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Captain Hellewell, along with First Officer Ken W. Honey, and Radio Officer Colvin were hired by D'Arcy to deliver food and equipment to a survey group at the Kufra Oasis on June 14, 1958. The next day, they were to fly the survey party over the Kufra area.
Hellewell's landing at Kufra generated a lot of excitement among the local children, because they'd never seen the mysterious substance used by the crew to keep foodstuffs cold, before.
Well, once the children's excitement over the ice brought by Hellewell and his crew had dissipated, Hellewell was delighted to spot an old friend of his, twenty nine year old Don Sheridan. Sheridan was to be the lead geologist in charge of the next day's survey; he and Hellewell had flown together a few years prior, delivering drilling equipment to places like Oman.
Sheridan was known for his resourcefulness. Some said that he was down right crafty. That night, after Sheridan and the other surveyors had had their fun by frightening Hellewell with stories about night-crawling desert scorpions (Hellewell decided to sleep in his DC-3), Sheridan asked Hellewell for the precise location of the wrecked B-24. After hearing Hellewell's story about the aircraft, Sheridan decided that he would like to find it.
In exchange for providing Sheridan with the crashed bomber's coordinates, Hellewell made Sheridan promise to bring him a souvenir, should he reach the B-24.
Exactly what form this "souvenir" would take, caused some anxiety among the men, because the wreckage was likely to contain human remains.
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