The first ever example of an intact rare RAF bomber has been discovered at the bottom of the sea.
The Martin Baltimore twin-engined light attack aircraft were used by British pilots, as well as other air forces in the Second World War but it was thought only pieces remained.
Diver Fabio Portella persisted for years before locating a preserved MB plane on the Mediterranean seabed off the Italian island of Linosa.
It had crashed landed in June 1942 after being presumably shot down.
The 49-year-old Sicilian has found numerous sunken wrecks of wartime aircraft.
A robot sub had first filmed the wreck in 2016 and Fabio then embarked on his own investigations to prove his instinct that it was the rare type of US-built bomber.
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He scoured allied squadron records and met with elderly locals who had claimed to have witnessed the aircraft crash into the sea.
They told him fishermen had helped three or four airmen escape before the plane sank, which would be the right number for a Martin Baltimore crew.
Fabio was able to determine it was from the RAF's No 69 Squadron which had disappeared while flying from Malta to look for Italian naval ships trying to stop Allied vessels getting supplies to the island.
After being saved, RAF pilot Sergeant Francis Baum and RAF gunner Sergeant Robert Purslow were shipped off to a POW camp, with the latter dying there, possibly after a cholera outbreak.
The remaining crew members were Canadian gunner Sergeant William Fincham who was imprisoned in Lithuania but survived, and Australian Sergeant Alick Greaves who died in the crash.
On June 15, Fabio and colleagues dived down to the site.
He told the Times: "The good condition it’s in proves it is the aircraft locals describe landing on water before sinking, but you can see damage to the nose, which is exactly where Greaves was sitting.
"It was a really emotional moment. It was 80 years to the day since the plane crashed and we held a commemoration ceremony on our boat for these men,” he added.
Claudio di Franco, Sicily’s maritime archaeology chief, said the area will become a designated dive site thanks to the discovery.
Referring to the rarity of finding such a plane intact, he added: “There are bits in museums and one was found in the sea in Greece, but it is a wreck, while this one is in an exceptionally good state — the best preserved ever found."
Fabio is now working to contact the descendants of the crew and get a plaque with their names placed on the island.
He added: “The high points of this work are seeing these aircraft, recreating their story and giving dignity back to the courageous people who flew them.”
