An American second World War pilot has been reunited with his rescuer after his aircraft crashed into Lough Foyle in Co Donegal over 60 years ago.
Capt William Curtis Melton (84), who was at Greencastle museum, Co Donegal, on Saturday evening, was back in Ireland to meet Ms Elizabeth Ferguson-Benson (80), the woman who had saved him and his crew from death in 1942 when she was just 18 years old.
Capt Melton's B17 bomber, which was en route from Newfoundland, Canada, to Prestwick, Scotland, crashed into Lough Foyle on September 11th, 1942, after its engine caught fire.
Ms Ferguson Benson helped the men on board her sailboat before they were transferred to a minesweeper and then back to their airforce base in Northampton, England. Nine of the crew survived the crash.
Mr Séamus Carey from Inishowen Sub-Aqua Club, who discovered the remains of the aircraft three years ago, made a presentation of one of the original control panels of the plane to Capt Melton. He described Capt Melton and Ms Ferguson-Benson as "wonderful, courageous people".
"When we started the search, I had a good feeling. There had always been a local story that a plane had gone down in the lough during the war and when I saw something silver through the blackness on the seabed, I knew we'd found it," said Mr Carey.
"This is a great story and really exciting for Greencastle and the club. I didn't think it would end up like this, meeting the actual pilot who drove the bomber," he added.
It was thanks to the research of Mr Jack Skoltoc, owner of Marine Sports in Derry, that the reunion took place. "I'm glad that I was able to do it because at 84, the captain is not too well," he said.
Mr Skoltoc, who is writing a book about what happened, said: "It's a sad story because although nine of the crew survived the crash, all of them except the captain died within six months in wartime operations."