My Warbirds in "Fresh Water" List, US & CAN

[PbyCat-Guy]

I believe there is a PBY Catalina in Lake Mead that hasn't been found yet. Did you also consider the B-29 "Lady of the Lake" in AK and the one in Lake Mead?

[bdk]

Bicycle Lake in California is a dry lake if I'm not mistaken...

[Warbirdnerd]

Here are a few from Wisconsin:
430726   BT-9C Into Lake Michigan near Muskegon 
441215   B-24L 44-49908  Lake Pepin, WI
530824   F-51H 44-64632  10mi NE of Port Washington, WI 
F-89C lake Wingra Madison, WI

Here is an extensive article on the B-24L in Lake Pepin-
https://www.minnpost.com/earth-journal/ ... epin-where

[quemerford]

Can't find any fresh water F-86A/E/F or H, but here are three F-86Ds:

52-4182 - 62nd FIS; w/o 10Oct56 in Lake Michigan, 47 miles NE of Milwaukee, WI after mid-air with 52-4194, Capt Carlton Ova Berry ejected but body not found

52-4194 - 62nd FIS; w/o 10Oct56 in Lake Michigan, 47 miles NE of Milwaukee, WI after mid-air with 52-4182, 2/Lt Kenneth Richard Hughes ejected and picked up after 3 hours in water

53-735 - 1st FIW; w/o 26Sep59, disappeared over Lake Huron, 1/Lt Jay T. Grafmiller (killed/missing?)

[Lon Moer]

P-39 air racer "Cobra I" crashed into Lake Ontario, 1946. But reported as "......crashed into the water, breaking apart upon impact."

[Flying Pencil]

First number is date in year-month-day?

[TOM WALSH]

On Sunday, December 8, 1940, a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Fairey Battle Mk I took off on a routine gunnery training exercise from No. 4 Bombing & Gunnery School (B&GS) at Air Station Fingal, Ontario. At the controls of aircraft No. 1650 was Flying Officer (FO) Leon Arthur Hood from St. Joseph, Missouri. Hood's two fellow crew members that day were drogue operators, Aircraftsmen 2nd Class (AC2) Airman John Henry McNally age twenty from Minaki, Ontario and twenty-five year old Ernest William Bourne from Oshawa, Ontario. Hood pointed the lumbering single-engined Battle southeast toward the assigned training area located a few miles offshore from the village of Port Stanley, Ontario. The aircraft, trailing an aerial target, was last seen at 1015 hours over Lake Erie. It was observed, by the crew in a trailing Battle, to fly into a fog bank from which it never emerged.

From my forthcoming book "American RCAF Warriors."

Cheers,

Tom Walsh.

[dirtysidedown430]

B 25 ran out of fuel trying to make landing at Allegheny Co airport ditched in Mon River down stream of Braddock Pa just missing the Homestead High Level bridge. 2 killed 3 swam to shore think 1957. Bodies airplane never found big local legend to this day.

[John Dupre]

Surprised this list doesn't have Sebago Lake, ME. O maybe I missed it? There is a TBM Avenger, three F4U Corsairs and I think one of the Grumman twin engine amphibians. Two of the Corsairs were Fleet Air Arm and ditched after colliding. They are considered war graves and as such are under USN control on behalf of the British government. A video a few years ago showed a remarkable state of preservation. The TBM ditched intact and the crew escaped. It has never been found. The lake can be over 200 feet deep.

[Rajay]

Two more military wrecks in Lake Champlain between NY and VT:

KC-97C 52-2737 18 July 1957 Capt. Robert V. Smith - 5 fatalities. 4 survivors

Some pieces of both aircraft remain in Lake Champlain. For the KC-97C most of the larger pieces were recovered from relatively shallow water but most small pieces were left in the water.

My FIL was a 1st Lt. co-pilot assigned to the 380th ARS (380th BW, 4108th SW, 820th Air Division, USAF) at Plattsburgh AFB when that happened. He was stationed there flying the KC-97 from August 1956 until October 1962 when he transitioned to the KC-135A (ground training at Castle AFB in Merced CA and flight training at Walker AFB in Roswell NM) and was re-assigned to the 912th AREFS at Robbins AFB in Warner Robbins, GA. Before the transition to the KC-135, he became an aircraft commander and instructor and "Stan Eval" check pilot in the KC-97 too, which he later did in the KC-135 as well.

He met and married my MIL there in Plattsburgh and we have discussed this very crash before as well. As would be expected, he knew the crew and that crash haunted the unit for quite some time afterward. My wife was eventually born there in Plattsburgh too - in 1961. We drove all the way up there to visit her aunt and uncle about a year ago - and boy, I'm here to tell you that Plattsburgh is a long WAY up there - still a couple hours of drive above Albany, NY, but still a beautiful area. I went to college in NY too, in the center of state closer to Utica and Syracuse, but it was still a bit of a shock to be able to or have to keep driving so far north and still be in the same state.

[Pogmusic]

Interesting that you classify Lake Pontchartrain in LA as fresh water. At best, it is brackish water.

[peter]

Raf Avro Lincoln bomber in Watson Lake

[Michel Lemieux]

Raf Avro Lincoln bomber in Watson Lake

Peter.....you got me curious.....

Do you have details you could share?????

[Chris Brame]

From another thread about a year and a half ago:

And a few more possibles from the Chicago Tribune:

Probable T-6 (ed. note: civilian), April 27, 1948, about 500 yards off Washington Park in Wilmette (2 fatal, plane ditched and sank, pilot and passenger were seen to get out but rescuers couldn't reach them in time).

FH-1 Phantom, May 4, 1951, several hundred yards east of Northwestern University (1 fatal, flamed out and ditched in lake; the pilot was seen waving from the water, two sets of rescuers tried to reach him but were beaten back by high wind and waves. Even worse: Two days later, four sailors, including a diver trying to find the pilot's body and attach a line to the Phantom, drowned when the LCVP they were using as a diving platform was suddenly swamped by a wave and sank. About two weeks later the Navy abandoned the search, after the plane and boat were determined to be covered by drifting sand).

F9F-6 Cougar, May 19, 1956 1/2 mile off Fort Sheridan (1 fatal, pilot reported losing control at 19,000 feet; canopy recovered at Fort Sheridan).

F9F-6 Cougar, November 14, 1958 somewhere off Wilmette or Lake Forest (1 fatal, pilot reported radio/instrument trouble and low fuel and was going to attempt landing at O'Hare; he may have gone down in the lake trying to avoid houses).

[camshaw]

great topic, theres a corsair post war in a bay in lake superior i read about years ago,he ditch and survived, so its pretty intach and worth finding......i would venture to say that the craft where the pilot died hit the water soo hard they are probably twisted messes? a list of ditched and surviving crew in fresh water would be gold!