Parts of the Cessna 180 float plane that crashed into in Peter Pond Lake in 1959 is now in its final resting place.
Visitors can observe the fuselage that is on display at the Saskatchewan Aviation Museum and Learning Centre.
Sixty years ago, the aircraft crashed after it departed Buffalo Narrows when it flew into poor weather while on route to La Loche. Pilot Ray Gran, who was a veteran pilot of WWII, and Conservation Officer Harold Thompson were flying to La Loche to deliver mail and investigate a potential poacher. Both men died in the crash.
The C-180 that spent 60 years 57-feet below the surface belonged to Saskatchewan Government Airlines.
Last year, the family of Gran hired a professional diver with sonar equipment to find the long-lost plane.
They were hoping to find the plane for closure for their family, but especially his widow, Marcella.
The day the plane was discovered last summer, Marcella passed away at the age of 87.
In January, RCMP was on scene and recovered the remains of Gran and Thompson.
Fast forward to this past weekend, the Sask. Aviation Museum with the help of community members from Dillon, Buffalo Narrows, and Michel, worked together to hoist most of the plane to the surface.
Some smaller pieces of equipment and the propeller engine remain on the bottom of the lake.
“It was worse than I expected,” says Sask. Aviation Museum president, Dorrin Wallace. “I was ready to leave it there, but the local people, they all wanted the airplane out of there.”
Wallace adds that it was a team effort on behalf of the surrounding communities and if a piece of their equipment broke, someone would lend a replacement right away.
“A lady from Michel Village came over there and dragged her BBQ out and started cooking bannock and pickerel,” says Wallace. “She wound up feeding everyone there for four days. It was really something.”
Many items were recovered, including remnants of the freight they were hauling, a camera, and a small knife.
Cree words for, ‘do not touch here’ was spraypainted on the elevator, which is a part of the tail of the plane, indicating to dock-hands to be aware of a potential finger-pinching hazard.
“There were all sorts of strange things that were found. The pilot’s licence was found in a little plastic folder. Parts of the equipment in the emergency ration boxes were found, the float pump was found.”
The items that Gran’s family wanted to recover were his watch and his wedding band.
“Well, they found the watch, but the ring never showed up. They (the family) became accustomed to the fact this (finding the ring) would never happen,” says Wallace.
They decided to stop searching for the ring and finally raise the airplane.
“Once the diver was done, and the airplane was extracted, low-and-behold they found the ring sitting on the wing.”
“The thing that really surprised me was the emotion shown by everybody. There were two or three times that it was really emotional. Once was when we brought the first piece of the airplane up, which was a pontoon. Everyone got quiet.”
Wallace adds that the second time the group of about 40 got emotional was when an Elder from Dillon said a prayer over the recovery site.
Once the recovery efforts were complete, and the family members left the scene, the pilot of their plane dipped the wings to show gratitude to the community members of Dillon to show thanks for the hospitality.
The single-engine that still lays at the bottom of Peter Pond Lake is expected to make it to dry land in the next couple of weeks.
Once recovered, it will join the rest of the aircraft pieces at the museum.
Wallace says this weekend has been one of their busiest since people seem to have a genuine interest in the plane that spent 60 years at the bottom of Peter Pond Lake.
The Sask. Aviation Museum will be holding a fundraiser on May 26th and 27th to raise funds to restore the aircraft to the original condition as it was when it belonged to Sask. Government Airlines.
They also have a gofundme page to raise funds for the C-180 that has quite the past.
(Volunteers help to hoist the C-180 float plane out of the frozen waters of Peter Pond Lake. Photo courtesy of Doug Chisholm’s Facebook page.)