Fed: Filmmaker 100 per cent sure he's found Kingsford Smith
22 Mar 2009 2:34 AM
Sydney filmmaker DAMIEN LAY says he's 100 per cent certain he's found the final resting place of Australian aviation pioneer Sir CHARLES KINGSFORD SMITH .. off the coast of Burma.
If he's right .. he'll have solved one of aviation's greatest mysteries .. which has kept historians and enthusiasts guessing for nearly 75 years.
Sir CHARLES and his co-pilot TOMMY PETHYBRIDGE disappeared without trace in 1935 while trying to break the record for a flight between England and Australia in the Lady Southern Cross.
Relying on the research of leading aviation historian TED WIXTED .. Mr LAY believes he has solved what he calls Australia's last great mystery.
Mr WIXTED died in 2001 .. and was convinced the plane came down off Aye Island .. where fisherman found a wheel from the plane only 18 months after the crash.
Mr LAY now says during a search involving 63 dives and sonar tracking .. he found last month the wreckage of a plane under 20 metres of water and mud.
