Mystery of private jet that vanished on cold, snowy night in 1971 solved
A private jet that vanished in 1971 with five passengers onboard was miraculously found by an expert during a recent recovery mission.
On January 27, 1971, a jet took off on a snowy and cold night from the Burlington International Airport to Providence, Rhode Island. The plane was carrying two crew members and three employees from Cousin's Properties, an Atlanta-based development company.
The flight vanished and George Nikita, Donald Myers, Frank Wilder, Richard Kirby Windsor, and Robert Ransom Williams III were never found, despite multiple searches conducted over the last five decades.
Garry Kozak of Goffstown, New Hampshire, has found what he believes is the 10-seat Jet Commander aircraft, at the bottom of Lake Champlain, off Juniper Island.
'You can't find peace until you find all the pieces, and today's the day. Today's the day. And it's done,' Kristina Coffey, the daughter of George, the pilot of plane, told NBC5 News.
Kozak located the wreckage over Memorial Day weekend, but news of its discovery was withheld until the victims' families were informed.
Prior to the recent discovery, pieces of debris, including wreckage from the plane and an oxygen tank were found, but the entire aircraft was never located.
Kozak said that he spent years looking for odd shapes at the bottom of Lake Champlain and analyzing previous scans of the water.
'Searching for anything that's been lost underwater is always an interesting story,' Kozak said.
'And the other [factor], in this particular case, it's the families. You know, I had spoken to a couple of them back in 2014, and I knew that they really were hoping for the plane to be found.'
During a follow-up search in May, Kozak and his team used remote-operated vehicles and high-resolution imaging technology to find multiple pieces of debris that have never been located before.
The crew discovered a broken fuselage, or main body of an aircraft, in the depths of the water with matching paint to the plane that vanished all those years ago.
They also found an instrument panel, wing structure, apparent remains of an engine and other telling evidence.
Mystery of private jet that vanished on cold, snowy night in 1971 with five people on board is finally solved | Daily Mail Online
