Regional News
Sponsor of Search for Buried Spitfires in Myanmar Opts Out
MYANMAR – The sponsor of a British-led team hunting for dozens of rare second world war Spitfires said to have been buried in Myanmar has abandoned the search, saying stories of the stashed planes are merely “legend”.
Rumours that dozens of the single-seat aircraft were buried in 1945 by Britain, the former colonial power in what was then Burma, had excited military history enthusiasts.
But surveys at Yangon airport in the Mingaladon district have failed to bear fruit.
The project backer, online game company Wargaming, said the 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 at RAF Mingaladon during 1945 and 1946”.
Lead archaeologist Andy Brockman said the investigation was undertaken in the spirit of US television forensic police series CSI [Crime Scene Investigation].
“We followed the clues in the documents, period maps, pictures and air photographs; we talked to surviving witnesses, and visited the ‘crime scene’ in order to turn our study in the archives into facts on the ground,” Brockman said.
“As a result we believe that the legend of the buried Spitfires of Burma is just that: a captivating legend about a beautiful and iconic aircraft.”
Wargaming said the search was rooted in persistent rumours that began among servicemen in “the bars and canteens of Southeast Asia” as early as 1946.
It added that no surviving witnesses had actually seen planes being buried and that its research in British archives had failed to produce any evidence of the arrival of the planes in Burma in the latter months of the war.
Aviation enthusiasts hunting for the lost planes believe as many as 140 Spitfires in pristine condition were hidden in crates in three Myanmar locations.
A local businessman involved in the project, Htoo Htoo Zaw, yesterday vowed to continue the planned digs in the northern city of Myitkyina and at Yangon airport, signalling a split within the team.
“We haven’t started any digging yet. So how can we say for sure whether there are Spitfires or not?” he said.
It was unclear to what extent the excavations would continue and project leader David Cundall – a farmer and aircraft enthusiast who has spent 17 years chasing the Spitfires – was not immediately reachable for comment.
