great idea!

Putting two and two together and getting five, it is beginning to sound like someone wanted to do a dramatic TV documentary a la “Who do you think you are” type of thing. At least with the airframe offsite, it reduces the scope for such excesses.

I have to say after the clamour for publicity i have witnessed on this forum regarding the P40 I am tempted to describe your comments as being more than a little hippocritical? I assume the ‘excesses’ of the mass media are tolerable whilst they serve to help in the recovery of the aircraft but not apparently the pilot? The purpose of that clamour for publicity on this forum was to fascilitate the speedy recovery of the aircraft and was certainly not done with the support of the family as they had still not been informed. The plan to document the recovery was very much about searching for and recovering Dennis Copping. Because as has been pointed out on a number of occaisions the MOD and RAFM have neither the interest or ability to do it, despite clearly having had the opportunity.

As I said at the beginning, it is removed pending developments. It would not have been done without good reason I can assure you. It will return!

I do think comparing removing a thread on an internet forum with the invasion of Poland is pushing similes a little far!

Bruce

I haven’t compared the invasion of Poland with your removal of the thread. I have clearly suggested that the removal is censorship. I have compared your statement that the removal is not censorship as being a bit like describing the invasion of Poland as a Holiday.

This forum has seen wild speculation (including that of the possible identity of the pilot), long before the aircraft was positively identified and the family informed, despite being cautioned that this should not happen and the feelings of the family should be respected. There has been a clamour to broadcast the information across the world in the misguided assumption that this would somehow help protect the aircraft and facilitate a speedy recovery, which has taken place, I believe prompted by a forumite, again before the family were informed. They actually found out when someone read it in a newspaper and called them. It has been debated whether it is worth searching for the remains of the pilot ad-nauseum, many (not all) drawing the conclusion that as it is difficult and unlikely that his remains may be found, it is not worth even trying, thus absolving all of our consciences of the responsibility. Thank goodness Flt Sgt Copping and his comrades didn’t draw this conclusion 70 years ago when faced with even more seemingly insurmountable and dangerous tasks, their likelihood of success was also small but thankfully they didn’t draw the conclusion that it was so difficult they shouldn’t bother!

There are things that are more important than the recovery of historic aircraft even one as important as this. Qattara and his team are the only people on this forum (as far as I am aware) who have been on the ground in the area of the crash and despite their considerable efforts and their discovery of human remains in the vicinity of the aircraft and passing all of the relevant information to the UK authorities no one from the MOD has even bothered to contact them. Frankly that is a disgrace and we should all be ashamed at the total lack of interest that has been shown by officialdom in recovering the remains of Flt Sgt Copping. The debt we owe him and his family is immeasurable and the effort required now to attempt to identify and recover his remains and show him the respect and dignity he deserves is a miniscule sacrifice in comparison. In the mean time a recovery of sorts has taken place and the aircraft and the slightly bizarre efforts to recover it seems to be in limbo. I believe this censorship sorry ‘brief interlude’ is more about covering the embarrassment of the people who have clamoured to recover the aircraft without a second thought for the recovery of the pilot, a recovery effort that looks increasingly like it was ill conceived and doomed to fail. In any event I fail to see how comments on this forum can conceivably influence the outcome of those efforts good, bad or indifferent.

Despite the numerous negatives, this thread was also being used as a means of exchanging information between parties who are still trying to identify those remains with, hopefully, a positive outcome for Flt Sgt Dennis Copping and his family. Parties like Qattara, L garey, Tangmere myself and others. The suspension of this thread is certainly not helping that particular cause. So in the absence of any evidence or explanation to the contrary as to why we are experiencing this brief interlude, I stick by my earlier assertion that this is censorship pure and simple and for all the wrong reasons. Reopen the thread. Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of democracy, at least what we have left of it. We should all now concern ourselves with trying to help where we can to do the right thing and identify, if possible, and facilitate the recovery of the remains of the most important person in this whole affair, Flt Sgt Dennis Copping.

I thought censorship was something people like Dennis Copping were fighting to prevent?