Missing military plane found in MN Lake

[LKunze]

Fishermen get a line on a mystery
Tracy Swartz, Star Tribune
July 6, 2004 PLANE0706


Cory Fladeboe was frustrated. An hour had passed since he and a friend had caught a walleye in Green Lake on Saturday. So Fladeboe dunked his underwater camera to find out why the fish weren't biting.

Then he saw it: the propeller of a Cessna-style high-wing, single-engine plane, covered with silt, 35 feet below the surface.

They circled the boat, and Fladeboe bounced the camera against the plane's tail and ran it along the fuselage and over the wing to confirm the discovery. Aware of the legend of Green Lake, the fishermen knew immediately that they had stumbled on the military plane that crashed into the west-central Minnesota lake 45 years ago.

"It looked pretty awesome," said Fladeboe, 25, of Willmar.

Fladeboe returned Sunday with divers who say the plane fits the description of the Army Cessna L-19 Birddog that plunged into the 5,400-acre lake near Spicer on Oct. 15, 1958.

Tail of the missing National Guard plane.Associated PressThe body of the National Guard pilot, Capt. Richard Carey of Willmar, was found in the lake two weeks later.

Kandiyohi County Sheriff's Deputy Mike Roe said he may find out today if the numbers on the plane's tail match FAA and Army records.

"Until the military puts its stamp of approval on it, it's still in limbo," said Roe, adding that the plane eventually may be raised, preserved and placed in a museum.

The plane is in "excellent shape," said Michael Terhune, of St. Cloud, one of six divers who inspected it Sunday.

Looking toward the instrument panelMike TerhuneWest Central TribuneTerhune, 46, said he didn't see holes in the plane or damage to the wings. But the propeller is bent back, and the cockpit's front and back windshields are broken.

Terhune took 50 pictures of the submerged plane and plans to return soon to Green Lake, about 100 miles west of the Twin Cities, with divers who will videotape the site.

One diver who plans to be there is Bill Matthies, owner of the Minnesota School of Diving in Brainerd. He searched for the plane five times in the 1960s to recover radio equipment for the Civil Air Patrol.

In 1962, Matthies went door to door near Green Lake to see if anyone heard or saw where the plane crashed. He dived in the southwest quadrant of the lake, where the pilot's body was found. The plane discovered Saturday is in the lake's northwest corner.

Matthies, 68, abandoned his search in 1963, when a man told him the plane had been hauled from the lake.

"I was stunned when they said they found the plane," Matthies said. "I'd like to dive on it to make that closure."

George Couleur, a Green Lake resident for 46 years, also is looking for closure. Couleur became water-safety officer for the Kandiyohi County Sheriff's Office the year after Carey's plane was lost and looked for the plane for years. He retired in 1988 but helped a dive crew search the lake a few years ago.

Couleur, 78, said the pilot was advised not to fly from Rochester because conditions around Willmar were too foggy, but he flew anyway. When his body was found, there were no bruises, which indicated he had crashed into the water.

But trying to find the plane was like "looking for a needle in a haystack," Couleur said.

Volunteers who monitor the water clarity of Green Lake consistently report they can see about 7 to 12 feet down, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Except near the shoreline, the lake is far deeper than that -- 110 feet at its deepest point -- so the lake bottom rarely is visible.

"It's lucky they found it," Couleur said.

Edna Carey, the pilot's widow, wasn't so sure. Her reaction to the plane's discovery was "not so good." She said she thought it would never be found.

"It was just a mystery," said Carey, 82, who lives in Willmar.

Tracy Swartz is at

tswartz@startribune.com.