Flt Sgt Copping's P-40 From The Egyptian Desert

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14 years 5 months

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P40

Shay

The P40 was first seen 27th Feb!

The videos are from end of March. Even though a month later the damage was not as bad as I had expected when I thought it had only been known about for a week. We are now this was from a month it makes me feel a very small amount better.

All of the plates and tags have gone but there are still a few hidden places and hopefully J can get out there soon to check.

As for a press release, I am hoping there will be one shortly and after that it will hopefully also be in the main press. The situation with the pilot is the main reason why it has not been report as well as access to photos.

Wait to hear that happens on Star Wars day.

Dobbin - the Polish guys have not stolen anything!

regards

Mark

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19 years 11 months

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j ???

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12 years 1 month

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Star Wars day????

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19 years 11 months

Posts: 258

I'm not sure what the main stream press is going to do to help? If there is a serious plan to recover the aircraft then that would be the last thing you would want! There still doesn't seem to be an answer to the question who from the RAFM/AHC will go out there and recover it? If the idea is to ask the egyptian military to do a recovery the damage done so far will look like small beer!

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Star Wars day????

May the Fourth be with you...

Adrian

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24 years 2 months

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Looks like efforts are underway to bring misc pieces back to the aircraft namely the prop is now closer with the spinner in front and some never before seen parts on site...
Also on that curtis dataplate, would the number 236 be any relation to airframe number ??
Lastly, one of the original picures of the rear fuselage I swaer I can see a 5 and 7 where the serial would be....

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I'm not sure what the main stream press is going to do to help? If there is a serious plan to recover the aircraft then that would be the last thing you would want! There still doesn't seem to be an answer to the question who from the RAFM/AHC will go out there and recover it? If the idea is to ask the egyptian military to do a recovery the damage done so far will look like small beer!

Pat

The RAFM are doing all they can to secure the aircraft via official channels, however this is a slow process and the UK does not have huge sway with the Egyptian authorities (I suggested that they make a request that the local Egyptian army presence might place a guard on the wreck in the interim to curtail further damage). Unfortunately not likely and with the GPS location now posted I fear the worst.
Unfortunately with the find all over the interweb like a virus it has made the RAFM efforts a lot more difficult 'funding' wise also.

Dave

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19 years 11 months

Posts: 258

The point i am trying to make is that it's all well and good trying to get permission to recover the aircraft but i don't see how the RAF museum is going to launch a major logistic exercise like this in the middle of the Sahara desert. The military will not deploy for two reasons 1) budget 2) security, MOD civilians will not deploy into Egypt on an official basis it's too dangerous. So what is the plan to secure the aircraft if the Egyptian government decide to allow a recovery?

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Surely the RAFM are not the only contenders?

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Shame they didn't tell people it had been found in an old minefield.

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19 years

Posts: 550

No, the FW190 was absolutely complete when it was found. The cockpit was gutted in a similar way to this P40.

I know that 190 rather intimately!

Bruce

I obviously only saw later pics n footage :( any links avail of early images?

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Long thread -please read all posts carefully

G'day

I think you guys should stop worrying about the missing 'dataplate', Ash has already told us that it is the canopy operating placard yet people still keep thinking it is the real dataplate.

Buz has also given us the exact locations to look for the aircraft serial number, perhaps someone who is in contact with the Polish geologists can ask them to look in the correct place and put everyone out of their misery as it appears they may still be in the general area and are able to get there every now and then. I also doubt the Poles would have created any of the damage, they are probably even more pi55ed off than us that their discovery is being treated this way, and they can see all of the first hand evidence.

Lastly, the latest set of photos clearly show an internal detonation in the fuselage which supports previous speculation that the IFF was possibly destroyed before the pilot abandoned the aircraft.

Paul

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16 years 11 months

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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

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Co-ordinates removed but I can't help but feel that is like closing the gate after the horse has already gone...

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11 years 11 months

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Unfortunately, this is part of why these things are often hush-hush.

If it were me, I'd keep my mouth shut until it was in a container and at sea...maybe longer

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17 years 5 months

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Agreed... And welcome.

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17 years 7 months

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Unfortunately, this is part of why these things are often hush-hush.

If it were me, I'd keep my mouth shut until it was in a container and at sea...maybe longer

Seconded

Andrew
Welcome to the group

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24 years 2 months

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Thinking along the same lines there too Andrew!

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17 years 5 months

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The reality is that this treatment of the Kittyhawk would have taken place even if the pictures and vids hadn't hit the internet. From the Oil company crew to the Egyptian military, too many people already knew about it before we did. Best we can hope for is that the behind the scenes talks go well.

For what it's worth, "IF" those coordinates that were posted were correct, before they were removed I plugged them into my copy of google earth. Last week I plugged in over 200 "Landing Grounds" coordinates. With regards to F/Sgt Copping's incident it was said he departed "LG-9" enroute for LG-100. Now after mapping out all the LG's it turned out there were two Landing Grounds with the designation #9. LG-09 and LG-009. LG-009 is located in Northern Egypt along the coast and LG-09 in central eastern Libya. The sparse details of the account lead one to beleive that the LG-9 in question is LG-009 along the northern coast and closest to LG-100. But the Kittyhawk coordinates provided are pretty close to a flightpath I plotted from LG-09 (Libya) to LG-100. Infact it only deviates by 13 miles which I would think is within tolerance. Thats a big desert and to be within 13 miles of the flightpath is (to me) is a big coincidence. Just thought it might be worth mentioning.

If the true facts of the story are that the flight was from LG-009 to LG-100 then I really don't have any explanation. The aircraft's location is so far outside that flight path that it doesn't make sense.

Shay
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Semper Fortis