Some thoughts on the 2 videos……
The big guy at the end of vid 2 is the rich guy, the boss. My guess is he is associated with the oil drilling operation. From the look of him I think his interest extends to more than a few ebay sales.
The guy with the hood and his arm around the big guy is possibly AWOT’s friend, the oil explorer who made the discovery and reported the find to someone – possibly the big guy.
Most of the guys in the 1st vid are wearing the same trousers with a stripe – employees of the big guy and have been tasked to move the aircraft.
The recovery is officially sanctioned – based on the army removing the ammo.
The guy on the wing at the end of the 2nd vid is removing a wing root access panel – this isn’t souveniring behaviour – it suggests to me that they are trying to remove the wings the proper way.
The gunsight removal may be souveniring or could be an attempt to remove items that may be damaged in the recovery / lifting operation. In almost all recoveries from far off places things go missing – the 110s/Stuka/Fw190 from Russia all suffered in some way so a few pieces may well go astray.
The deep slash in front of the windscreen is new and quite worrying – why do such a thing and what tool would make such a mark with outward facing tears?
They have already made an attempt to remove the rudder (top hinge disconnected) and possibly the left elevator (access panel open).
From all this I think we have a guy in charge who knows the value of what he has. He is wealthy and has a team who work for him. I think the videos show the start of the dismantling process and these have been put out there to generate interest.
This may be an overly positive view but I hope I’m right. I do hope AWOT can get back to us with a real assessment of the future of this bird.
Sign In
