Cessna L-19 recovered after 47 years

[evangilder]

Interesting

A Cessna L-19 Bird Dog was recovered on Saturday from the bottom of a Minnesota lake, where it had rested beneath 40 feet of water since 1958. The recovery team used a large winch mounted on a pontoon boat to hoist the airplane, then towed it to shore. Divers also found a flight log, parachutes and headphones. The wreck was discovered by accident in July 2004, when fishermen in search of walleye scanned the area with an underwater camera. The Army airplane crashed after the pilot, Capt. Richard P. Carey, reported he was low on fuel and then apparently hit some seagulls and crashed into the lake. Carey was killed and his body was recovered two weeks later, but the aircraft was never found. Local organizations, including an American Legion post and an EAA chapter, plan to restore the airplane and display it as a memorial to its pilot.

[Nonskimmer]

Wow, what a great discovery. I mean it's a shame about the pilot, but it's nice that the Legion and the EAA plan to restore the plane.

[FLYBOYJ]

WOW!

There are 22 Bird Dogs sitting at an Army base in Thailand, US property. When I was there in 2000, the base commander told me if you could figure a way to get the state dept. to turn them over to you, the're yours!

[evangilder]

Getting a response out of the state department might be more work than restoring this one!

[Nonskimmer]

22 of them? I wonder why they just left them there.

[evangilder]

Probably left over in case some spooks want to use them at some future date. Joe, were they in flyable condition, or just left to rot?

[Gnomey]

Good find, shame about the pilot but at least it is now being restored in memory of him

[Nonskimmer]

Probably left over in case some spooks want to use them at some future date.

Hmmm. Could be.

[FLYBOYJ]

22 of them? I wonder why they just left them there.

They were old MAP planes. The Thai army replaced them with T-41s. They were actually in great shape! I got some fuzzy photos of them, I'll try to post them when I get back to Colorado.

[Nonskimmer]

That'd be great. Thanks, FJ.

[FLYBOYJ]

Hey, here they are

[Nonskimmer]

Ah, right on. Thanks.

[evangilder]

Looks like at least one had a cockpit stripped.

[FLYBOYJ]

Yes - I showed how they varied from one extreme to another. Airframe wise they were all in great shape, although they had these hornets nested in some of them. The little buggers were tiny, their stinger couldn't penetrate the skin, but you could feel a pinch eveytime one of them tried to sting you!

One of the "Honchos" there told me that if you could find the right contact at the US State Deparment, you could have them. He also said they were taking up room on his base!

[Farang]

Not sure if these are the same aircraft as refrered to earlier but these pictures were taken in 2007. They need a good home.