WWII spitfire finally lands

THE wheel of a crashed Spitfire that lay buried in bogland for almost 70 years has finally touched down back at its home base.

The RAF WWII fighter plane was raised from the ground earlier this year after being found preserved in clay on an isolated Co Donegal hillside.

Flown by American pilot Roland Bud Wolfe, it had taken off from RAF Eglinton in November 1941 a short distance across the border in Northern Ireland on a patrol mission.

But pilot officer Wolfe was forced to bail out and abandon the plane after the engine overheated, leaving it to crash on the Inishowen peninsula.

The lack of oxygen in the clay bog protected it from the passage of time. It is now bound for a museum in Derry.