The aircraft that returned from the depths
July 4, 1941, 3.45am – The roar of the Merlin engine broke the silence of the Safi airstrip. Blue flames spewed out of the engine’s exhaust, giving out an eerie light that danced around the cockpit.
The newly-constructed airstrip was not looked well upon by RAF pilots. It was just a narrow runway hewn out of rock and its borders were littered with anti-invasion devices, which consisted of explosive charges on top of poles embedded in the ground.
To make matters worse, the weather was horrible and visibility bad. Therefore, 23-year-old Sgt Thomas Hackston of 126 Squadron carefully taxied out and aligned Hawker Hurricane Z 3055 on the runway. He opened the throttle and his aircraft trundled down the airstrip, gained speed, finally became airborne and vanished into the murky night, on what was supposed to be a routine air test. He was never seen again.
[attach id=893958 size="medium" align="right" type="image"]Sgt Thomas Hackston, who disappeared on July 4, 1941, aged 23. Photo: David Schembri[/attach]
Fifty-two years later, in 1993, Karmenu Grixti and John Spiteri, while scuba diving, spotted aircraft wreckage on the bottom of the sea, just off the Ħamrija Coastal Tower, close to...