P-51 Mustang in Forest Lake?

[arcFlash]

I spent yesterday at the Minnesota Historical Society researching this incident. I was able to find several papers including both Saint Paul and Trib as well as Forest Lake 'Times'. The tribune only had about 3 column inches in the middle. Mostly useless stuff. The Times had a much longer column but seamed to focus on the pilot and the mixed reports of both high and low angle impacts. The Saint Paul newspaper 'Pioneer' provided much more detail. Anyway, the first fun fact was it's listed as a F-51, not the common P. I thought this an error but Wiki supports that by 54' it was changed. See Wiki below.

So that data, It's accounted to be 400 yards or 1/4 miles off the NorthEast shore of Rogers Shadypoint. (this is were we first dove so my guess was spot on but our actual lat/log has not been translated to a high res chart for accuracy)  They show a picture of the barges dragging the bottom with a cable. The shore is very close but the picture is very poor quality and shows no detail. Two fishermen reported that the plane was close to striking the resort cabins but pulled up just before crashing. This supports the low angle reports and they were first on scene, marked it with a bobber. Divers "Using deep sea equipment" reported little wreckage and a 60 hour search to find the pilot. A fuel tank and other bits is all they recovered. They never found the fuselage and sadly reported that debris was sinking during the search. They expect the plane disintegrated and that 5 to 15 feet of silt is covering everything. 

In light of the new information I'd still like to try one more dive but my hope of finding a bit of tail peeking out of the muck is lost.

I also discovered a B-24 in Lake Pepin, 1944. The Army recovered the plane and dumped the broken pieces in a 60 foot hole at the end of the lake. The one photo of the wreckage on the barge shows a mess of metal. Given the river conditions and sharp bits I'd think diving this would be scarier then a bar fight with the grim reaper. The link is to a post and then a sublink to reports and pics.


From Wiki
"In 1948, the designation P-51 (P for pursuit) was changed to F-51 (F for fighter) and the existing F designator for photographic reconnaissance aircraft was dropped because of a new designation scheme throughout the USAF. Aircraft still in service in the USAF or Air National Guard (ANG) when the system was changed included: F-51B, F-51D, F-51K"