Lost Aircraft

When people think of lost treasure, they generally think of sunken treasure, pirate treasure. But there have been thousands of "treasures", of one kind or another, lost over the years, and treasure hunters search for them all.

How about lost aircraft?

Some aircraft are lost, although they aren't known to be. Take for example this recent WWII plane, found on March 18, 2010:

A World War II-era U.S. Navy aircraft was discovered by a logging company near Rockaway Beach

Loggers made a rare find last week when they came upon a World War II-era U.S. Navy Aircraft in a heavily wooded area near Rockaway Beach.

"If this is one of our shipmates we would treat that like we would treat one who died today with respect to our fallen comrade and respect to the family," said Sean Hughes, Navy Region Northwest Public Affairs Officer.

"We would try to connect the past with the people who may still be alive. I don't want to speculate that there are remains, but if there are, we will treat them with the utmost respect."

Investigators were initially concerned that there might be unexploded bombs or bullets on the site, but a search by Oregon State Police bomb technicians turned up no obvious signs of any unexploded ordnance, Hughes said.

Workers for a lumber company spotted the plane while harvesting timber March 18, according to Tillamook Sheriff Todd Anderson. They initially spotted a wing, tail, landing gear and other debris.

The debris was found in a heavily wooded area on private property off a logging road, and covers about a 200-yard area.

The aircraft has been identified as a Curtiss SB2C Helldiver. It was found about 20 miles northwest of Naval Air Station Tillamook, which was decommissioned in 1948. However, the station of origin has not been determined and Hughes said it is too soon to say if or when the plane was listed as missing.

Anderson said he was told by the Pentagon that it was a two-person plane.

"I've talked with a retired sheriff who was here since the 1950s and he is not aware of that type of crash," Anderson said. "The Air Station Tillamook flew the Curtiss from 1942 to 1948 on sub missions. They carried a torpedo weighing up to 500 pounds that was meant to disable Japanese subs.There is one reported missing from 1945 with two crew members."

Anderson said his primary concern is determining if there are "fallen comrades," and secondly, if the plane might have been decommissioned and sold and flown by someone other than the Navy.

Sig Unander Jr., a Cornelius resident who has spent years tracking down the wreckage of military airplanes, said there have been many crashes of Helldivers based out of Astoria.

" I am unaware of one crashing there but there are probably 30 military aircraft not accounted for in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana from the mid 1930s through mid 1940s."

A team of Navy personnel are working on-scene to investigate and share information with Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command. Personnel include archeologists, DNA experts, ordnance specialists and their own public affairs unit.

"The JPAC team does this all the time," said Hughes. "They are on scene collecting as much data from the scene as possible to share with the command, which has fairly extensive data on missing personnel. Safety and integrity of the aircraft site is paramount. It is important that the Navy team on-scene be allowed to make a thorough, undisturbed investigation at this time."

Once it's determined if there are human remains at the site, that will determine the next phase of the investigation, Hughes said.

"It may be a project that goes on for a while," said Hughes. "This is just the initial phase."

and

World War II air crashes in the Northwest
A P-63 crashed into the Bull Run watershed on Sept. 1, 1944.

An Army B-17 crashed Aug. 1, 1943, on Cape Lookout on the Oregon Coast, killing nine of the 10 aboard. The plane was from Pendleton on a gunnery training mission

A Navy PBY-5 crashed Jan. 31, 1945, in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in Southern Oregon's Coast Range, killing the crew of seven. A ground party reached the crash a few days later and deemed the terrain too difficult to recover bodies. They buried the crew there.

A Navy F6F Hellcat crashed on Deadman Peak in the Blue Mountains in November 1944, killing a pilot out of Pasco, Wash. A party located the crash in June 1945 and found the pilot's body.

A B-17 crashed Aug. 16, 1943, south of Langdon Lake in the Blues, killing the pilot, 1st Lt. Lewis W. Hubbard, and three crewmen. The bomber was on a training flight from Pendleton.

An Army P-38 crashed sometime in 1943 in a farmer's field near Onalaska, Wash., killing the pilot.

An Army B-24 crashed Feb. 12, 1945, into a ridge in Oregon's Pueblo Moutains, three miles northwest of Denio, Nev. The 11 persons on board died.
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A Navy PV-1 Ventura crashed Nov. 29, 1945, five miles east of Mount St. Helens on a flight from Seattle to Red Bluff, Calif.
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A B-17 crashed Dec. 2, 1943, into a ridge near Potlatch, Idaho. Pilot Capt. John E. Gaffney and six others bailed out and lived.

A B-24 crashed April 23, 1944, 25 miles northeast of McDermitt. The crew of 10 bailed out and was rescued by Indians from the McDermitt reservation.

Crashes documented by Sig Unander Jr., of Cornelius, a self-described aviation archeologist.Now, Navy investigators are focusing their efforts on determining if human remains might also be at the scene.

In 2007, there was a report of a Republic RC-3 SeaBee found in Lake Quebec.

Lost Aircraft Found after 50 Years - updated

Lac Simon, Quebec - A Republic RC-3 SeaBee has been found in the deep waters of Lac Simon, Quebec. The discovery ends the mystery of this lost aircraft that has endured for fifty years. Guy Morin and Chris Koberstein located the aircraft using sophisticated side scanning sonar equipment.

Hunting expedition ends in tragedy
On November 21st 1957, the Republic RC-3 SeaBee piloted by Gaetan Deshaies made three trips between Lac du Diable (Devil's Lake) and Schryer lake to bring a party back from a hunting expedition. The first trip returned cargo and game. The second trip brought four of the members back, and necessitated a precautionary landing on Lac Simon to await clear weather. Conditions that day were windy and snow squalls reduced visibility to zero at times. The final trip included the last three members of the hunting party: Tony Chivazza, Philippe Ouimet, Louis Hamel and their hunting dog. The plane and its occupants were lost on a crash landing in Lac Simon. Evidence confirming the loss in Lac Simon included the discovery of the dog on the shore of the lake. An autopsy performed on the dog revealed the cause of death to be coronary hemorrhaging, a sign the animal had suffered a deadly impact. A child reported seeing a plane performing pirouettes in the sky that day, and local farmers reported hearing a strange sound similar to a muffled impact. A substantial search and rescue operation was conducted to locate the aircraft which focused on Lac Simon. Even with the use of electronic search equipment, grappling hooks and SCUBA divers, the plane and its occupants could not be found. Over the past fifty years the mysterious disappearance of the SeaBee aircraft turned to legend in the Lac Simon area.

The Discovery
The discovery of the remains of the aircraft was made in 2007 utilizing sophisticated side scan sonar technology with the assistance of Dan Scoville. The sonar imagery showed a substantial debris field surrounding the wreck, demonstrating the severity of the impact. This debris field includes the port passenger and forward doors, two of the occupant's bodies, a rifle, the port sponson (wing tip float) and other items. The Seabee was found in deep water, well beyond recreational limits for SCUBA diving of 135 feet. These depths necessitated the use of advanced diving techniques to confirm the identity of the plane. Morin and Koberstein made use of mixed gas diving techniques involving gas mixtures of helium, nitrogen and oxygen as well as rebreather technology to perform dives on the wreck. A remote operated vehicle developed by Scoville was used to map the debris field and to identify, locate items, and document the site using video. The registration letters were clearly visible on the body of the aircraft confirming its identification.

Exploring the Wrecked Aircraft
In the deep and cold waters where the plane rests, there is no visible light to illuminate the plane. The remote operated vehicle uses artificial lighting to bring back images of the aircraft. The plane rests upright on the bottom and shows many signs of the violence of the impact. The cabin is crushed by the weight of the engine bearing down upon impact, with the roof pressed to the instrument panel. The fuselage is curled upward with several kinks at key structural junctures. One such crimp immediately aft of the front seats seals the passenger section, entombing the two rear passengers within. The tail is arched upward similar to a scorpion's tail. Moving closer to the pilot's seat, the port door is open, the glass is gone. A rifle rests on the pilot's seat, balanced on the edge with the stock protruding from the fuselage. The starboard wing shows many signs of structural damage with the missing sponson and strut, multiple bends, and misaligned flap and aileron. The sponson and strut were located 150 feet away in the debris field. The propeller is in perfect condition and resting in a vertical position, both signs that it may not have been turning during impact. The starboard and forward doors are missing and are located over a hundred feet away. Two of the occupants of the aircraft were thrown a distance from the aircraft. The boots they were wearing are still visible along with the belt and knives that they wore for the hunt.

Wreck Detectives
The discovery is the culmination of intensive research efforts by Morin. The search began well over a decade ago with archived materials of the period including newspapers and Government of Canada files. Weather data from the period was obtained through Environment Canada to elucidate how the floating debris came to rest where it was found. Weather modeling of floating debris provided useful clues on where the wreck may be located. A probability model was developed to organize the search effort. Interviews were conducted with individuals familiar with the events of the time to obtain added information. The field work was equally demanding due to the underwater topography of the lake. Lac Simon has depths of over 300 feet over much of its area necessitating extended cabling for the sonar probe, and further requires careful navigation to contend with the underwater pinnacles and narrow fissures. The underwater topography has an additional challenge in creating illusions for the sonar in the forms of rocky outcroppings, clay shelves and other elements such as trees and logs. The search was challenging because of the nature of the target. Airplanes are known to be very difficult to detect, and may offer a very slight signature on the sonar record. This requires careful analysis of the sonar record, and increases the number of targets that must be investigated. The remote operated vehicle built by Scoville and utilized by the team was key in performing the extensive target investigation and providing the added knowledge to improve target interpretation.

Republic RC-3 SeaBee
It has been more than half a century since the last Seabee amphibian rolled off the production lines at Republic Aviation Corp of Farmingdale, New York. A total of 1060 Seabees were manufactured by Republic Aviation Corporation from 1945 to 1947. These aircraft were exported in numbers, to countries like Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, England, India, Mexico, Norway, Sweden and Uruguay. The Seabee was one of the most popular bushplanes and air ambulances in the late 1940s and in the 1950s in countries like Canada, Norway, Sweden and the USA. Many stories can be told about life-saving missions flown by hero Seabee pilots to rescue seriously ill persons from remote islands and wilderness. Even today, a few Seabees are still earning their keep commercially - as bushplanes, air taxis and school planes! In the World of Aviation, probably only the DC-3 transports have had longer commercial careers than the Seabees. Several museums such as the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario features a SeaBee on display. Designed for the postwar civilian aircraft market and with a retail price of $4500 at the time, SeaBees are currently valued between $50000 to $175000. For additional information and images of the Seabee aircraft on the bottom of Lac Simon, visit our website: http://www.shipwreckworld.com/

See the link for much more on this story.

Search for missing female WWII pilot
Oct 6, 2009

Searchers are still looking for the last missing WASP, Gertrudge Tomkoins Silver
Tuesday, specially trained divers scoured an area of the Pacific Ocean near LAX hoping to solve a mystery six decades in the making.

Gertrude Tompkins Silver was a "WASP", one of the elite Women Air Force Service Pilots flying non-combat missions during World War II.

Silver had just been secretly married, which was against military regulations.

Silver disappeared in 1944 with her P-51 Mustang vanishing just after take-off from Mines Field, better known now as Los Angeles International Airport.

More: P-51 Mustang - The Gertrude Tompkins Expedition
"She was the last of a flight of three," said aviation archaeologist Pat Macha. "She flew into a heavy cloud or fog bank and was never seen again."

Of course, Amelia Earhart and her Lockheed Vega (and her navigator Greg Noonan) are perhaps the most famous missing airplane of all time, but there are others. The hijacker, DB Cooper, for one.

Steve Fossett, who crashed in 2007, was not found until a hiker stumbled across his wallet a year later, this despite the massive search that had been under way for him. (After the failure of the search, scurrilous lies were published that Fossett had just "skipped town" with his fortune. But it just goes to show how much unexplored wilderness still exists in this country, and indeed, around the world.

(How much longer unexplored wilderness, or wilderness at all, will exist, is another point, beyond the scope of this article.)