Back in early January, the archaeological dig for buried WW2 Spitfires was announced:
This could be cool. Or it could be the Burmese equivalent of Al Capone’s vault: buried “pristine” WW2 Spitfires is.gd/WkI5NC
— Nicholas Russon (@nrusson) January 4, 2013
Then, the doubts began to grow:
Uh oh: starting look like we _do_ have a Burmese version of Al Capone’s vault… no buried Spitfires discovered yet. is.gd/u3krnU
— Nicholas Russon (@nrusson) January 18, 2013
And now, even the sponsoring organization says there are no buried Spitfires after all:
A global video gaming company that funded a high-profile hunt for dozens of World War II-era British fighters in Myanmar has some bad news for aviation enthusiasts: It says none of the legendary planes are buried in the Southeast Asian country.
Excavation teams carrying out surveys on the ground, however, said Saturday that they would not give up the search.
The hunt for the lost planes was launched amid hope that as many as 140 rare Spitfires were hidden in crates in pristine condition in three locations in Myanmar.
But the Belarusian video gaming company Wargaming.net, which had backed the venture, said in a statement late Friday that the planes were never even delivered to the country by Allied forces as the war drew to a close nearly 70 years ago.
“The Wargaming team now believes, based on clear documentary evidence, as well as the evidence from the fieldwork, that no Spitfires were delivered in crates and buried” in Myanmar between 1945 and 1946, the statement said.
I’d been rather doubtful of the story from the start — even though it would have been awesomely cool to find a stash of Spitfires.
