I believe this is from WWII. A plane went down in the Libyan dessert and apparently went undiscovered for a long while. I'd like to Google this incident. Does any member know the name of the plane? This incident was also a Twilight zone episode.
The Flight of the Phoenix is a 1965 American drama film and was based on the 1964 novel The Flight of the Phoenix by Elleston Trevor. The plane used in the film was a Fairchild C-82A and was renamed The Phoenix after it was repaired.
I could be on the wrong track but 40-odd years ago Desmond Bagley wrote a novel called Flyaway about the search for a lost plane in, I think, the Sahara. It was fiction but I wondered if perhaps the stories had become entangled?
Harry 