Fishing Buddies Find L-19 Missing Since 1958

Minnesota's Green Lake has finally given up one of her most closely-held secrets -- one that's 46-years old. Monday, a trio of anglers frustrated because nothing was biting, stuck an underwater camera in the lake near Willmar (MN). What they saw astounded them.

It was a Cessna L-19 Birddog, one that had been missing since October 15, 1958.

On that day, the pilot, Minnesota National Guard Captain Richard Carey reported dense fog. He told controllers he "hit something" and had only about three minutes of fuel left before his Birddog literally disappeared, swallowed up by the lake. His body was recovered two weeks later.

It's become the stuff of legends in Willmar. Several times, locals have gone out on the water in search of the L-19. The West Central Tribune reports one man even crafted his own mini-sub from a 1,000 gallon propane tank in hopes of finding the downed aircraft. But it wasn't until Monday that Corey Fladeboe and his fishing buddies spotted the wreckage.

"We didn’t believe what we were seeing," Fladeboe told the Tribune. "We ran the camera down the whole fuselage. It was very muddy. We couldn’t make out any numbers or other identification."

So Fladeboe marked the spot where he found the wreckage and headed for shore to share the news.

A short time later, Mike Terhune took his underwater camera to the site for a closer look. Terhune told the Willmar newspaper the aircraft was about 40-feet down, covered with a light layer of silt, but remarkably intact. The rudder was lying beneath the aircraft's left wing. The aircraft was upright, its propeller bent the windscreen glass knocked out. But given the relatively pristine condition of the wreckage, Terhune speculated Capt. Carey did one helluva job ditching his Birddog.

Fladeboe and others who've searched for Carey's aircraft since the 1960s want to dive to the wreckage for a closer look and more photos. But they may have to wait. The FAA wants to investigate first, declaring the scene off limits to civilians. Still, some locals want to eventually raise the wrecked aircraft.

"If the family is in favor then I think that would be a really neat thing -- to put it on display," said Spicer (MN) resident Linda Mickleson in an interview with the West Central Tribune.

FMI: www.faa.gov