Plane pulled to surface after 60 years in Peter Pond Lake

In 1959, a pilot and conservation officer flying from Buffalo Narrows to La Loche were killed when the floatplane they were in crashed in Peter Pond Lake.

Sixty years later, the aircraft is back on the surface and being restored at the Saskatchewan Aviation Museum.

People from the museum, nearby Michel Village and from the town of Buffalo Narrows helped get the area ready, dredge the lake, retrieve the floats and bring the plane out of the water.

“It only took about two hours and that airplane was out of the water,” the museum’s Dorrin Wallace told 650 CKOM’s Brent Loucks.

During the recovery process, Wallace said, searchers tried to find items left behind by the two men killed in the crash.

“The pilot’s family wanted to retrieve a watch and a wedding ring,” Wallace said.

The watch was located about halfway through dredging. But the wedding ring was found in an unexpected place.

“One of the wings was barely attached to the airplane,” Wallace said. “Someone looked and the ring was sitting on the wing root all ready to fall back in the lake.”

Now the difficult task of restoring the plane begins.

Wallace explained the museum in Saskatoon has tracked down some of the parts it will need and has launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money.

“This will be a long, involved process but we would like to restore that airplane to what it looked like when Saskatchewan Government Airways owned it,” Wallace said.

The Cessna 180 floatplane can be seen at the museum while restoration is underway.

Once work is complete, the plan is to display the aircraft for around one year.