CAIRO, May 12: A World WarII aeroplane that crash-landed in Egypt’s western desert has been found ‘almost intact’ in a vast sea of sand and rock almost 70 years later, the British embassy in Cairo said on Saturday.

The Royal Air Force’s Kittyhawk P-40 was discovered during a mining exploration in the Egyptian desert, the British embassy’s defence attache, Captain Paul Collins, said.

It is believed the plane got lost, “probably as a result of running out of fuel,” said Capt Collins.

The plane’s pilot, presumed to be Flight Sergeant Denis Copping, made a “fairly flawless emergency landing” in June 1942, he said.

The conditions in the desert, with no liquid and regular winds blowing, mean the plane was left “almost intact, in an amazing piece of preservation,” he said. After the landing, Copping is believed to have taken the radio and walked out probably in a desperate attempt to find help.

But his chances were slim, having landed just before dark, hundreds of kilometres away from the nearest village.

“We presume that at one stage he decided to walk away... He was a 24-year-old man so quite fit. He could have walked quite well,” said Capt Collins.

“He crashed quite late in the day, around four o’clock, and it got dark two hours later.”  Efforts are under way to find out more about what happened to the pilot, no trace of whom has been found.—AFP