Museum shows engine recovered from 'Ghost of Charron Lake'

A group of divers, sonar operators and historianswere all smiles Fridayas they unveiled the engine of a bush plane recovered last week from Charron Lake in northern Manitoba after 75 years.

The Fokker Standard Universal,nicknamed the "Ghost of Charron Lake," has been underwater since it made an emergency landing on the lake in December 1931.

After three decades of searching,a team of divers and technicians recoveredthe plane'sengine and propellerlast Sunday and brought them to theWestern Canadian Aviation Museum in Winnipeg for restoration.

The plane's engine is in remarkable condition, given the years it sat on the lake's bottom. The manufacturer's stickers are still visible on the propeller.

Remaining wreck awaits recovery

George Richardson, whose father was the original owner of the plane,was on handto view the engine. His father would have been impressed with the effort to recover the aircraft, he said.

"I just know how pleased my father would be," he said. "It wasn't his main business, but he was very very involved in the airways, emotionally and personally, and he felt it was essential to have this kind of operation going … to map and develop northern Canada.

The recovery team had hoped to bring the entire plane to the surface during a mission this July, but it proved too difficult.

"We're going to have to construct a cradle to put under the fuselage because it is too fragile to lift up the way it is," said Pat Madden, a member of the recovery team. "The metal is deteriorated."

Team members hope a second effortwill raise the rest of the plane in September.

Most complete model of its kind

TheWestern Canada Aviation Museumplans to restore the plane and make it a centrepiece of Canadian aviation history.

Only 45 Fokker Standard Universal bush planes were built.If the plane is recovered and rebuilt, it would be the most complete of its kind.

"There's only one place it should be: the centre of Canada and the centre of the airline business in Canada," said Richardson, who has underwritten much of the cost of the recovery. "It should be here."

While flying supplies for prospectors from Winnipeg to Island Lake in December 1931, the plane ran into bad weather and made an emergency landing on Charron Lake. The ice was still soft and the plane began to sink immediately.

The pilots survived, but thelocation of the wreckage remained a mystery. Even using the most sophisticated technology available, the plane eluded nine search teams over 30 years.

When the grandson of a fur trapper who found the stranded pilots came forward with new information on the crash site he recalled from his childhood, it proved to be crucial break in the search.

A team from the museum located the plane in Charron Lake, near the Ontario border, last July.