After coming up empty last year, Spitfire hunter David Cundall claims that he is now 90% certain he has located the buried Spitfires for which he has been searching, and now partnered with new investors will return to unearth the planes in January 2014.
This latest dig will take place a year after a failed excavation attempt last January which was halted by the Burmese Government after the discovery of underground infrastructure connected to Yangon International Airport, the former site of the Royal Air Force’s Mingaladon airfield. The authorities in Burma want Mr Cundall to produce a plan from civil engineers to prevent any damage to the runway, or undermining it in any way, before allowing any digging gets under way.
Cundall dismisses claims by some that the story of the buried Spitfires is nothing but a legend and claims he has found new evidence of their existence and location, including a wartime memo from an engineering officer stationed at RAF Mingaladon stating: “When is somebody going to tell me what to do with these Spitfires?”.
In addition to searching for buried Spitfires in Burma, Cundall is also searching for buried Spitfires a bit closer to home, in Birmingham, UK where there are rumors of several planes buried near the site of the factory that built them, though this legend has met with skepticism on the part of experts and the UK’s Ministry of Defence.
