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Ferromagnetic Substance to Be From Flying Tiger's wrecked Plane
The ferromagnetic substance found hidden 10 meters below the water surface of Dianchi Lake in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, might be from the wrecked No.68 P-40 fighter plane used by the "Flying Tigers" during World War II, today's "China Youth Daily" reported.
According to the newspaper, this conclusion was made by Yan Jiangzheng, president of the China Expedition Association, who emphasized that the judgment is based on exploration and research in the past few years.
The "Flying Tigers," used 60 years ago by General Claire Lee Chennault, commander of the U.S. 14th Air Fleet during World War II, to transport arms and other materials, joined in a major air raid supporting China fight Japanese invaders.
According to Yan, the No.68 fighter plane shot down 10 Japanese planes during its eight-month stay in China and was heralded as a star plane. Unfortunately, it plunged into the Dianchi Lake in a training mishap in April 1942.
Yan believes that it is worth salvaging as few planes like the No.68 P-40 fighter plane are now left in the world.
Yan's association started to search for more debris of the wrecked fighter plane in 1998. The efforts include magnetic prospecting of the site of the air crash, interviews with air crash witnesses and villagers who helped salvage the body of the pilot of the crashed plane.
Yan added further appraisal of the ferromagnetic substance would be carried out soon after a new round of silt dredging in Dianchi Lake is done.
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