Seabee Recovered From Bottom Of Quebec Lake

A Republic RC-3 Seabee which disappeared more than a half-century ago has been successfully recovered from the bottom of Quebec's Lac Simon.

The plane became prominent in local lore after it became lost in a heavy snowstorm on November 21, 1957. It was assumed to have gone down in the lake after the body of a hunting dog washed up onshore, but the exact fate of the four hunters onboard had remained a mystery until recently.

Last fall, a 10-year search by a group of divers finally led to the discovery of the wreckage, intact on the lake's floor, 50 meters below the surface. The Ottawa Citizen reported local police used a tow truck to bring the hull to a position near shore on Tuesday evening, then pulled it completely from the water on Wednesday morning.

There were four hunters in the plane for its last flight, all bachelors in their mid-30s. The remains of two were found on the bottom of the lake near the plane, and another inside the wreckage. The body of the fourth has not been found.

Police say the recovered remains will be taken to a laboratory in Montreal for positive identification. The wreckage itself will eventually be released to 39-year-old Ottawa resident Guy Morin, who spent summers on Lac Simon as a child, and grew up to lead the decade-long effort to find and recover the plane.

While a formal determination of the cause of the accident has been made more difficult by the passage of time, there are some clues. Images from the high-resolution side-scan sonar which first detected the wreck revealed one wing bent back.

Chris Koberstein, an aircraft mechanic and experienced diver on the search team, told the Toronto Globe and Mail that based on his observations, "I suspect the plane stalled just prior to hitting the water and caught a wingtip, and it might have spun it around or cartwheeled."

He added that the recovery team remains curious about the four bachelors, who had no known immediate family.

"We know their names, but we'd like to know more about them to identify them and tell their loved ones that they have been found," Koberstein said.

FMI: Lac Simon Blog