A Canadian group that plans to recover an iconic second World War bomber that sank after ditching in the Atlantic north-west of Donegal hopes a new US Coast Guard study will help locate the aircraft on the sea-bed next summer.
The four-engined Halifax - number LW170 - was forced to ditch in August 1945 after it sprang a fuel leak while on patrol from a base in Scotland.
Karl Kjarsgaard, an Ottawa-based airline pilot who is manager of the Halifax 57 Rescue project to raise the plane, said it had received a 12-page evaluation of the drift computations of LW170 and of the crew in a dinghy over 60 years ago.
"These are vital for the sonar survey which we hope to conduct next summer. We must use the latest in technology and computer data to locate LW170 and the US Coast Guard has the very best data in the world.
"It is exciting news for our mission to locate and recover LW170 from her resting place," he said.
Discussions have been held with scientists planning expeditions in the north Atlantic next summer very near what is thought to be the resting place of LW170.
"I have been able to underline to these scientific groups that not only is LW170 a historic treasure but she is also a scientific treasure as she is the ideal test bed for sedimentation and aquatic sea life experiments.
"I hope to meet them to discuss a joint venture to fulfil their objectives and find the Halifax on sonar on one joint mission," he added.
The aircraft remained afloat for seven hours. The crew took to a life raft and were rescued by a passing freighter.
Mr Kjarsgaard (55), has already been involved in recovering two Halifaxs - one from the bottom of a Norwegian lake and the other from a Belgian swamp. Both were badly damaged.
Mr Kjarsgaard has twice been to Dublin to consult experts from the Geological Survey Office.
He said they were sympathetic towards the "crazy Canadian" who wants to hunt down the Halifax. Mr Kjarsgaard said the Irish geologists are the only people he was aware of who have investigated the deep water area of the Rockall Trough where the Halifax ditched.
"It is very flat there and covered in marine clay and sediments," he noted.
Mr Kjarsgaard, whose charity is seeking a corporate sponsor for the project, believes the low oxygen content of the deep water will have helped to preserve LW170. From May to August 1944 - the crucial days straddling the D-Day invasion - LW170 flew 28 combat missions to Germany and France.
It helped destroy German heavy guns threatening the invasion fleet on D-Day, June 6th, 1944. Later that month it knocked out V-1 bomb launch sites.
The Halifax was the workhorse of long-range bombing missions in the earlier years of the war.
Mr Kjarsgaard believes the contribution of the Royal Canadian Air Force during the second World War has not been properly recognised. If the LW170 could be raised intact the aircraft could be preserved as a memorial to the airmen, he said.
About 100 Canadian aircrews flew 39,000 missions during the war, 28,000 of them in Halifax bombers. More than 6,000 Halifax were built before it was replaced by the speedier Lancaster bomber. All surviving aircraft were scrapped at the end of the war.