Current:Home > NewsNew search opens for plane carrying 3 that crashed in Michigan’s Lake Superior in 1968 -MoneyStream
New search opens for plane carrying 3 that crashed in Michigan’s Lake Superior in 1968
Ethermac View
Date:2025-04-08 12:44:20
A high-tech unmanned boat outfitted with sonar and cameras will try to solve the mystery of a 1968 plane crash that killed three people who were on a scientific assignment at Michigan’s Lake Superior.
Seat cushions and pieces of stray metal have washed ashore over decades. But the wreckage of the Beechcraft Queen Air, and the remains of the three men, have never been found in the extremely deep water.
An autonomous vessel known as the Armada 8 was in a channel headed toward Lake Superior on Monday, joined by boats and crew from Michigan Tech University’s Great Lakes Research Center in Houghton in the state’s Upper Peninsula.
“We know it’s in this general vicinity,” Wayne Lusardi, the state’s maritime archaeologist, told reporters. “It will be a difficult search. But we have the technology amassed right here and the experts to utilize that technology.”
The plane carrying pilot Robert Carew, co-pilot Gordon Jones and graduate student Velayudh Krishna was traveling to Lake Superior from Madison, Wisconsin, on Oct. 23, 1968. They were collecting data on temperature and water radiation for the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
The pilot’s last contact that day was his communication with the Houghton County airport. Searches that fall and in 1969 did not reveal the wreckage.
“It was just a mystery,” Lusardi said.
He said family members of the three men are aware of the new search.
It’s not known what would happen if the wreckage is located. Although the goal is to find a missing plane, Michigan authorities typically do not allow shipwrecks to be disturbed on the bottom of the Great Lakes.
This isn’t a solo mission. The autonomous vessel will also be mapping a section of the bottom of Lake Superior, a vast body of water with a surface area of 31,700 square miles (82,100 square kilometers).
The search is being organized by the Smart Ships Coalition, a grouping of more than 60 universities, government agencies, companies and international organizations interested in maritime autonomous technologies.
“Hopefully we’ll have great news quickly and we’ll find the plane wreck,” said David Naftzger, executive director of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors & Premiers, a group of U.S. states and Canadian provinces.
“Regardless, we will have a successful mission at the end of this week showing a new application for technology, new things found on the lakebed in an area that’s not been previously surveyed in this way,” Naftzger said.
___
Follow Ed White at https://twitter.com/edwritez
veryGood! (9)
Related
- Average rate on 30
- 3 Top Tech Stocks That Could Help Make You Rich by Retirement
- The chairman of Hong Kong’s leading journalist group gets jail term for obstructing a police officer
- The premiere of 'The Golden Bachelor' is almost here. How to watch Gerry Turner find love.
- Israel lets Palestinians go back to northern Gaza for first time in over a year as cease
- How much does it cost to raise a child? College may no longer be the biggest expense.
- San Antonio Police need help finding woman missing since Aug. 11. Here's what to know.
- Full transcript: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Face the Nation, Sept. 24, 2023
- Megan Fox's ex Brian Austin Green tells Machine Gun Kelly to 'grow up'
- Raiders QB Jimmy Garoppolo in concussion protocol, status for Week 4 uncertain
Ranking
- The FTC says 'gamified' online job scams by WhatsApp and text on the rise. What to know.
- South Korean opposition leader appears in court for hearing on arrest warrant for alleged corruption
- UAW demands cost-of-living salary adjustment as Americans feel pinch of inflation
- Video shows California deputy slamming 16-year-old girl to the ground outside football game
- As Trump Enters Office, a Ripe Oil and Gas Target Appears: An Alabama National Forest
- Horoscopes Today, September 24, 2023
- A Drop in Emissions, and a Jobs Bonanza? Critics Question Benefits of a Proposed Hydrogen Hub for the Appalachian Region
- Bruce Willis health update: Wife Emma says it's 'hard to know' if actor understands his dementia
Recommendation
Military service academies see drop in reported sexual assaults after alarming surge
AP PHOTOS: Bavarian hammersmith forges wrought-iron pans at a mill more than 500 years old
Egypt sets a presidential election for December with el-Sissi likely to stay in power until 2030
A deputy police chief in Thailand cries foul after his home is raided for a gambling investigation
US wholesale inflation accelerated in November in sign that some price pressures remain elevated
Sly Stallone's 'Expendables 4' belly flops with $8.3M, while 'Nun 2' threepeats at No. 1
Ukrainian boat captain found guilty in Hungary for the 2019 Danube collision that killed at least 27
Watchdog files open meetings lawsuit against secret panel studying Wisconsin justice’s impeachment