictures seem to indicate it is a Cessna. Air authorities think it is one that fell into the sea 28 years ago.”
An investigation into the mystery has now been reopened in an attempt to find out if the crashed plane is the one which disappeared.
In 1986 a diver searching for scallops reported finding the plane, which he said had lost both wings.
But the latest sighting – apparently at the same spot – is of a plane with one of its wings still attached.
Divers are expected to make further attempts to examine the wreck at a later date.
A spokesman for the Royal Navy in Scotland said the plane was found on Thursday evening by three of its vessels from HM Naval Base Clyde at Faslane.
The ships from 3rd Mine Countermeasure Squadron, which was active in the port of Umm Qasr during the recent Gulf conflict, were on an operation to update coastal mapping.
The 300-tonne vessels, HMS Pembroke, HMS Penzance and HMS Inverness, were around a mile off the coast of Oban when they made the find.
The 52-metre HMS Pembroke discovered the plane in 28 to 31 metres of water during the month-long training operation.
Neil Smith, director of communications for the Royal Navy in the north of Britain, said exploration of the sunken plane was being held back by the weather.
He added: “Further investigations are being hampered by the weather, we have a major Arctic depression there at the moment.
“Also we’re not sure whether our divers, who are trained to go down to 30 metres, will be safe as parts of the plane are submerged at 31 metres.
“We think it could be a Cessna but we haven’t confirmed that yet and we are in talks with the Air Accident Investigation Branch.”
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/scotland/3467055.stm
Published: 2004/02/07 11:49:05 GMT
Anyone got any more info on these incidents?
Flood.
By: Flood - 9th February 2004 at 18:07
Getting away from the tourists, silly!:rolleyes:
Flood.
By: Ren Frew - 9th February 2004 at 11:49
And what the hell would Nessie be doing in the Sound Of Mull off Oban anyway ?
By: Flood - 8th February 2004 at 21:58
Come on! Thats just silly!:rolleyes:
Flood.
By: Last Lightning - 8th February 2004 at 21:46
perhaps he fell out over the mountain. then his plane landed in the sea?
By: Flood - 8th February 2004 at 00:48
Or maybe he left his charts in the back and nipped out to get them…?:rolleyes:
Flood.
By: Arthur - 8th February 2004 at 00:40
I didn’t know that – and a mystery it is!
So perhaps the pilot was whipped out of the water with a smack of the tail of Nessie’s cousin?
By: Flood - 8th February 2004 at 00:38
Except this ones body was found on a hill/mountain, apparently a good few miles from the sea…
Flood.
By: Arthur - 8th February 2004 at 00:27
True, but back in the 1970s and early 1980s, quite a few Cessnas ended up in the Atlantic. There were two ways of shipping them to private owners in Europe: expensively by ship, or cheaply by renting a nutter who would fly it across the pond (somehow it was a populair job with Vietnam veterans who couldn’t find their ways back in society). Fuel margins and quantities were absolutely critical for those flights, and it seems that particulair pilot just fell short-literally. If he had managed to make a controlled ditch not too far from the coast, he might have tried (and failed) to swim to land.
Not that i know much about ditching Cessnas, which doesn’t sound too smart.
By: Flood - 8th February 2004 at 00:24
Yes, but KAL007 was not quite as myterious as this one/s…
Flood.
By: Arthur - 8th February 2004 at 00:21
I guess that Cessna’s beyond hope? IIRC, that Greek Mirage 2000 which was recently put back into service after having ditched, also had it’s pilot killed in the incident.
I don’t think i know of any incidents where the pilot’s body was found, but the plane was not though. Except maybe for KAL007 (that Korean Boeing shot down by a Soviet Su-15), from which remarkably little was found/retrieved.
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February 7, 2004 at 10:15 pm