Recovering Fairey Barracuda: Wreck Off Lee-on-Solent Raised

Fairey Barracuda becomes the focus of an extraordinary aircraft recovery after a buried WWII bomber is discovered directly on the IFA2 subsea cable route off Lee-on-Solent. What began as a routine unexploded ordnance survey quickly turned into a high-stakes wreckage recovery mission where marine archaeology, engineering limits, and aviation history collided. The Fairey Barracuda had rested in shallow Solent water for decades, preserved by dense marine clay but weakened by severe saltwater corrosion and tidal silt. A single lift would likely have torn the airframe apart. Instead, the recovery team used underwater photogrammetry, diver excavation, and a disciplined sectional hoist strategy to separate the bomber into manageable units. Each fragile section was placed inside subsea lifting baskets so the crane load transferred into steel rigging rather than the corroded aircraft structure itself. That careful aircraft recovery method cleared the blocked cable corridor while preserving rare structural data for restoration specialists. The Fairey Barracuda also carried a deeper mystery: early records pointed to a Blackburn-built machine, but forensic study of internal components and paint chemistry shifted the strongest identification toward a Fairey-built airframe. Once the Fairey Barracuda sections reached the recovery barge, the salvaged wreckage could be stabilized and sent to the Fleet Air Arm Museum, where these parts offered critical reference data for reconstruction work. This documentary explores aircraft recovery, wreckage recovery, marine archaeology, underwater photogrammetry, and precision hoist methods used to raise a vanished warplane from the Solent. Subscribe for more aviation recovery, rescue, and investigation documentaries. Disclaimer : This video documents a historical wreck recovery and preservation effort, not a live rescue. Some identification details remain based on the strongest available material and archival evidence rather than absolute certainty.