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The Bell P-39 Airacobra was discovered in 2017 by an amateur diver off the coast of Crimea.
The remains of a fighterBell P-39 Airacobra of the WWII They were recovered this Friday from the waters of the Black Sea off the west coast of Crimea, within the framework of a joint expedition of the Geographical Society and the Ministry of Defense of that Slavic country, reports the TASS agency.
The plane was discovered in 2017 by amateur diver Alexey Kazarinov, 800 meters from the town of Novofyodorovka andat a depth of six or seven meters.
However, the work to recover the plane only began on September 14, after specialists carried out preliminary studies.
The fighter was dragged to the dock and then lifted out of the water by a crane, said Anatoli Kalemberg, of the Defense Ministry's Expedition Center. The find is expected to be exhibited in a museum on the peninsula.
The history of the fighter
According to Seguéi Ivanov, a researcher at the Crimean Institute of Archeology, the Bell P-39 Airacobra was transferred by the US to the Soviet Union under a program known as Lend-Lease, andentered service with the Black Sea Fleet in 1943.
The fighter participated in the operations of liberation of Crimea, in combat against the troops of Nazi Germany, andwas part of the air patrol during the Yalta Conference 1945, a meeting held by the fundamental leaders of the allied forces,Joseph Stalin, Winston churchill YFranklin D. Roosevelt, before the end of the Second World War.
The plane sank in July of that year: during a training flight, its engine failed. «When he saw the smoke coming from the engine, he landed in the water. The planesank in 30 seconds. The pilot [Second Lieutenant Vladimir Shishkin] reached the coast, had a slight head injury«Indicate the archival documents, cited by Ivanov.
Via RT.