Military Plane Wreck in Green Lake

[LKunze]

Anglers turn up plane missing in Minnesota lake since 1958
Associated Press
July 5, 2004 PLANE0706



SPICER, Minn. -- Anglers using an underwater camera appear to have stumbled onto the wreck of a small military plane that crashed into Green Lake in 1958.

Divers who photographed the plane on Sunday said its description matches the Cessna L-19 Birddog plane piloted by Capt. Richard Carey, a Minnesota National Guard member who lived in nearby Willmar. Carey's body was found in the lake two weeks after the Oct. 15, 1958, crash.

Cory Fladeboe, 25, of Willmar, said he and two fishing companions were using an underwater camera on Saturday to see why the walleye below them were not biting when they spotted the plane.

``We didn't believe what we were seeing,'' he said. ``We ran the camera down the whole fuselage. It was very muddy. We couldn't make out any numbers or other identification.''

From the depthsAssociated PressFladeboe marked the location on the 5,406-acre lake, and returned with divers Sunday morning. Carrying an underwater camera, Mike Terhune of St. Cloud was the first of the six divers to reach the plane in the half-light of 40-feet of water.

The plane's military star insignia was clearly visible to the divers.

``It was in amazingly good shape,'' said Craig Fladeboe of Willmar, one of the divers.

Terhune said the plane is upright and shows little sign of serious damage. He said the plane's propeller is bent, and front and back windows on the cockpit are missing. The plane's rudder had apparently been knocked off; it's lying below the right wing. Inside the cockpit, Terhune and the other divers could see the parachute that the pilot had kept at the ready.

By fanning the water, Terhune and the divers dusted away the light coating of silt on the plane's tail, and photographed its identifying numbers.

Kandiyohi County Sheriff's deputy Mike Roe said he didn't know if the tail numbers matched the plane lost in 1958. He said the Federal Aviation Administration and the military have been notified.

Carey was returning from a PTA meeting in Rochester when he crashed in dense fog after reporting that he only had about three minutes of fuel remaining and had ``hit something.'' The 36-year-old World War II veteran left behind a wife and seven children, ages nine months to age 12.

The search that followed included divers, a fleet of boats trailing grappling hooks, a Navy sonar plane, five Army amphibious craft, and local fire and law enforcement agencies.

West Central Tribune archives said a pilot's navigation map floating in the water and a small slick of oil were the only clues found immediately after the crash.

Numerous searches were conducted in subsequent years by private individuals, including one by a man using a mini-sub he made from a 1,000 gallon liquid propane tank. The plane's disappearance has long been the topic for local speculation.

Bill Matthies, who now owns the Minnesota School of Diving in Brainerd, searched for the plane in the early 1960s for the Civil Air Patrol, which hoped to recover the plane's sealed radios. Matthies said he and a companion became discouraged when one man told them that he had seen the plane hauled from the lake, and they gave up their search.

``I just thought this is such a great climax to such a neat mystery,'' he said.