A DORSET history society is calling for donations to help search for the site of a plane crash in the English Channel.

On May 23 1969, US Air Force mechanic Paul Meyer, then aged 23, stole a transport aircraft from his base in Mildenhall in Suffolk, apparently intending to fly it home to his wife and family in the US.

What happened subsequently remains shrouded in the fog of time and official secrecy. What is known is that Sgt. Meyer flew for over an hour before the Hercules C-130 disappeared from radar over the English Channel, around 40 miles off Portland Bill.

Partial wreckage was discovered during a search and rescue mission, but neither the bulk of the aircraft nor Sgt. Meyer were ever located. He is presumed dead.

Sgt. Meyer's stepson, Henry Ayer, said: "Even though I was barely seven years old, I remember it as if it were yesterday.”

Now Deeper Dorset, a maritime history and discovery society, is plunging into the mystery, with the support of Mr Ayer.

Deeper Dorset's Grahame Knott, a diver and local history enthusiast, is preparing a search project to scour the area where Sgt. Meyer's Hercules is suspected to have gone down; he hopes that by locating the crash site, he can help determine the details of what transpired.

Deeper Dorset is hoping to raise £6,000 towards the search project; most of the funds raised will go towards fuel costs.

"We have all the equipment we need," Mr Knott explained. "But fuel can cost £200 or £250 a day."

The project constitutes a divergence from Deeper Dorset's usual focus on shipwrecks, but Mr Knott stressed that the mission was only to locate the aircraft wreckage, and not in any way to interfere with it.

Donations can be made to the fund at Kickstarter - search for Finding Meyer's Hercules.