Divers confident they have found
Amy Johnson's lost aeroplane.....
By Steven Morris in London
October 21, 2003
For more than 60 years the remains of pioneering aviator Amy Johnson's aeroplane have lain undiscovered in the murky waters of the Thames Estuary and with them the mystery of her last moments.
But a team of divers believes it may now have found the wreckage and is hoping to lift it from the seabed in the northern summer.
The divers are reluctant to speak about the find but it has been learned that the team has informed the Receiver of Wreck, the official body that processes such reports, that it knows the location of the remains.
It is understood the wreckage found by the team has been quite well preserved in silt. If it proves to be the remains of Johnson's twin-engined Airspeed Oxford, which plunged into the sea in January 1941, it may be possible to establish why it crashed.
The 37-year-old Englishwoman, who was working for the civilian Air Transport Auxiliary, was flying an Airspeed Oxford from RAF Prestwick in Scotland to RAF Kidlington in Oxfordshire. On January 5, 1941, the plane plunged into the sea off Kent.
Reports that a team of divers have found Amy Johnson's plane in the Thames estuary appear to be wild exaggeration, according to Sophia Exelby, Receiver of Wreck.
If you believed recent newspaper reports, Amy Johnson's plane is imminently about to be recovered from the seabed in the Thames Estuary, and, presumably, the 60-year-old mystery of what happened to the pioneering woman pilot will be solved. Unfortunately real life is not quite so simple.
"I did receive a phone call from Leo Sheridan" explained Sophia Exelby, Receiver of Wreck. "He wanted to know what the procedure would be if he found a wreck. I asked him if he had found a wreck, and he said no."
Leo Sheridan is the air and maritime accident investigator who is advising a team of divers currently searching for the wreck, and who, according to press reports are 'confident they have found Amy Johnson's lost plane'.
"I advised Leo Sheridan that the wreck of a plane belonging to the RAF is protected under the Protection of Military Remains Act," Sophia Exelby told Divernet. As such divers would need specific written permission from the Ministry of Defence to touch the wreck or remove items for identification purposes. "I explained that the RAF would probably have something to say about it, and the family of Amy Johnson have also expressed their concerns to me" commented Exelby when asked about the claims that divers plan to raise the supposed wreck.
Underwater identification of a small wreck, such as the twin-engined Airspeed Oxford that Johnson was flying when she disappeared, is a difficult enough task in the best of conditions. A crashed aircraft, 60 years on, is likely to be broken into fragments, dispersed and buried in the silt of the Thames estuary. There appears to have been no unique identifying features on the plane such as serial numbers on the engines - the most likely part of the plane to have survived intact. Under the circumstances, the chances of making a positive identification would appear to be extremely remote.
The story, however, refuses to go away. Perhaps it is our fascination with famous historical figures, or the intrigue and speculation that surrounded Amy Johnson's disappearance that has led so many people to want to believe that her plane has been found. Until hard evidence has been objectively evaluated by experts, it appears better to disregard the current round of stories.
An official search team from the RAF have also been searching for Johnson's lost plane and have documented their project on a website.(click here)
 
CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE ABOUT AMY JOHNSON
|