Cundall's meant to have spent the last 17 years researching also..

Wonder when the next update in this spitfire story will come out..

I.e the waterlogged crate.

Of course we all wish this story has a fairytale ending, apart from the owners of Spitfire airframes as pension-pots, but in reality Blacksheep's post #13 will most likely take the award for most prescient post. The oiks tasked with getting rid of the airframes would, of course, have had no sentimentality and would have pushed the crates together and doused them with Avgas. Burial would most probably have been a time consuming luxury at a time of considerable urgency.
Weeds

Self-evident, Weeds, but in a world where a large % of the population believe in God, Astrology, Aromatherapy, Creationism, Chemtrails, Alien Abductions and the Glitterati (or whatever the worlds "rulers" are called) we shouldn't be surprised at the willingness of some to cling doggedly to chimera like this on the grounds that because they'd like it to be true it probably is, and as you can't disprove it it must be true. Its just the spurious "logic" of evidence-averse new age hippie woo woo I'm afraid.

Taking somthing stronger than Earl Grey, and reading Ryder Haggards
" King Solomans Mines", springs to mind.

But then a pal of mine knows where there are abosolute hundreds of Gold and Silver bars in only 20 feet of water..."Anyone any interest"

Peter R-B ;)
Lancashire

No Spitfires: BBC News - Search for 'buried Spitfires' in Burma called off

I would have thought they would have searched the archives
and worked out that not enough Spits were delivered and
those that were were exported in 1946 BEFORE spending
the money on an expedition and an excavation ?

Me too,

So much for his years of research. Its a shame but I think we all knew this would happen, although nothing much further has been said about the crate full of water?

Is is its only contents water?

Dan

Too embarressed to look ?


Re the research, I agree.

With modern telephones, email, all other types of comms / internet
and quick plane flights, not sure they did due diligence.

I collect old things (pre WW1 and 11), it's amazing how quickly
you can do research and get info from around the world
if you really want, including talking to original family
members.

Now what does this sad saga say about the veracity of those British, American and local "eye witnesses"? Would not be totally surprising if writs started flying before long, in view of the huge amounts of money wasted, not to mention the red face of a certain well known politician ... :uhoh:

Not to mention the red faces of the dozens here who stoutly professed belief in this ridiculous chimera and hotly defended it against all logic and total absence of evidence.:ugh:

Surely someone can find the appropriate quatrain from Nostradamus to cover this "event"? :rolleyes:

This has come up on Avweb.

Funding Pulled For Spitfire Dig
The English farmer who claims there are more than 100 Spitfires buried in Burma vows to continue his search for the aircraft even though his financial backer has pulled out. David Cundall says the reason the six-week effort to find some of the Second World War aircraft has failed is that the government won't allow him to dig in the right place. He said it now seems the aircraft, which eyewitnesses have told him were packed in grease paper and enclosed in crates, may be near or even under a runway at Rangoon's international airport. The airport used to be RAF base Mingaladon. "The authorities will not give us permission to dig because of the risk of undermining the active runway," he said in an email to AVweb. He declined to be interviewed. Cundall says he has heard from eyewitnesses who said they saw large crates being buried at other locations and Cundall wants to dig there. "Getting permission will take months," he said.

Last week the Belarussian video gaming company Wargaming.net announced it was withdrawing financing for the project because it became convinced the buried Spitfires were a myth. "No one would have been more delighted than our team had we found Spitfires," said Wargaming.net spokesman Tracy Spaight. "We knew the risks going in, as our team had spent many weeks in the archives and had not found any evidence to support the claim of buried Spitfires." Magnetic anomalies turned out to be pieces of war-era metal runway and the gaming company's study of RAF records indicated the surviving Spitfires that were brought to Mingaladon were sent back to England after the war. Cundall says he's undeterred. "I want to come back when we have permission to dig at the other site," he said.

-

The man seems obsessed with a notion [no actual proof] that he will find Spitfires [of which there seems to be no record] despite comprehensive documentation for every Spitfire ever made.
He should really return home and stay quietly on his farm before he is put in the funny farm.....

Update please :E

think of a bendy snake type drill. they could easily bore a hole right under the runway some 5cm thick and cause no issue at all, having a poke around for crates. expensive yes but far cheaper than digging up and repairing a runway.

That would be an entirely pointless exercise. If there was anything like crates with Spitfires under the runway they will stay there for all eternity, because no government, however friendly, will close the airport and dig up the runway, however much they are worth, even if your snaky drill did find a wooden crate.

yeah thats true.

Rangoon airport is flat as a pancake - strangely enough like most airports & it is very active. It is a large area too so - where to 'drill'?

The surrounding land is pretty much flat as a pancake.

Anything buried would have required a massive amount of earth shifting. I can not see they would even have bothered trying to do that.


David Cundall is befuddled or a fantasist or trying to scam money.

I did note that PSP (Pierced Steel Planking) is so common in Rangoon it was used in fencing around some of the churches & other buildings. I wonder how long that's been there? So no doubt Mr. Cundall will keep finding that.

The PSP they found... Spitfire hunter pledges the search will go on - Telegraph

Sounds like a right cluster****.

being fair to cundall, he's determined which is good and I hope, as do many something is found.

I wonder what sort of money is involved here?