Warbird Information Exchange

SOUTH COUNTY — Divers Thursday will begin preparing the recovery site to lift a World War II fighter plane that has been at the bottom of Lower Otay Reservoir since it crashed there in 1945.

Capt. Bob Rasmussen, director of the Florida-based National Naval Aviation Museum, didn’t have an exact date for when the operation to recover the SB2C-4 Helldiver will begin, but he’s looking at mid-August.

“We’re going to give it a shot,” he said.

The city of San Diego, which owns the South County reservoir and water, will prepare a triangular boom to collect any fuel, oil or other toxins that may leak from the plane as it’s being lifted. A&T Recovery of Chicago will conduct the complex operation to clean debris from inside and around the plane.

Divers and engineers then will work from plan drawn up by Taras Lyssenko and his engineers from A&T Recovery to lift the plane to the surface and get it to the shore.

“The first thing we have to do is pull all the mud back, and from inside the plane and around it,” Lyssenko said. “We have to see what the structure and integrity of the plane is like before we attempt to lift it. We have to see if there is any fuel or toxins there.”

Lyssenko said the salvage of the plane could be done in stages. For instance, if the engine is off the plane or not secure, it may come up separately. If it can be secured, then divers will do that and raise it with the plane.

“We won’t know anything until we pull the mud back,” he said. “We need to make sure everything on the plane is attached and secure. It’s not a simple thing.”

Nelson Manville, assistant city lakes manager in charge of the ranger-diver team, said his divers today will set three large anchors that will hold a triangular boom on buoys in place for the recovery operation.

“These are the standard anchors we place off our docks to hold them in place,” Manville said. “They are 55-gallon drums filled with concrete and have a large piece of pipe in them.”

Manville said two of the anchors will be placed near the plane and one will be set closer to shore. He said the boom itself absorbs oil and fuel and toxins, and there also is a giant pad available that will serve as a backup absorbent.

It has been nearly a year and a half since two bass fishermen, Duane Johnson and Curtis Howard, discovered the plane in 85 feet of water southeast of the boat dock at Lower Otay Reservoir.

The plane had been undisturbed since May 28, 1945. On that date, Navy pilot E.D. Frazar was forced to ditch in the lake when the big plane’s engine failed. Frazar and his passenger, Army gunner Joseph Metz of Ohio, survived the water landing and swam a couple hundred yards to shore. Both men have since died, but family members are aware of the recovery effort and some of them plan to be here.

Museum officials are hopeful the plane is in good condition and can be restored for the Navy’s museum collection in Pensacola, Fla. There are fewer than five of the Helldivers left from the estimated 7,000 that were made during World War II. The Navy doesn’t have one in its collection.

“We definitely want the SB2C and feel this is our best opportunity to get one,” Rasmussen said.

Capt. Ed Ellis of the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation said the foundation will fund the recovery. It will use money bequeathed to the museum by Marlon Overholt, a World War II pilot and former volunteer at the naval museum.

“He left the museum over $1 million for us to use for recovery, restoration and exhibiting aircraft at the museum,” Ellis said.

Manville said the city of San Diego will use the operation as a practice session for its divers, who often are called upon to salvage boats and even planes in city reservoirs. Manville said the operation will be part of a day’s pay for the city workers involved in the anchoring operation today.

If a Navy dive team is involved, the exercise will be considered part of another training mission, Ellis said. A&T Recovery will furnish a dive and engineer team of seven to eight members.

The Chicago-based company has recovered 31 World War II planes on behalf of the National Naval Aviation Museum in Florida.

The Change in Navy recovery views is just awesome. Here is to getting a Helldiver for the WWII hangar!