Can you help? Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping crashed his American-made P40 Kittyhawk single-engine fighter in the Egyptian desert in 1942. The remarkably well preserved airplane was recently discovered near a remote place called Wadi al-Jadid by a Polish oil worker, Jakub Perka. The RAF Museum in Hendon, north London, says it is hoping to recover the plane as soon as possible.
The remains of the pilot have not yet been found. However, he obviously survived the crash as he used a parachute to build an awning to protect himself from the desert sun. He also methodically removed the plane's two-way radio and battery. British authorities are trying to find out whether Flt Sgt Copping has any surviving close relatives, because if his remains are found a decision will need to be made about what to do with them. The 24-year-old pilot was the son of a dentist from Southend in Essex.
You can read more in a BBC article at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18038650.
My thanks to Steve Jackson for telling me about this story.
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