A PIECE of aviation history, and the last moments of tragic pilot Burtie Orth, has been unearthed after more than half a century.

Second Lieutenant Orth was killed on June 27 1944 when his Mustang fighter plane crashed on farmland in Ingol.

It was the second crash within days, the first accident claiming the life of Second Lieutenant Bill Clearwater, and was the result of a design fault on the Mustang.

Now, a clearer picture of the crash has been revealed after the Lancashire Aircraft Investigation team excavated the site, finding parts of Lieutenant Orth's plane which had been prepared and tested at the USAAF Base Depot Two at Warton.

Crash site investigators Russel Brown, Nick Wotherspoon, Bill Fulster and Richard Danilo (pictured) found that while parts of the plane were heavily corroded, enough recognisable pieces of the aircraft were found to enable them to mount a local display in the future.

Eyewitness reports of Orth's last moments were also uncovered. Team leader Nick Wotherspoon commented: "Many witnesses believe Orth survived the initial break-up choosing not to bail out and instead steer his plane away from a nearby school and homes.

"One witness recalled the plane striking the roof of a house prior to its final moments and rushing out to try to help, together with two Italian POWs who were working on the farm."

Orth hailed from Kansas and had married a girl from Blackpool just months before the crash. She had told him on the day he died she was expecting their first child - a daughter Orth would never see. She and her mother still live in the North West.

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