Comments by "FiveCentsPlease" (@FiveCentsPlease) on "CNN" channel.

  1. It was already known that the pilot was RAF Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping. It is still unclear why he flew in the wrong direction from his flight orders and it is understood that he perished in the desert. A perimeter search near the plane found some "remains" but even several years later Copping's remains still have not been formally identified for a proper military funeral. 
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  2. It was disassembled by a team of experts and moved into storage for protection. I'm not sure whether it will end up in an Egyptian museum or a British museum, but I believe the plan is for it to be displayed as-is. Hopefully it will survive the political turmoil there and go to a museum.
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  3. +SkiTle And by recent accounts, the DNA testing was botched in Egypt, with no anthropological examination of the bones or the location where the bones were found. (Male? Female? Age? Race of the remains? Nope.) Now the bones have disappeared. No other military gear found with the bones is suspect. His seat harness was cut, and you could also speculate that he was found dead in the cockpit and buried by the local tribesmen. It's a shame for the memory of Dennis Copping. The wreckage of the plane was moved into storage several years ago, but the current whereabouts are now uncertain.
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  4. Tele Player That's pretty much it. Bones that were found somewhere near the wreckage were not thoroughly examined and have since disappeared in the chaos of the military overthrow of the Egyptian government. (The bones could be anybody who perished in the desert.) Likewise, the container with the aircraft is missing from El Alamein. There are presently only rumors that the aircraft has left Egypt. A sad state of affairs, though nobody could have predicted the unrest and the plane was suffering further vandalism just leaving it in the desert. No win situation.
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  5. Adrian Larkins Technically, this was an RAF Kittyhawk that was flown by an RAF officer who died in the line of duty. So the RAF should indeed take this aircraft for their museum since I doubt it will get any deserving care in an Egyptian museum. (And if it doesn't get trashed in the turmoil over there now.)  Displaying it as-is is fine for this plane as a memorial to the lost pilot.
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  6. Adrian Larkins I believe the UK is working with Egyptian officials to get the plane relocated to RAF Hendon. Hopefully that will happen since it will be in very good hands there.
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  7. +donald duck (stilletoe) There has been no formal identification of the pilot Dennis Copping. Some bones were found some distance from the plane, but DNA and forensic analysis of the bones that was done in Cairo does not appear to have been thorough enough to reach any conclusions, or perhaps even enough to identify the age or race of the bones. (A lot of people die in the desert.) Those bones have now disappeared. What is curious is that the pilot's seat harness was cut and others have pointed out that the impact damage on the plane could have injured the pilot's feet and pelvis. It's possible that he died in the cockpit or nearby and was buried by the locals. For now it is still a mystery. The plane was disassembled and placed into a shipping crate and then moved back to civilization to protect it from vandals. There are negotiations to bring the plane to the UK for museum display. There has been little public discussion of the plane and the shipping container may have also gone missing recently.
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  8. You can find cargo versions of 747s at any major airport worldwide that are moving heavy loads for DHL, UPS, FedEx and other freight carriers day and night. Civilian airlift contractors fly military and government cargo all of the time. This isn't a new concept.
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  9. I believe the plane is eventually destined for a UK museum where it will displayed in the desert crash scene, as you say. It was removed and put into storage by a team of experts to prevent more damage by the "visitors." There are no published intentions to do any restoration or rebuild for this wreck. Hopefully it will make it out of Egypt in one piece.
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  10. julosx One possible explanation is destructive explosives that were carried on some WW2 aircraft to destroy sensitive equipment, or perhaps a fragmentation grenade used by the pilot to destroy equipment before it could be captured by German forces.
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  11. It has also been discussed that judging from the impact damage, the pilot could have suffered broken ankles, leg or back injuries and died in the cockpit or nearby. Bedouins or locals could have buried him. Bones were found nearby but they were never formally identified and lots of people die in the desert for many reasons.
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  12. +David Mcque Not at this time. That was the plan but the military coup in Egypt changed everything. Too much chaos to know what's happening with it right now and it could end up being a casualty of the unrest over there. Only rumors that the shipping crate made it out, so fingers crossed.
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  13. Yes, and some remains were found but have still not been formally identified in Egypt. It's not clear if they have actually found the pilot. Kinda sad that the RAF and the MOD have not expedited the identification process.
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  14. nunya biznez Both the plant ID and the name of the pilot were known very quickly. It was a ferry flight for repairs and the pilot broke away from the group and ignored signals to turn around, and it is not known why. The plane is presently missing after the unrest in Egypt and the search and investigation for the remains of the pilot was also fouled up.
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  15.  @freyapoynton1134  The account I have read was that it was a maintenance flight. Pilot Copping and his wingman encountered light flak and were separated. When they rejoined, Copping refused radio and hand signals to resume the correct heading and was not seen again. The abysmal patch job on the aircraft done by the Egyptians has probably all but erased any chance for a forensic examination to determine the cause. And I am sorry for the pitiful job by the MoD and Egyptian officials with locating or identifying the remains of your great great uncle.
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  16. +Wanda Pulliam That is the current plan, if all goes well.
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  17. Adrian Larkins New Zealand has also restored a number of Kittyhawks to airworthy condition, so restoration expertise is not limited to the US. In fact, Meier Motors in Germany is now doing some of the best restoration work that I have ever seen on a number of Allied and Axis aircraft. Very impressive resto work is now done in Germany, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, UK, and even Russia. (Russia has restored a few Mig-3s, Japanese Zeros, as well as building that shiny new IL-2 for the Flying Heritage Collection.)
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  18. Samstrat94 No aircraft or wreck should be left in the open as a memorial anymore period. It's not realistic and there is no respect for them. They need to be under protection or inside. Over the years many museums have taken perfectly good aircraft and parked them outside for decades to rot with moisture and bird poop. Then there's an outcry when the plane is deemed unrestorable and scrapped. Unprotected wrecks are vandalized and hacked apart for scrap metal when nobody is looking all over the world. Just read about the huge scrapping of WW2 planes on Morotai just a few decades ago. Anything that is left needs to be moved into protection now. I can't stand the cry babies that want to leave planes to rot in the Pacific jungles. They are rotting away and won't last much longer. Outside displays can be done with fiberglass replicas, since this has already been done with a number of  aircraft. It makes no sense to park a million dollar aircraft out in the weather when a $150K fiberglass replica will last longer. (Pointing a finger a McGuire AFB and their rotting P-38 that used to be airworthy.)
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  19. +Adrian Larkins New info that the Egyptian AF Museum decided to do their own restoration. See the travesty that resulted here: https://forum.keypublishing.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=257969&stc=1&d=1514499790
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  20. +planthi80 Bones were found nearby but were not given a through examination and have since gone missing (along with the storage container holding plane apparently) in the chaos of the military overthrow of the Egyptian government. Keeping in mind that hundreds of wandering souls have perished in that desert so those bones could have been anybody. There are currently only rumors regarding the fate of the plane and no movement on the pilot who could have been buried by locals or walked for several kilometers in any direction.
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  21. The radar mapping from the New Zealand aircraft show that the crater and most of the Hunga Tonga island has disappeared. It's gone leaving just a sliver of land.
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  22. bern bren There has been no formal identification of the pilot's remains for a military funeral. Any remains that were found in the search are still waiting for analysis in Egypt and I don't think the British MOD has moved to expedite the identification.
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  23. The plane was crated and moved to a secure location to protect it from more vandals. There was supposed to be an official ceremony to hand the aircraft over to the British for a museum, however the military coup in Egypt prevented that and due to the chaos the whereabouts of the plane are now unknown. Some bones were found near the wreck location, but any forensic examination that was done in Cairo did not produce a positive ID and those bones have disappeared also. So it is pretty messed up right now.
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  24. ***** I don't know why the British MoD did not make identifying any nearby remains a priority, even if they did not turn out to be the unfortunate pilot. Instead, whatever was found nearby was supposedly given a half-arsed examination in Cairo and also lost during the military coup.
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  25. MissCattitude63 To quote Boeing's own literature: "From the beginning the 747 was designed to serve as an all-cargo transport." The 747-100 and 747-200 series were introduced one year apart, with the 747-200 offered as either a passenger carrier or heavy-lift freighter beginning in 1971. Boeing would not be so stupid to not adapt a high capacity airframe to two profitable markets.
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  26. Adrian Larkins It's been locked in secure storage for a while to prevent more damage.
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  27. johnson11b The latest discussions are that the P-40 is still in Egypt, and the political situation is so dire that hopes are fading that it will ever make it out. A deal was negotiated to exchange the remains of a Spitfire for it and concerns are also being raised whether this was a proper trade. Supposedly, the P-40 still remains in secure storage and individuals directly involved in the recovery state that it will still be moved to the UK.
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  28. No, the pilot is identified correctly. But no bones or body have been positively ID'd. Whatever bones were found (animal or human) have been lost in Egypt.
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  29. Hardly a whole Spitfire, so the paper is wrong and speculating. The Spit is an engineless, stripped out hulk that was exchanged for recovering the P-40. People who are "in the know" are saying that the P-40 deal is still a go.
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  30. +Aaron Ryan There was not a conclusive DNA test on bones that were found in a perimeter search, and many people die in the desert. (Along with some evidence that the DNA test in Cairo was a lousy job.) Those bones (and the plane) have disappeared in chaos of the military coup in Egypt. Some have suggested that the from the crash damage the pilot may have suffered back, pelvic or leg injuries and could have even died in the cockpit and was buried by passing tribesmen. It will remain a mystery unless move evidence is found.
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  31. They found the remains of the parachute and assumed there was an attempt at shelter. Everything is lost for the time being until things settle down in Egypt and there was no formal ID of bones that were found three miles away.
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  32. +MechRider69 +The plane was crated and moved to safe area before an official ceremony to give it to the RAF for museum display. Before the ceremony, there was a military coup in Egypt with Field Marshal el-Sisi and the plane was lost in the chaos. Hopefully it will be found again, and there was even a rumor that it was taken out of Egypt, but who knows at this time.
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  33. +John Baily Nope. Although there was a rumor that the plane made it out of Egypt. If that were true, there would be more gossip about it. Things went silent when el-Sisi took over.
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  34. +Diesel 84 To be specific, they traded the partial remains of a Spitfire. But still another Spitfire that could have been restored to flying condition. The entire deal was a debacle after the military coup in Egypt and their reneging on returning the Kittyhawk to the UK. The coup was pretty rough and things shut down quickly, and it sounded like things got very Gestapo for a while.
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  35. +Michael McKinnon The plane went down on a maintenance flight and the pilot perished in the desert. The pilot flew in the wrong direction and ignored instructions to turn around.
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  36. +Cali_Boy19 What is known is that the pilot intentionally flew in the wrong directing and ignored instructions, and the plane traveled beyond its fuel range. So without the proper examination that the plane was not given in Eqypt, there is no way to know if it was show down, used for target practice, or if the pilot attempted to destroy it with a grenade.
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  37. So was the Curtiss P-40.
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  38. +Moke Hogan Some unidentified bones were found nearby, but the MOD dragged their feet and let the Egyptians perform the DNA study with inconclusive results. Further action was not taken after the coup in Egypt. The plane has just been revealed in Egypt with fiberglass repairs and a rattle-can paint job.
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  39. +MrJohnnyDistortion Belly-landing on rough terrain.
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  40. The mystery has been solved after this plane disappeared. So the Egyptian AF Museum took it upon themselves to "restore" it. But proceeded to completely screw it up. Here is a picture: https://forum.keypublishing.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=257969&stc=1&d=1514499790
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  41. +kevin chetty That was the original plan but you need catch up on what happened to be disappointed.
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  42.  @josephhaddakin7095  The P-40 was recovered professionally and put into a shipping container for trade with the RAF Museum. It became of victim of the Arab Spring protests and the military coup in Egypt. When it emerged from hiding it was given the most hideous and unprofessional clean up imaginable.
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  43. + Joseph Baker An official ceremony had been planned to transfer the aircraft to the RAF Museum for display but with the military coup in Egypt the plans fell apart and the shipping container with the aircraft disappeared for several years. Not long ago the plane emerged on outdoor display in Egypt with the most hideous restoration job that could have been given to such a rare time capsule aircraft. That is how the story ended for the plane, and the body of the pilot was never officially found or identified.
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  44. +Skylar durrent There was a plan in place to display it as-is in an RAF museum. But the Egyptians did a horrible excuse of a restoration on it and ruined it.
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  45. +William Eudy It is real. But the fate of the aircraft and the search for the remains of the pilot have not had an ideal outcome for the time being.
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  46. It is known that Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping was taking this plane on a ferry flight between RAF bases either before or after repairs. It is not understood why he went off course.
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  47. +HuskyGamersUNITE There was to be an official ceremony to return the plane to the RAF for a museum, but that was before the military coup in Eqypt with el-Sisi. Things fell apart after that, but hopefully the container is still present and intact.
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  48. Any remains located have still not been formally identified as Flt. Sgt Copping, which is a tragedy to this airman's memory. The remains are being studied in Cairo now.
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  49. +dark9hades Bones were tested in Cairo with inconclusive results. The bones were then lost during the military coup in Egypt.
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  50. +Tman Bricks They didn't. And made a royal mess of the plane for a display.
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