An
exploration team discovered the nearly intact remains of an Air Force
Beechcraft C-45 on the floor of Lake Ontario, near Oswego, N.Y., the team
announced
on July 8. On Sept. 11, 1952, the twin-engined light transport suffered a single
engine failure on a flight from Bedford, Mass., to the former Griffiss AFB, N.Y. After
instructing the four others aboard to bail out, pilot Lt. Col. Charles Callahan
set the aircraft's autopilot on course away from populated areas and bailed out
himself, according to discoverer Jim Kennard. Without its passengers and crew,
the C-45 gained altitude instead and flew 65 miles before running out of fuel and
plunging into Lake Ontario. The five passengers and crew aboard parachuted to
safety. "We were amazed to see that the C-45 is almost totally
intact," said Kennard, who found the aircraft using side-scan sonar with his
colleague Roger Pawlowski. "This probably explains why no debris could be
found" by Air Force and Coast Guard searchers at the time, he added. (See
also
C-45
factsheet from the National Museum of the US Air Force.)
