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Search for fish unearths history
Navy to inspect plane spotted in Otay lake
By Ed Zieralski
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. July 21, 2009
The United States built about 30,000 planes in the overall Helldiver family, such as this SB2C-1 Helldiver on a flight in 1941. (Associated Press file) - Bass fishermen see the craziest things on their electronic fish finders, but San Diego angler Duane Johnson couldn't believe what he spotted as he was idling across Lower Otay Reservoir.
“I turned to my fishing buddy and said, ‘That looks like a plane,’ ” Johnson said.
He downloaded the images from his Humminbird Fish Finder and shared them with Bryan Norris, reservoir keeper for the city of San Diego's water department. An investigation began and now Johnson's incredible discovery in February has led divers to uncover a Navy bomber that was forced into a water landing 64 years ago.
On Thursday, Navy divers from Coronado, ranger-divers for the city's lakes system and a private company from Chicago experienced in recovering aircraft from the Great Lakes will try to see whether the SB2C-4 Helldiver is worth salvaging.
If restored, the aircraft could end up in a museum — like the handful on display across the country.
“This is our bread and butter. It's just great stuff for our guys to be involved in right now,” said Nelson Manville, assistant lakes manager for San Diego. “It's an international story with all sorts of twists and turns. Here's a plane that played a big role in World War II and it's been stuck down there at Lower Otay.”
Navy officials were at the reservoir yesterday to prepare for the operation Thursday. About 12 Navy divers will head down approximately 85 feet to inspect the plane, snap photographs and possibly take video, said Navy spokeswoman Lt. Kate Raia.
“We want to see its condition, structural integrity, how much sediment is in the plane, the environment around it,” Raia said. “At this point, we need to know if it's even feasible to pull up the aircraft.”
On May 28, 1945, the SB2C-4 Helldiver was on a practice bombing run from a nearby aircraft carrier. The crew members survived the emergency landing.
At the time, the Navy opted not to recover the plane.
Yesterday, Raia said she couldn't comment on how long it will take Navy officials to decide whether to salvage the plane. Typically, the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla., plays a major role in the evaluation process.
One of the pilots is believed to be 90 years old and living in Michigan, but the Navy hasn't provided his name.
“Wouldn't that be something to fly him out here and have him standing on the shoreline when they lift the plane out?” Manville said.
Manville has been working on the project since February with his ranger-diver team and is excited about the Navy becoming involved.
“They're going to need quite a bit of government money to lift this plane, and restoration of it will cost around $400,000,” Manville said. “I've done a lot of research on these planes and, from what I've found, there aren't many like this in the world right now.”
The United States built about 30,000 planes in the overall Helldiver family, but most of them crashed or were shot down during World War II. The aircraft suffered from structural weaknesses, an unreliable electrical system and engines that often stalled — the problem that caused the landing at Lower Otay Reservoir.
Manville wasn't sure what effect the salvaging process would have on recreational activities at the lake, which is open Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays for boating and fishing.
“There aren't any armaments on (the plane), which is a good thing,” he said. “But there will be some fuel and hydraulic fluid that we need to be careful with if it's recovered.”
Lower Otay, or Savage Dam, was built in 1919. Its current users include the U.S. Olympic rowing teams, which conduct training sessions at the site.
The reservoir is located close to Upper Otay Lake, where the famous Florida-largemouth-bass hatchery in the 1960s started the big-bass fishing craze in the West.
After Johnson told San Diego officials about seeing the outline of a plane in Lower Otay, Manville sent ranger-divers Jim Miller and Kevin Kidd-Tackaberry to check it. They used the city's remotely operated vehicle — a tethered, underwater robot — to video the aircraft.
Once they discovered that it was a Navy plane, Miller and Kidd-Tackaberry returned to the spot and took more footage.
“One of the reasons this took so much time is that we had to send the video back to the Navy so they could assess it,” Manville said. “They got back to us and said they were very interested because this is an important plane to them.”
The SB2C-4 Helldiver first saw war action in late 1943 with a heavy raid on the major Japanese base of Rabaul. They were flown from the Navy's new Essex Class aircraft carrier Bunker Hill.
Their last significant action was in the Philippine Sea battle of June 1944.
“I hope if the Navy decides to take it out of the water that I'm there to see it,” said Johnson, 33, who owns Western Flooring in San Diego. “That would be cool.”
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