Wessex Archaeology Coastal and Marine
This site is thought to be the remains of a World War II B-24 Liberator bomber.
It is located close to the Sussex coast, near Eastbourne.
In August 2002, Wessex Archaeology surveyed the site using sidescan sonar, although the results produced were not consistent with the wreck of a plane.
This site is the wreck of a World War II bomber, identified by its engines as a B-17 Flying Fortress.
It lies in 16m of water, 2.4nm SSW of Newhaven, East Sussex.
As an aircraft lost in military service, the site is protected under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. Reports from a dive investigation in 1975 indicate that the tail section and wings were visible on the site and therefore it is assumed that the plane was ditched and sank intact, rather than crashed. The Royal Navy removed the wings later that year after a diver died on the site; a tragedy believed to have been caused by the hazardous nature of the site.
In 2002 a geophysical and diving assessment of the site was completed by Wessex Archaeology to confirm the aircraft type and establish the remaining extent of the site. The geophysical information consisted of sidescan sonar and magnetometer data. The site was dived twice, in September 2002, to ground truth the sidescan anomalies. This survey observed that only three engines and some scattered debris remained at the wreck site, most of which are largely buried.
In June 2003, the site was surveyed again using magnetometer, sub-bottom profiler and multibeam sonar. Later that year, further diving fieldwork was carried out on the site which mainly comprised visual recording (photographs, video, site plan, feature dimensions) and some light cleaning of one of the engines. Underwater photos and video can be viewed by clicking the red spots on the multibeam image here.
A comparison of the survey results concluded that the site had not changed greatly over the year and was therefore in a generally stable condition.
Further information about B-17 bombers can be found here.
The following podcast relates to the ALSF funded Aircraft Crash Sites at Sea: A Scoping Study project undertaken by Wessex Archaeology in late 2007. The project is looking at what information is available about civilian and military crash sites around the UK.
In this, the second podcast relating to the Aircraft Crash Sites at Sea project the author of the report, Graham Scott, discusses the importance of these sites and some case studies of actual UK marine crash sites and what these tell us about the types of sites are on the seabed and their importance for aviation archaeology and management of aggregate dredging licences.
The following podcast relates to the ALSF Funded Aircraft Crash Sites at Sea: A Scoping Study project undertaken by Wessex Archaeology in late 2007. The project is looking at what information is available about civilian and military crash sites around the UK.
In this podcast you will hear the Project Manager, Euan McNeill, discussing the origins of the project, through material found by aggregate dredging and reported through the English Heritage and British Marine Aggregate Producers Association Protocol for Reporting Finds of Archaeological Interest.
Euan discusses the origin of the protocol and the ongoing Implementation Service which is operated by Wessex Archaeology and administers the scheme. He also discusses the role the aggregate industry is playing in bringing to light archaeological finds, and pieces of aircraft in particular, and what impact this has on aggregate dredging.
