Many aircraft have been lost at sea, sometimes resulting in whole crash sites surviving on the seabed. Thousands of British, American and German military aircraft crashed in UK waters during the Second World War, but we can also come across military aircraft lost in peacetime, and the crash sites of civil aircraft.
As well as being memorials to the aircrew who lost their lives in these crashes, air crash sites are an important source of social history and identity. Aircrash sites at sea are interesting to archaeologists because they may be much better preserved then crash sites on land, and in some cases they are the only surviving relics of particular aircraft types and models.
All military aircraft crash sites in UK waters are protected automatically under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.
Latest aircraft news:
-
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 [...] - 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 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 [...]
