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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99Mq5JEZamU
...probably...
Detailed PHOTOS:Gepubliceerd op 20 okt. 2014
Finding a piece of strange wreckage in a fishing net in the East Coast of Sri Lanka leads to a remarkable discovery and identification of an iconic World War II Air Craft.
http://www.divesrilanka.com/Kalkudah%20 ... 0Y-78.html
Dive the Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina
Could this be the RAF Dutch Squadron 321 Catalina Y-78?
Depth: 42 Meters
For weeks I poured over aircraft crash records including losses from 1960's. None of the aircraft types matched the features of the wreck.
Frustrated, I post pictures on Facebook seeking help. It pays off.
One of the people who sees my post suggests that it could be a Catalina. And suddenly everything falls into place.
Amazingly every feature is accounted for and matches the Consolidated Catalina PBY-5A model.
These features include the wheels, details on the propeller hub, the engine type, what seems to be the engineers window and a structure beneath the wing.
This structure turns out to be the Catalina's Metric Wave Radar with Dipole Antennas. In fact the Catalina was one of the first US aircraft to carry these types of Radar.
Further research reveals that a PBY-5A from a World War II Dutch RAF Squadron crashed exactly in the location where the Catalina crash site is.
It had been on a night mission on the 9th of December 1943, when an engine failure caused it to abort the mission 1.5 hours into the flight and crash land into the sea.
All of the 11 crew survived in one of the dinghies they managed to salvage from the plane before it sank within an hour.
The survivors reached shore 80KM from the China Bay Airforce base where they were based. The line of sight distance from China bay to the crash site is about 85KM.