A mystery behind the history plane
WWII aircraft from Gulbarga lands in Europe
Manu Pubby
Posted online: Saturday, November 04, 2006 at 0000 hrs
PUNE -- November 3 -- It has all the makings of a classic mystery -- a
World War II German Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighter which flew in the
Battle of Britain vanished into thin air from the storage yard of a
college campus in Karnataka's Gulbarga town, where it lay forgotten for
over 60 years. Four years and an unsuccessful police investigation
later, aviation experts hunting for clues on the priceless aircraft have
stumbled upon it in Europe.
Research by aviation enthusiasts based in India and the U.K. points out
that the vintage aircraft has re-emerged on records of the United
Kingdom civil aviation register as belonging to a mysterious company in
the Channel Islands.
The single-seat fighter aircraft, gifted to the Nizam of Hyderabad by
the British Empire in 1941 for sponsoring two RAF squadrons, was
rediscovered at PDA College in Gulbarga by an Indian expert in 2002.
While the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Indian collectors dilly-dallied
over procuring the aircraft, it disappeared from the college campus --
apparently picked up by a millionaire British aircraft collector. The
plane was valued at over Rs 7 crore in the antiques market. Police
investigations hit a wall as they could not trace Girish Naidu, a
Bangalore-based scrap dealer who brokered the deal.
However, aviation enthusiasts took up the hunt and traced the
manufacturing number of the Bf 109 through photographs taken before it
was stolen. Using the markings and registration numbers on the aircraft,
England-based expert Lynn Ritger found that it belonged to German pilot
Xavier Ray who crash-landed during a raid on the outskirts of London in
1940 after engine failure.
The breakthrough came early this year, when experts discovered an entry
in the U.K. civil aviation registry in December 2005 matching to the
stolen Messerchmitt.
"The manufacturer and construction number of G-CDTI (the new entry) is
the same one traced by Ritger to the Gulbarga aircraft. As two aircraft
cannot have the same construction number, it is the missing Bf 109,"
Jagan Pillarsetti, whose website
www.warbirdsofindia.com, keeps track of
vintage aircraft in the country, told The Indian Express.
Ritger, a Bf 109 historian, also confirmed the identity of the aircraft.
"The WNr 4034 [manufacturing number of the Bf 109] was indeed registered
on the civil register as G-CDTI and it appears to be in Europe," Ritger
confirmed. The aircraft has been registered to Rare Aero Ltd, based in
Jersey, Channel Islands.
Efforts to trace the owners of Rare Aero Ltd have been unsuccessful. The
buzz in international aviation forums is that Guy Black, a millionaire
British aircraft collector who was rumored to have bought the aircraft
in 2002, owns the company.
However, Black denies that he owns the plane. "There are all sorts of
rumors about me but I do not own the company. I have heard about the
aircraft and am very interested in buying it," he told The Indian
Express over the phone from England.
The Corps of Detectives (CoD) of the Karnataka police, which is
investigating the case, is unaware that the aircraft had been registered
in Europe. " Investigations are still on but we cannot trace the main
accused in the case. We know that the plane was taken out of the country
but do not know where it is," says B K Singh, SP (Special
investigations), Corps of Detectives, Karnataka Police.
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