Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's final resting place found, says film crew
By Justin Vallejo
The Daily Telegraph

A filmmaker claims he has found the wreckage of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's plane. 3/09 Sky News

IT is one of Australia's oldest mysteries and greatest legends. There's the war hero and adventurer, the world record attempt, the sudden disappearance and the small clues hinting, whispering, of their tragic end. But after almost 75 years of intrigue, the final resting place of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith may have been found by a Sydney film crew, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The wreckage is believed to be incredibly well preserved beneath a layer of mud off the Burmese coast, giving hope to the aviator's family that his remains and artefacts will finally complete their voyage home. Filmmaker Damien Lay said he was "100 per cent" certain that the grainy black and white sonar images of seabed near Aye Island, in the Bay of Bengal, shows Sir Charles' plane the Lady Southern Cross.

But it was Mr Lay who in 2005 claimed the Japanese midget submarine that went missing after a raid on Sydney Harbour was resting near Broken Bay. Divers found it the next year 5km off the Northern Beaches.

"To me it's 100 per cent proof positive," Mr Lay said."The critical pieces of evidence are three equilateral triangles contained within what I believe is the starboard wing. "These structures don't occur in nature and they measure exactly 1.5mx1.5mx1.5m. We know those are the dimensions in which these aircraft were manufactured."

The images were taken during filming of Mr Lay's documentary The Last Anzac on February 23 and 24, with divers sent down on February 25 to find a layer of mud. Mr Lay will take images to the aircraft manufacturers Lockheed Martin in the US to analyse the images before organising a salvage mission. "We had very long discussions about it and both families are absolutely adamant they would like not only the aircraft recovered but also the remains, if they exist, and returned to Australia," Mr Lay said. Sir Charles, co-pilot Tommy Pethybridge and their Lockheed Altair aircraft went missing in 1935 during an attempt to break the England-Australia speed record.

They departed Allahabad, in India, on their way to Singapore before the final leg to Australia. Their last recorded position was over Rangoon at 1.30am on November 7, 1935. It wasn't until 1937 that a fisherman found its starboard undercarriage leg on Aye Island, south of Rangoon. Mr Lay would not reveal the latitude and longitude of the find.

"What we're going to see is an incredibly tragic yet heroic ending to these men's incredible lives. It's an enormous find in terms of our history and shows how incredibly wrong the official history has been," he said.