Experts believe they have found the remains of a corporate private jet that crashed 200 feet below the surface of Lake Champlain in Vermont more than 50 years ago.
The private plane, registration N400CP, disappeared shortly after takeoff from Burlington on January 27, 1971, en route to Providence, Rhode Island.
The 1971 flight was carried by pilots Donald Myers and George Nikita, and passengers Richard Winsor, Robert Williams, and Frank Wilder.
Despite 17 searches spanning decades, the wreck has never been found.
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The side of the plane wreckage in Lake Champlain. Underwater search expert Gary Kozak identified the plane as N400CP, which crashed after takeoff in January 1971. (Gary Kozak via The Associated Press)
However, the jet’s crash site was excavated last month by underwater searcher Gary Kozak and a team of researchers.
Kozak said the team used sonar imagery to confirm that the plane’s custom paintwork matched the missing jet.
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“All of this evidence makes us 99 percent sure,” Kozak said. He told NBC 10 Boston.
This historic discovery has left the family members with mixed emotions.
“Now that we’ve found this … I feel a great sense of peace, but at the same time, I feel very sad,” Barbara Nikita, niece of pilot George Nikita, said in an interview. Associated Press on Tuesday. “I know what happened. I’ve seen some of the pictures. I think we’re all struggling with that right now.”
A tree growing out of rocks on Lake Champlain in Vermont. (Photo by Marli Miller/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) (Marlee Miller/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Frank Wilder’s father was also Frank Wilder, and was a passenger on that plane.
“It’s been tough going 53 years without knowing if the plane was in a lake or on a mountainside somewhere,” said Wilder, who lives in suburban Philadelphia. “And it’s also a relief to know where it is now, but unfortunately it raises other questions that we now have to address.”
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Kozak said the plane wreckage was first discovered in spring 1971 at Shelburne Point, Vermont, after ice on the lake melted.
Kozak and his team were the first researchers to make major breakthroughs in the investigation of the plane that disappeared in 1971.
A representative from the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed that they were investigating the information they received.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration for comment.
