Half a century later, discovery experts found a private plane that had disappeared with five people: three businessmen and two pilots. The wreckage of the aircraft, sunk in a lake in the United States, had been searched 17 times before, but without positive results. Finally, it could be located for the peace of mind of the families of the deceased.
On January 27, 1971, a plane took off on a cold, snowy night from Burlington International Airport in the state of Vermont, bound for Providence, Rhode Island. The plane was carrying two crew members and three employees of Cousin’s Properties, an Atlanta-based development company.
The flight disappeared and George Nikita, Donald Myers, Frank Wilder, Richard Kirby Windsor and Robert Ransom Williams III were never found, despite multiple searches over the past five decades.
But underwater researcher Garry Kozak and his team recently found the wreckage of the plane in Lake Champlain using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Sonar images captured by the team show an aircraft with the same custom paint scheme. The wreckage was found at a depth of 60 meters near Juniper Island, in an area where the airport control tower had lost contact with the aircraft.
The image of the sunken plane recently found after 53 years of searches. Photo: AP.
‘You can’t find peace until you find all the pieces, and today is the day. Today is the day. And that’s it,” Kristina Coffey, the daughter of George, the plane’s pilot, told NBC5 News.
Kozak located the remains a few weeks ago, but news of their discovery was withheld until the victims’ families were informed.
The private plane that departed with three passengers and two crew members and sank in a Vermont lake.
Prior to the recent discovery, pieces of debris, including plane wreckage and an oxygen tank, were found, but the entire plane was never located.
Kozak said he spent years searching for strange shapes at the bottom of Lake Champlain and analyzing previous scans of the water. “Looking for anything that’s been lost underwater is always an interesting story,” Kozak said.
‘And the other factor, in this particular case, is the families. You know, she had talked to a couple of them in 2014 and knew that they were really hoping they would find the plane.”
The plane’s initial disappearance sparked multiple searches over the years. According to Kozak, an unsuccessful underwater search was conducted in May 1971. Over the years, at least 17 additional searches were carried out, including in 2014, when authorities hoped that more advanced technology could locate the plane’s wreckage, inspired by the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight that same year.
During a follow-up search in May, Kozak and his team used remotely operated vehicles and high-resolution imaging technology to find multiple remains that had never been located before.
The crew discovered a broken fuselage, or main body of a plane, in the depths of the water with paint similar to that of the plane that disappeared half a century ago.
They also found an instrument panel, the structure of a wing, apparent remains of an engine and other revealing evidence. The exact location of the downed plane will remain confidential to protect and respect the site, NBC 5 News reported.
Other relatives of the passengers who were presumed dead all these years felt great relief and pain at the same time at the discovery.
It is unclear what will happen to the sunken plane, as an expert close to the investigation said extracting the aircraft would require a lot of time, patience and money to complete.
The families plan to wait and see what the next steps will be now that they have a sense of closure to each of the ill-fated passengers’ stories.
