A database of every relic ever recovered from every crash-site would surely be pointless not to mention impracticable; the sheer volume of material recovered, its condition and the huge task of cataloguing it in enough detail for such a database to be of any use. Also where is the incentive? Those required to carry out this vast task would be unlikely to benefit from it in proportion to the amount of work required.

Personally I don’t understand what is wrong with most recovered artefacts being the hands of private individuals. Often such artefacts can foster a great interest in specific incidents and lead to detailed individual research that larger museums have neither the resources nor the inclination to carry out.

In my opinion the internet is the perfect tool to publish such personal research and also to allow those with a personal connection with the crash, or who are related to the aircrew involved to contact those that have carried out the research. Through this interaction a greater understanding of the personal history can be gained, detail can be added and in some cases ghosts can be laid to rest.

Where there is a specific type, such as a Stirling, Whitley or Whirlwind that has escaped preservation then of course special efforts should be made to collect as much information and to preserve as many artefacts as possible but for other, better preserved, types I don’t see the point.

I suspect part of the problem here is that several groups/individuals would like to think they are the ‘rightful’ custodian of the few relics that remain.

The details and scope of such a task would be horrendous to carry out but with a modern day dig license you are already stating what items were recovered and from what and where.

With a gap occuring before licences were needed i thought it could be usefull if sites and items could possibly be accounted for in an amnesty.

The amateur wreckology people are important in this task and are much needed.

Information and technology today like the internet make the task of research alot easier then in the past. So if a site has been dug on in the past and has been refound it would help to know what was recovered in an earlier effort.

Not to try and take the items away from the people but to log and take a photo of the item which would bring a fuller finish to the research and maybe help items disapearing forever into obscurity.

Is it possible to find out what has been found from previous licensed digs from the MOD, is this public info???????

If an amnesty was declared to hand info and items over surely it couldn’t be has bad as handing in knives and handguns!

Startling revelations came from the diving amnesty and alot of the time the items were recorded and handed back.

Things have changed now over the past twenty years and I would love to be able to find the items taken from the Typhoon so I can record and photo them to try and make the best complete report possible. Not to point finger and shake my head at them, things were different then.