A Donegal diving club has discovered the wreckage of a second World War B17 bomber plane in Lough Foyle.
The Flying Fortress is upside down in about 21 metres of water. The 12 crew on board escaped when the plane was forced to ditch in September 1942, while en route from the US to a Royal Air Force base near Thurley in southern England.
The Inishowen Diving Club had made half a dozen dives in the area off Greencastle, Co Donegal, before it was located.
"For years, fishing skippers were aware that there was foul ground there and there were lots of rumours but no evidence," Mr Patrick McCormick, chairman of the Inishowen Diving Club, told The Irish Times. Fishing gear had been snagged on the wreck, which is believed to have had ammunition on board.
"We can't touch the ammunition and we aren't giving a precise latitude-longitude to protect it from scavengers," Mr McCormick said. The diving club has established that the plane had no bomb load when it ditched.
It is understood it was on a delivery run from its manufacturers in the US, the Boeing Corporation. The club has managed to make contact with one of the survivors in the US and hopes to trace one of the pilots who is believed to be still living.
The diving team recovered gas masks, a personal shaver, a soap box and other items. The club has ascertained the plane was called the Meltin' Pot, and its captain was William Melton. Full details were reported to the Irish Underwater Council.
Mr McCormick said the club hoped to raise the plane, which is almost entirely intact, and display it in the maritime museum in Greencastle.
