A CHINESE NGO plans to recover a crashed US warplane that has lain at the bottom of a lake since 1942 as a gesture of Sino-US friendship.

Han Bo of the China Adventure Association said he hopes the project is a “warm current in the cold wave that eases people’s worries about China-US ties,” with the US ramping up a new cold war against China through multiple political and economic attacks on the country.

It will involve hauling a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter aircraft to the surface of Lake Dianchi near Kunming, capital of Yunnan province. 

It was flown by John Blackburn, one of the “Flying Tigers” who volunteered with the Chinese air force under a scheme approved by US president Franklin D Roosevelt to help resist Japan’s invasion before the US entered the war following the Pearl Harbour attacks. Following the crash, Mr Blackburn’s body was recovered and returned to the US, but the plane sank to the bottom of the lake.

The “Tigers” were credited with shooting down almost 300 Japanese aircraft, which regularly launched bombing raids over China, and 14 US pilots were killed.

“Before the P-40s were deployed the Japanese planes had the advantage,” Mr Han said.

The group plans to build a barrier around the aircraft, remove the silt and then lift it by crane to the surface for display in a museum, and hopes to raise 30 to 40 million yuan (£3-4m) through donations. Surviving Flying Tigers and their relatives will be invited to attend the raising process.