These substantial remains were recovered during excavations for building work in Luqa in February 2023. According to the Malta Aviation Museum, Werk Nummer 8668, which is carried on the wing root, corresponds to a Bf 109F-4/Z of 5/JG3 which crashed during a raid over Malta on April 1st, 1942. Unteroffizier Hans Pilz was at the controls, pursuing an RAF fighter at low level when his Messerschmitt took hits, presumably from ground fire, and bellied in on a farm. Pilz survived the crash relatively unscathed, despite the aircraft flipping on its back; he spent the rest of the war in a POW camp.

This Me109G-5 was shot down by a USAAF P-47 when operating from Schiphol, Netherlands, on 4 December 1943. The wreckage was salvaged from the soil after the war and is currently being restored. Allegedly, it is the only surviving G-5 model.