IT is one of the last Second World war seaplanes in existence and its owners have launched a £20,000 appeal fund to help it fly again after it crash landed in Loch Ness.

Miss Pick Up suffered engine trouble while trying to take off from the loch at the weekend and had to be towed to safety before it was lifted out of the water yesterday for repairs to begin.

It is one of the world’s only airworthy Catalina flying boats - and has a wingspan of more than 75ft - and is operated by Plane Sailing in Duxford, Cambridge.

The owners had hoped the plane had encountered minor engine trouble and could be flown back to its base.

But they have revealed engineers will have to undertake a complete right engine change that saw the huge plane lifted from the water by crane for repairs.

It will then be returned to the loch before being flown back to Duxford. An appeal on GoFundMe to raise £20,000 to pay for the operation has already gathered han £13,500 from hundreds of generous donors.

Organiser Matt Dearden said: “What was originally thought to be just a faulty starter motor has turned out to be something inside the engine itself shearing.

“The only solution is to change the engine and send the damaged one off for overhaul. The aircraft is currently moored to a buoy in the middle of the loch as it’s too large to enter any of the docks.

“As you can imagine the logistics involved are massive. In order to get the aircraft back to Duxford we need to extract her from the loch as soon as possible so the damaged engine can be replaced.

“Once that’s completed, we then need to put her back on to the loch so she can be flown home.

“Otherwise she will be at the mercy of the harsh Scottish winter on a loch – which as we all know is home to a certain wee beastie – rather than her usual cosy hangar in Duxford. The damage this could do to the aircraft could be irreparable.”

The Catalina’s were developed in the 1930’s to help the USA maintain naval supremacy over Japan in the Pacific Ocean.

During World War II, they were used in anti-submarine warfare, patrol bombing, convoy escort, search and rescue missions, and cargo transport.

Although slow and ungainly, Catalinas distinguished themselves in World War II.

Allied forces used them successfully in a wide variety of roles for which the aircraft was never intended.

They are remembered for their rescue role, in which they saved the lives of thousands of aircrew downed over water.

 

 

It was found in 2003 and raised the following year. Miss Pick Up’s chief pilot Paul Wilson added: “Unfortunately all this has come for us, like so many other businesses and people this year, at the end of a pretty rough season.

“Normally we fly 20 airshows a year, this year we have done two, so it has not put us in the best of positions.

“The plane is run by a group of volunteers but we are not in the best position financially to take on a load of extra costs like this.”

The four crew on the seaplane found themselves adrift after the aircraft suffered engine trouble while trying to take off on Saturday.

RNLI volunteers towed it to a safe mooring but its size made it a difficult operation.

David Ferguson of the Loch Ness lifeboat crew said: “Towing the Catalina would prove to be no easy feat. Fixing points are few and far between on such an aircraft and the best option was under the tail, which barely cleared the bow of the lifeboat."