cooper9411 wrote:
Updated information; There is a plane in Crystal Lake (Keystone Heights), not a P-39 but unsure as to what type. No public access though.
Probability of a B-17 in Lake Okeechobee - zero. There are however fighter types in there.
There is documented B-17 in Tiger Lake near Kissimmee which was allegedly dynamited for being a navigation hazard, years ago an attempt was made to recover it but the conditions were terrible, the suction of the mud, and from what is being said the gators are plentiful!
Strong rumor of a B-17 in Lake Arbuckle (on the border of Avon Park Air Force Range) which is protected.
B-26 in Lake Livingston, Avon Park/Sebring area. Conflicting reports on whether or not this one was salvaged. Just about all information indicates it's still there.
"said Floridas the place you oughta be, so we loaded up the truck and headed for Okeechobee"
HERE IS SOME MORE INFO ON THE B17 in Lake Arbuckle:
My father came back from New Guinea probably around May or June of 1943. His story is on the Rutgers Oral History of WW2 at:
http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/Intervie ... erick.html At some point he was stationed at Avon Park, Florida as he states as follows from his Rutgers interview: "Then I became deputy group commander of the Eighty-eighth Bomb Group, and about that time, the group was moved to Avon Park, Florida, the whole group, and I led the air contingent down there. I think we had eighty-five airplanes ..."
The story he told me was as follows (this is paraphrased and not a direct quote. I only ever heard the story verbally:
I believe there was a hurricane or bad weather moving in, so the order went out to move the aircraft from the base to another location. One of the aircraft in the hangar had some new engines put on it and while they where operational, they had not been 'synched' to each other. The decision was made to fly that plane out as well. It took off and experienced some form of mechanical trouble and proceeded to go down into Lake Arbuckle.
If you look at a map you will see that the runway (which is still intact and I believe in use) takes you right over the lake after wheels up. I had heard him tell this story several times and he actually pointed out the lake and the runway when we were in Florida back in the summer of 1973.
I did some searches and could find nothing indicating that a B17 had everee been pulled from Lake Arbuckle. I did however find one verification of this story at:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2192454/CHARL ... II-Memoirs I copied and pasted the section from Charles C. Huff recollections as follows:
"Going back to when I first arrived here, (Avon Park) there was an incidentthat happened about a week earlier. A B-17 ditched (landed) in Lake Arbuckle, which is a large lake about four miles long with the south end right at the base. The Officers' Club was built on this end out over the water, so there was eyewitnesses that saw it happen. I never heard the official report, but since one of our runways was almost in line with this lake, it was speculated that there was a fire onboard soon after taking off, and the pilot decided to set it down in the water, which is exactly what I would have done. I know for sure that it was never salvaged, so it is still there where it sank. I'll bet that lake has ten feet of mud on the bottom,which acts as a preservative on metal, so I imagine it is still in good condition. It would be worth a lot of money, and some day someone will salvage it."
Based upon these two stories, I would believe that this incident occurred and that perhaps the aircraft is still there. As far as the timeline goes, I can only speculate that this happened some time in late 1943 or during 1944.