Daniel Rom Kristiansen uncovered the wreckage – as well as the remains of the pilot – after being told by his father to ‘go out and find the plane that is supposed to have crashed in the field’.
Klaus Kristiansen told local news station DR P4 Nordjylland that his grandfather once mentioned that a German plane had crashed in the fields behind their farm during the Second World War.
“When my son Daniel was recently given homework about World War II, I jokingly told him to go out and find the plane that is supposed to have crashed out in the field,” said agricultural worker Kristiansen.
The schoolboy and his dad promptly headed into the fields with a metal detector – initially just for fun, since Kristiansen believed that the wreckage had long since been removed.
But the pair then began finding bits of wreckage.
“We tried carefully digging with a trencher. More and more parts came up and the further we went, the more we found,” Kristiansen said to DR.
After the amateur excavation turned up the remains of bones, the authorities were called, reports broadcaster DR.
Police, bomb disposal experts and even German embassy representatives all arrived at the scene.
“We also found documents and papers in the pockets of some clothes,” Kristiansen explained.
The father and son that discovered the aircraft. Photo: Henning Bagger/Scanpix
The aircraft discovered by the Kristiansens is a Messerschmidt Bf 109, a model used in large numbers by the Luftwaffe during World War II.
Kristiansen told DR that his family had worked on the land where the fighter plane was found for “20-30 years” without have any idea of the secret under the ground.
“Luckily my son has something to write about in his assignment now. He’s actually been given the day off school today so that he can watch the police and bomb disposal people working. It’s quite exciting for all of us,” said Kristiansen.
