"Swamp Ghost" news (September 2008)

Robbie Roberts · **Posted:** Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:55 am

SO, I got lost in all the verbiage- is Swamp Ghost coming home, or has PNG screwed things up again?

Robbie

RyanShort1 · **Posted:** Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:56 am

west-front,

I believe that there are likely some very good answers to the answers you gave to quotes from me (which BTW were meant probably a bit differently than you are taking them), but I've had a bit of a change of attitude and I think it best I reserve my thoughts for a different time. And no, I'm not tucking my tail between my legs and running, just think my efforts would be best directed in a slightly different direction!

G'day,

Ryan

Mick Grinter · **Posted:** Mon Sep 15, 2008 1:06 am

I hope they get Swamp Ghost out ok,There was a TV show about two weeks back where the guys who.Investigate air crashes in PNG were having people threatening to kill them when they went to investigate recent civilian crash sites.
Wanting them to pay large amounts of money to remove bodies or evidence.
It's turning out to be a bad place to do business.
And now the population is full of Aids it is realy buggering the place up.

west-front · **Posted:** Mon Sep 15, 2008 1:06 am

RyanShort1 wrote:

west-front,I believe that there are likely some very good answers to the answers you gave to quotes from me (which BTW were meant probably a bit differently than you are taking them), but I've had a bit of a change of attitude and I think it best I reserve my thoughts for a different time. And no, I'm not tucking my tail between my legs and running, just think my efforts would be best directed in a slightly different direction!G'day,Ryan

No offence meant to you or taken by me Ryan

PM sent

groundpounder · **Posted:** Mon Sep 15, 2008 1:25 am

so wtf does all of this mean???? is it in or is it out??

hang the expense · **Posted:** Mon Sep 15, 2008 7:08 am

For what its worth,the word I have is yes.There are people trying to queer the deal but it seems it will be for naught.Time will tell.Hopefully we will know for sure very soon.

shelldrake · **Posted:** Tue Sep 16, 2008 6:23 am

Boy its hard to read this stuff sometimes.

A I mentioned earlier (in this thread and another a month or so ago) there wre some 'serious' efforts being made to export Swamp Ghost. I know I should have clarified then what information I had so i will do it now.

Some background to recoveries in PNG.
Lesson number 1, do not tell anyone anything until you are prepared to remove the item with ALL CORRECT PERMITS in place.
Lesson number 2, do not tell Helicopter pilots anything unless they sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Lesson number 3, respect local and national traditions, whether we like it or not, PNG own these items.
Lesson number 4, pay a fair market price minus costs of recovery etc.
ie, if swamp ghost is worth say $500 USD (maybe peso's are worth more)
then pay the price - remember this is an example and I'm not actually allocating this value.
Lesson number 5, do not drink the local beer;
Lesson number 6, if you are successful at removing the items, do not misdescribe them at the intended port of entry, very bad thing to do and in most countries naughty boys who do this end up in trouble which leads me too;
lesson number 7, do not use fake, false or misleading names or persons, companies etc.

Having said all this, there are some serious attempts to have swamp ghost removed and restored. There is always someone or some groups
who try to 'connect' themselves to such exciting actions. With all seriousness, this could still happen if we remain focussed on 'all' the real issues.

Shelldrake

gary1954 · **Posted:** Tue Sep 16, 2008 7:11 am

shelldrake wrote:

Lesson number 6, if you are successful at removing the items, do not misdescribe them at the intended port of entry, very bad thing to do and in most countries naughty boys who do this end up in trouble which leads me too;
lesson number 7, do not use fake, false or misleading names or persons, companies etc.

With Regard to Lesson 6/7, didn't that happen to Doug Arnold one time when it was reported that an aircraft his was trying to either get in or out of a country, that the crates were labled "Machine Parts"....Doug was very secretive.

west-front · **Posted:** Wed Sep 17, 2008 4:50 pm

Quote:

MP says the Swamp Ghost is part of
PNG culture and it should not have been sold

Some of Papua New Guinea’s politicians are furious that the wreckage of a World War Two bomber is being allowed to leave the country.The plane, affectionately known as the `Swamp Ghost’, crash-landed in a swamp in Oro Province in February, 1942.

The PNG government reportedly last week accepted a salvage company’s 100 thousand US dollars payment for the wreck, after two years of wrangling.

The Eastern Highlands Province Governor Malcolm Kela Smith says the Public Accounts Committee recommended it not be removed, and legal advice backs that up.

“A lot of our heritage has already been removed and that’s sad, because it is one of the few countries that you can look at our culture and you can almost identify the district it came from, let alone the area.. you can get right down to the districts and pinpoint where that artefact came from. In the case of World War Two, it is part of our culture, and it is part of our history, but unfortunately we’re not in a position to manage these things yet.”

Mr Kela Smith says the aircraft is worth millions of kina and the PNG Museum took no steps to protect it.

http://www.rnzi.com:80/pages/news.php?op=read&id=42050

hang the expense · **Posted:** Wed Sep 17, 2008 4:56 pm

Yes,indeed Gary.I think it was "THE" Bf 109 in austraila.I heard it was painted silver and passed off as a P-51.He was not sucessful BTW.

camshaw · **Posted:** Wed Sep 17, 2008 5:32 pm

lets pray one of the moderators erases all these replies and starts a new one that says yes swamp ghost is coming home or no she isn't! a simple few replies without thread hijacking and rambling on would be great. Port of receipt? Owner? Homebase for the craft? simple eah?

RyanShort1 · **Posted:** Wed Sep 17, 2008 6:29 pm

camshaw wrote:

lets pray one of the moderators erases all these replies and starts a new one that says yes swamp ghost is coming home or no she isn't! a simple few replies without thread hijacking and rambling on would be great. Port of receipt? Owner? Homebase for the craft? simple eah?

Now now. Those who need to know do, and apparently those who don't need to know, won't, which I don't think is unreasonable seeing how as this is a public forum and the PNG folks obviously are still tied up in knots over it!

Ryan

Lightning · **Joined:** Fri Nov 05, 2004 7:06 pm **Posts:** 424

Howdy All

See the updates below ( the B-17 will be leaving PNG )

http://www.theswampghost.com/news/index.html

Pacific Wreck's website has listed Businessman Alfred Hagen (Aero Archeology) of Philidelphia as the soon to be owner. There is a good chance that it will end up in Phili by the sounds of it.

Get Em Flying

Lightning

bomberflight · **Posted:** Thu Sep 18, 2008 11:07 am

I can endorse Ryans last post on this subject.

Anyone with a Googlemail account can subscribe to the free news service "Google Alerts". You specify the subject you want to be alerted on and get an email every time something appears on a news web site ( and or blog )

I got this email just today ~ does it look familiar ?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Google Web Alert for: B-17 Swamp Ghost
A Warbirds Resource Group Site :: View topic - B-17 Swamp Ghost ...
OK, to answer the original question "Any update on the B-17 #: 41-2446 Swamp Ghost" I'd like to say a few things. I keep track of this forum for a number of ...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope that those that do know something will remain tight lipped until it's safely arrived at its place of delvery in the USA. :wink:

warbird1 · **Joined:** Fri Sep 21, 2007 6:25 pm **Posts:** 2760

Lightning wrote:

Howdy All

See the updates below ( the B-17 will be leaving PNG )

http://www.theswampghost.com/news/index.html

Pacific Wreck's website has listed Businessman Alfred Hagen (Aero Archeology) of Philidelphia as the soon to be owner. There is a good chance that it will end up in Phili by the sounds of it.

Get Em Flying

Lightning

From the above link:

"Alfred Hagen says he’s agreed to give PNG the right to buy back the Swamp Ghost once it’s restored."

Cool, so now Swamp Ghost, after it's pristinely restored, can be sold back to PNG, who can then put it on outside static display in front of their National Museum. Sounds like a win-win situation. Swamp Ghost will be fully restored, and out of the swamp, while the caring PNG people can treasure their national heritage for another 60 years, until it needs another restoration. I'm sure the PNG people will lovingly cherish their newly restored bomber. At that point, hopefully the PNG government will be able to afford the restoration costs for it's second restoration.

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"Swamp Ghost" news (September 2008)

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