Wartime Dornier Raised From English Channel

The RAF Museum says it is "absolutely delighted" that the fragile aircraft wreckage has been successfully raised from the English Channel.

It is the last surviving World War Two German Dornier 17 and was shot down on August 26, 1940.

Recent poor weather and technical problems had hampered previous attempts to raise the wreckage, but divers were able to exploit a window of calm weather on Monday evening.

A few fragments of the fragile plane dropped off as it was being recovered.

But the museum, which has run the project, said divers will recover them in the next few days and they will added to the main body of the aircraft.

"To say we are absolutely delighted with this moment would be an understatement," the museum tweeted.

The plane is an unimpressive, rusty, seaweed-clad shell at the moment, but experts at the Sir Michael Beetham Conservation Centre in Shropshire will be tasked with restoring it to its former glory.

A team of experts from Seatech lived on a barge for the past month, diving daily, sometimes four times a day as they prepared to lift the plane with cables.

A steel rod running between the bomb door and tail section was used to add extra support.

The Dornier crash landed on Goodwin Sands, around six miles off the Kent coast, and has lain there ever since, covered by sand.