ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
2. Royal Air Force Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping and his P-40 Kittyhawk
On June 28, 1942, 24 year old Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping was ordered to fly a damaged Kittyhawk (the British name for the American built Curtiss Warhawk) between bases in the Egyptian desert to have it repaired. When Copping did not arrive at his destination it was assumed that the aircraft had been shot down by either the Germans or the Italians. An air search revealed no trace of the lost aircraft or its pilot, and Flight Sergeant Copping became a casualty of the air war, believed killed in action for the next seven decades. In May of 2012 a well preserved P-40 with RAF markings was discovered in the desert sands by Polish oil workers, as well as a parachute. Some weeks earlier human skeletal remains had been discovered nearby. They were later identified as those of Flight Sergeant Copping, and it was determined that the pilot had survived the crash landing and died subsequently from exposure or thirst.
From the damaged aircraft, which has been restored and is on display at the El Alamein Museum in Egypt, it was determined that Copping survived the crash landing, which was likely caused by his running out of fuel. A severe sandstorm caused the pilot to become disoriented and off course, and the lack of landmarks to provide guidance to the pilot led him far off his desired flight path. The airplane flew on until the pilot was forced to put it down in the desert sands, after which he discarded his parachute and began walking in the desert. The sandstorms covered the plane, and later uncovered it again, allowing it to be found by the Polish workers more than 200 miles from any town or village. The displayed airplane in Egypt bears no mention of Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping.