From Russia with Love Comrades

http://lend-lease.airforce.ru/english/a ... /index.htm

[ArtS]

There are a couple of threads on this plane already. Has something occured recently?

Regards,

Art S.

PS. The Russians have a very different attitude about wrecks, the pilot was still inside when they recovered it! No problem!

[michaelharadon]

Why is it a problem vis-a-vis recovery when a body is found inside an aircraft? After all, the guy's dead. He's somewhere else. We buy houses all the time that have had people die inside them.

[k5083]

Generally we let the appropriate authorities remove the remains before we take possession though, is the point I believe.

August

[airnutz]

Why is it a problem vis-a-vis recovery when a body is found inside an aircraft? After all, the guy's dead. He's somewhere else. We buy houses all the time that have had people die inside them.

I agree with you Michael, but some folks advocate leaving them lie as a war grave.
There is also a recent instance in Britain where, a few years back a death occured in
a warbird at an airshow. There are folks who get very heated when some of us ask
about restoring the aircraft to fly. They suggest we are some kind of heathens
who are disrespecting the memory of their friend or the deceased ones family.
They're basically punishing the machine for the crews death.

I suspect this mentality is based in part by religious belief or tradition, such as the Navy.
But the rationale doesn't really hold up in the service. Can you imagine all the ships, boats, trucks,
planes etc. that would be junked using that line of thought? It'd be hard to win a war with such
action, and I doubt the taxpayer would sit still for it either.

[tom d. friedman]

i understand the grave site paradox, it's a moral / historical dilemma. save a piece of history for the future w/ it's casualty to be properly buried, or leave it to time & deterioration.