Saturday, July 16, 2005
The "Ghost Of Charron Lake"
In December 1931, pilot Stuart McRorie was piloting a Fokker Standard aircraft on a freight haul to a mine at Island Lake, Manitoba, and ran into a snowstorm near Charron Lake. He set down on Charron Lake with his mechanic, "Slim" Forrest. The aircraft was disabled, and slowly sank, as the ice was still thin, as it was just the beginning of freeze-up. The pair of aviators were rescued 2 weeks later.
9 expeditions have been mounted since 1975 to find the airplane, and last week the searchers hit "pay-dirt"! Using sonar, they found it, upright and basically intact. It is the only known model of the Fokker Standard to exist today. It sits in about 140' of water, as Charron Lake was created by a meteor impact, and is quite deep. I am very familiar with this lake, as I worked for Northway Aviation for 9 years and Northway has an outcamp on Charron, and I hauled fishermen in there every spring, summer, and fall! It is a beautiful lake, full of walleye, northern pike, and also lake trout, due to it's depth.
Next summer the aircraft will be salvaged, as a game-plan is now being compiled so that the aircraft is salvaged properly and isn't damaged. Here are the links;
Meet "The Fokker"
"Ghost" Of Charron Lake
Photos - Then, Sonar Images - Now! Fokker Universal G-CAJD ~ "The Ghost of Charron Lake"
9 expeditions have been mounted since 1975 to find the airplane, and last week the searchers hit "pay-dirt"! Using sonar, they found it, upright and basically intact. It is the only known model of the Fokker Standard to exist today. It sits in about 140' of water, as Charron Lake was created by a meteor impact, and is quite deep. I am very familiar with this lake, as I worked for Northway Aviation for 9 years and Northway has an outcamp on Charron, and I hauled fishermen in there every spring, summer, and fall! It is a beautiful lake, full of walleye, northern pike, and also lake trout, due to it's depth.
Next summer the aircraft will be salvaged, as a game-plan is now being compiled so that the aircraft is salvaged properly and isn't damaged. Here are the links;
Meet "The Fokker"
"Ghost" Of Charron Lake
Photos - Then, Sonar Images - Now! Fokker Universal G-CAJD ~ "The Ghost of Charron Lake"
