PLANS to recover the wreckage of a rare wartime fighter-bomber which crashed in the River Severn have been shelved – at least for the time being.
The almost intact remains of the Bristol Blenhiem Mark 1F have not been seen since a tidal shift revealed the plane around 30 years ago. The wreckage showed for about two weeks but has since disappeared never to be seen since.
The Blenhiem had crashed while on a training flight from an RAF base near Swansea on June 19, 1940. The pilot escaped unhurt.
Its rediscovery caused a flurry of interest at the time, as now only one Blenhiem remains. Enthusiasts from the Bristol Aero Collection had plans to raise it for restoration and had hoped to use equipment brought in for the building of the new Severn Bridge.
But a spokesman said this week that because of a shortage of funds the project had now been shelved. "It is something we can keep on hold as it is likely the condition of the aircraft will not deteriorate," he said.
The crash is remembered by aircraft enthusiast Harold McOwan, of Kimberley Close, Lydney – he was with a friend, Jim Bartlett, walking on the sands when the plane came down.
"The pilot was low flying up and down the river. He must have misjudged his height and touched the sand. He got out without a scratch and was walking down the river. We shouted him to come back and took him to Lydney docks," recalled Mr McOwan.
He recalls Mr Lem Gardiner of Lydney offering to pull the plane out of the river with a couple of horses from the Biddle family farm at Nass.
"The RAF had other ideas and decided to float it and use a tug to tow it to Sharpness. Unfortunately the tug pulled the tail off. The plane sank and has been there ever since," he said.
Mr McOwan said many local youngsters took small bits of the aircraft – he still has some himself – before the sands shifted and the plane disappeared to be revealed only once since.