This was a Liberator too. Crash in Benghazi 1942. No serious injuries! Thanks to Tony Tubbenhauer for the photo.

So did they.
I didn’t know a Twin Pioneer could carry so many people!
Photo c/o John James. Oman.

Nothing is lost, except opportunities. We have to discount the red herrings (400 years old, not Copping etc etc) that have been thrown at us. Those bones could be recovered without too much effort and analysed. But the immediate area under and around the wreck should have been carefully investigated just in case poor Dennis was still there then.

Totally agree. See my post number 6 above. We now need to get the bones and examine them forensically. That should not be too difficult, in order to dispel the fairy stories that have been perpetrated about them and get to the scientific truth.

Andy: I made similar points to Capt Collins in three emails I sent him, viz who tested the bones and when, and what tests were done. My question is now simply, “Why did he not reply?” The 400-year-old bone story is ludricrous if they were never examined, which seems to be the case. If these remains are not of Dennis Copping, we must find out, and it would be relatively simple to do so. Microscopy for the age, and DNA for the family links. Why, oh why, cannot the Defence Attache tell us the truth and nothing but the truth? We owe it to Dennis’s family to get to the bottom of all this. If it were simply that we are asking the impossible, then OK, that is one point of view and someone should tell us, but it is not mine. And I want to know why this is being covered up.

Well said Pat. As I have said on many occasions on each of the P40 threads, the remains found by the ARIDO team could easily be recovered and tested. The whole concept of them being 400 years old could be laid to rest, and their relation, if any, to Dennis Copping easily investigated.

A skyfull of smokers. Also at Payerne 2004.

This is how the Italians do it. Frecce Tricolore about to take off, Payerne 2004.