Well, this is a disappointment. So soon after the announcement of the found crate, the crate appears not to contain a Spitfire, metal traces turn out to have been runway matting, and the whole dig seems to be in a state of collapse with the dig sponsors telling the BBC ‘there are no Spitfires.’ Some of the BBC’s analysis:

The team of archaeologists working on the dig are specialists in the field of war excavations.

They have been digging at the site over the last week.

They have also examined the file of evidence supplied by David Cundall which includes eyewitness testimony from eight individuals.

However they believe that none of the testimony proves that Spitfires were buried at the airport or any of the other sites in Burma.

via BBC News – Archaeologists believe no Spitfires buried in Burma.

There’s more at the BBC link. It’s pretty confused but we’d still advise you to Read The Whole Thing™,

Thanks to the reader who tipped is to this, confidentially — he knows who he is.

The dig is sponsored by an international computer gaming firm, headquartered in Minsk, Byelorussia: Wargaming.com. The company is best known for its massively multiplayer tank combat game, World of Tanks. The Spitfire dig was meant as a promotion for the presently-developmental aerial spinoff, World of Warplanes. The company sites, Wargaming.com and .net, had no information on the dig at press time.