Divers will be made ready to investigate any potential military plane crash sites found during the dredging of the Goodwin Sands.

The team is being arranged by the Ministry of Defence after a local diver found and photographed the engine, propeller blades and a bomb from an apparent wartime plane.

But the licensing authority the Marine Management Organisation says that the items are outside the proposed digging area.

The latest news come from anti-dredging group Goodwin Sands SOS (Save Our Sands).

It explains that six months ago it contacted the MoD to ask for identification of the debris.

An initial response earlier this April confirmed the MoD had no records of a plane there.

Military aircraft crash sites are automatically protected under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986, which makes it illegal for anyone to disturb them without first obtaining a licence from the MoD.

The Kent Battle of Britain Museum has estimated that at least 60 aeroplanes and 80 crew from Britain, Poland and Germany crashed on the Goodwin Sands during 1940 alone.

Only one, a Dornier 17, has ever been recovered.

GSSOS believes that a total 29 anomalies, potential heritage assets, from either shipwrecks or military aircraft crash sites, remain in the proposed dredge zone but no one has established what they are.

Dover Harbour Board’s consultants, Royal Haskoning DHV, has imposed a 25-metre (82ft) radius exclusion zones around them but expert maritime archaeologists say that is too small.

GSSOS stresses that the average intact wingspan of a Second World War bomber was 30 metres (98ft 5in) and debris from a crash site is often spread out over several hundred metres.

The dive preparation is to identify the plane found by Ramsgate-based diver Vince Woolsgrove last August 25.

It is also to locate American B17 and B26 bombers believed to be lost in the Goodwins area.

GSSOS is fighting against the Port of Dover's plans to dredge a minute part of the shifting sands off Deal for its Dover Western Docks Revival redevelopment.

It fears both disturbance of war graves and environmental damage.

The Port of Dover argues that it only wants to dig 0.22% of the sands.

Last July the government's MMO granted it a licence to dredge.

GSSOS is continuing to fight through the courts and has won a judicial review.

This is set to be heard at the High Court in London on Wednesday, June 5.

It is being seen as a chance to closely scrutinise the current marine licensing process and its effectiveness in protecting maritime environment and underwater heritage such as shipwrecks and crashed military aircraft.

Both the MoD and Port of Dover have been contacted for comment.

Read more: All the latest news from Deal