The Lost Aircobra Squadron

[george]

A few years back, a squadron of P-39s was spotted at the bottom of a lake in Canada. A group of Canadian enthusiasts were trying to raise funds for their recovery. The news was in the air mags for awhile, then has simply gone away. Have they been recovered, forgotten, or what? Anybody know?

[HarvardIV]

Hi George:

How many in the lake?

Chris

[DaveM2]

Didn't Larkins recover one..? I think there were a total of two or three in different lakes, force landed on the route to Russia

Dave

[george]

I think this was a different lake. The reports were that about 6-8 were seen from the air, and some dives to the aircraft took place, I believe.

[tom d. friedman]

are these supposed to be in an inland lake or 1 of the great lakes?? obviously dumped their if true regardless of location

[george]

Actually, they weren't dumped. They got low on fuel or lost and landed on a frozen lake up in Canada. When the lake melted in the spring, they sunk. They are supposed to be easily seen from the air, but the lake is in a very remote part of Canada. I'm thinking it was 4-6 aircraft, not 6-8 like I said previously.

[HarvardIV]

Hi George:

I'm sure someone will know. Maybe someone can email a few of the museums in Canada. Some old timer is bound to know.

[bdk]

I remember that I corresponded with a time waster a few years back that said he know of a few P-39's and some P-82's(?) in Alaskan lakes. They had landed on the ice and sank through. The P-82's were landed there and allowed to sink through the ice to dispose of them.

He said he knew they were there for sure, some eyewitnesses had told him where they landed on the ice. He wanted someone to hire him to go look for them (he had an aircraft on floats that he hired out). He said that he had made arrangements with one of the Alaska museums to give them a P-39 in exchange for permission to recover and keep the rest of the aircraft for himself.

He wanted me to send him a business proposal, yet he didn't seem willing to provide anything concrete other than his word that he knew what he was talking about and that he had permission to recover them. He also said that some friends of his were going to finance him but that they never followed through (big surprise there!).

Seemed to me the risk was all mine since I would have to pay him to go look for something he claimed was there, and then I should give him a percentage if I found anything. He said that Kermit Weeks was interested, but wouldn't cough up any money until he saw photos (Kermit's a smart guy I guess!).

[norman malayney]

On 20 April 1945, three P-63 aircraft, enroute to Alaska for Soviet delivery, were forced down on Lesser Slave Lake, located 120 miles north of Edmonton, Alberta. All three pilots were eventually rescued on the 22nd and the USAAF sent a party to salvage the aircraft. The three P-63s were stripped completely of anything that could be removed, loaded on board UC-64 Norseman aircraft and flown out. The remaining skeletal airfames were left on the ice, and sank to the bottom during spring melting.

About 14 years ago several Americans recovered the remains of the P-63s having the serial numbers 41-1498, 41-1589 and 41-1597.

One airframe went to an air museum in Victoria, BC and the other two crossed the border into the USA.

The accident reports may be obtained from USAF Records repository at Maxwell AFB, AL.

Yours very truly,
Norman Malayney

[norman malayney]

Gentlemen,

I left out a zero, and the distance should by 1200 miles north of Edmonton, Alberta.

Norman Malayney

[Stieglitz]

Are any of those P-63's on display or under restoration (static/airworthy). Still an amazing plane!

J.V.

[george]

I found some of the articles on the Aircobras. Four P-39s landed wheels down on a remote lake in the Northwest Territories on December 19, 1943. No damage to the planes, which were new and being ferried from the Bell factory in Buffalo to Russia via Alaska. They left Malmstrom AAFB and weather forced them to land on this lake. They were abandoned and then sank in the spring of 1944. Bush pilots have seen them for years sitting at the bottom of the 50 ft deep clear-water lake. A group out of Calgary was trying to get funding to recover them. These articles were in all the airmags in 1996. Looks to me like they had a dilemma - no money to fund a recovery, but afraid to give location or much information for fear of someone else getting the planes.

[HarvardIV]

George:

Try Craig Fuller with AAIR, he does research on this stuff all of the time.

Chris

[george]

Harvard - I'm not familiar with AAIR, could you fill me in?

BDK - This must be the same group that you dealt with, just too coincidental.

Are the following numbers correct? One article said over 4,000 P-39s took this route to Russia. And 162 didn't make it through Canada. Thats a lot of Aircobras still up there, if correct.

[HarvardIV]

I am friends with Craig Fuller of AAIR. He is quite helpful, and will assist you for free. He only charges for certain services. His webpage is:

www.sonic.net/azfuller