Hi Walshlee

In regards to the latest version of events that day I feel it a little hard to believe that Sheppard took off 30 min later and followed Copping in the wrong direction, why?, even if he was travelling twice as fast (say 150 and 300 mph?) it would still take 30 min to overtake Copping and Sheppards plane was damaged too, you would need to know a very accurate bearing to follow to catch up to someone at this distance – even 1 degree out would put you a long way apart at that range, just seems dodgy to me but I wasn’t there so anything could have happened.

Your account also contains the phrase “I recall….” who is it that recalls this incident, can you let us know if it was a pilot, ground crew etc and their name.

Regards
Paul

I loved this comment on the daily mail article the most,

“When he knew the aircraft wasn’t gpoing to make it to an airfield, he must still have been a few thousand feet up; so he could see a lot of desert, and probably some villages / oases. At 2,000 feet up you can see for some 60 miles. Wonder why he doidn’t try and glide his machine to within a few miles of one of these locations, so he could have walked to safety – Batman, Newport, Shropshire, 10/5/2012 17:27”

So all we need to do to find the pilot is wander over to the nearest oasis and pry him away from his harem where he has been living in luxury for the last 70 years… What a laugh.

Paul

Free is definitely not too expensive however I would like an actual real book, will look a bit more.
Paul

Would it be appropriate for the mods to remove the crash co-ordinates from AWOTs post? I realise lots of people already know where it is but surely limiting that as much as possible may protect the airframe in a very small way, there is not much else useful that anyone on here can do at this stage.

Paul

What has been unscrewed from that tube in the cockpit?

Bruce

To my eye the battery dismantling appears to be a recent occurrence (after it was found) as opposed to something from 70 years ago, maybe the army guys who removed the ammo couldn’t read English very well and thought they were flares or something – who knows? The cardboard looks to be in too good condition with the writing clearly visible, I can’t imagine this to have been ourside for that long.

Paul

Well have gone out on a limb way back on Page 1 to say it was real I am very glad it has been confirmed although it is very saddening to see how it is being treated, people walking all over it, yanking at parts, carrying bits off.

On the positive side hopefully the internet attention it has received on all of the forums has enabled the right people to see it and for it to become recovered quicker, the longer it stays out there now that it is known about the less of it will remain.

Paul