Shortly after noon on Oct. 23, 1968, a National Center for Atmospheric Research airplane made its final radio call before disappearing along the southern shores of Lake Superior.
The Beechcraft Queen Air had taken off from Madison with two pilots and one passenger, a graduate student from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. All three were involved in the research, on their way to measure temperatures across Lake Superior to see how large lakes heat the atmosphere.
Over the past half century, pieces of the wreck have come ashore along Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Exactly where the plane went down, though, has been elusive.
Now, a robot may help solve that mystery.
On Monday, a team of researchers will deploy a robotic ship on a week-long mission to try to find the remains of the research airplane.
Even more than 50 years later, finding the wreckage can help answer what went wrong that day, said Wayne Lusardi, Michigan’s state maritime archaeologist. But Lusardi said it will be a difficult challenge.
Pieces of the plane – some of which may only be the size of a sheet of paper – are likely scattered for miles along the lake bottom, covered with sand at depths up to 400 feet deep.
But the September mission and new technology offer a glimmer of hope.
So, what do we know about the plane crash? Why hasn’t it been found? How do family members feel?
We answer six questions.
What do we know about the plane crash?
Two pilots, Robert Carew and Gordon Jones, from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a Boulder, Colorado-based research organization, were on board the flight as well as Velayudh Krishna, the graduate student.
According to an archived Milwaukee Sentinel story from Oct. 26, 1968, the weather bureau reported winds up to 20 miles an hour, but gusts reaching 80 miles per hour late in the afternoon. It was a routine research flight so the pilots did not file a flight plan.
The wreckage of the research airplane is believed to be off the shores of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula between Ontonagon and Freda, a distance of roughly 30 miles. The location is based on historical records, personal accounts and where fragments of the wreck have come ashore.
The U.S. Coast Guard began searching 16 hours after the plane last made radio contact, Lusardi said. The coast guard found two blue, upholstered seats and pieces of aluminum that washed up on shore 12 miles west of Hancock, Michigan, according to the same Milwaukee Sentinel story.
Nothing else turned up during the search.
A year later, another pilot from the research organization initiated a month-long sonar survey to search for the plane, but was unsuccessful, Lusardi said.
Because the wreckage has never been found, federal agencies can’t make a determination about how the plane crash happened.
Now, with technology that is a half-century more advanced, “so we have an infinitely better chance of finding debris from this aircraft than they did back in the day,” Lusardi said.
More: Scientists just discovered cold, dark sinkholes in Lake Michigan. What’s living in them?
Why is the wreckage so hard to find?
When a small airplane hits the water it often breaks into fragments immediately, which is why it can be much harder to find than shipwrecks.
Some freighters are 600 feet long, Lusardi said, so it’s a bigger target, and shipwrecks have features – like masts – that stand out on sonar.
The research plane was roughly 35 feet long with only a 50-foot wingspan. Small pieces are likely scattered across a wide area, and covered with sand and sediment.
The nearshore area of Lake Superior also drops off very quickly, Lusardi said fragments can be anywhere from near the shoreline to 400 feet deep.
What will the robotic ship look for?
The mission is being led by the Smart Ships Coalition, an organization of industry, government and academic partners interested in advancing technology in the Great Lakes region.
The coalition plans on Monday to launch the Armada 8, a robotic ship made by Ocean Infinity, a marine robotics company based in Texas. The robotic ship is about 26 feet long and weighs 10,000 pounds.
Over the course of a week, it will scan a 20-square-mile area of Lake Superior using multi-beam sonar.
The robot will paint a picture of the bottom of the lake, hoping to pick up clues that something might be there, said Travis White, a research engineer with the Great Lakes Research Center at Michigan Technical University. The university is a partner on the project.
If the team does see an anomaly, scuba divers will take a closer look.
According to White, the team is prioritizing caution and sensitivity, given that if they do find the plane wreck, there may still be human remains present.
Are the victims’ families involved in the search?
Members of the victims’ families are supportive of the mission to find the wreck, and were given the opportunity to participate, according to both White and Lusardi. Lusardi said they will be given updates along the way.
“Hopefully we can bring answers to some of the family members, whatever that may be,” Lusardi said.
What is the likelihood they will find anything?
It will be extremely challenging to find pieces of the plane, especially at depths where it’s completely dark.
But the coalition is hopeful it can at least get closer to finding answers.
“We’re utilizing such incredibly advanced technology, so we are hopeful we will at least find bigger fragments,” Lusardi said.
What doors will this mission open?
The mission may help open doors to finding out more about what’s hiding at the bottom of the Great Lakes.
Only 15% of the lake beds have been mapped in high resolution, which has led scientists to say they know more about the surface of Mars than they do about the bottom of the largest fresh surface water system on earth.
The Lakebed 2030 Initiative is hoping to change that. The initiative, led by the Great Lakes Observing System, is an effort to map and fully explore the lake bottoms by 2030. The observing system is also a partner in this attempt to find the 1968 research plane wreck.
Technology, like the robotic ship, “will be an important tool to meet that timeline,” White said.
Lusardi said more affordable and available technology is helping to better understand the history hidden on the bottom of the lakes.
Two decades ago, there were only a handful of sonar devices in the Great Lakes, Lusardi said. Now the average fish finder can do more than what those devices could.
Beyond history, White said baseline maps are needed to better understand how climate change is impacting the Great Lakes.
But for now, we have to wait to see if a robot will be the next to solve one of the Great Lakes’ many mysteries.
Caitlin Looby is a Report for America corps member who writes about the environment and the Great Lakes. Reach her at clooby@gannett.com or follow her on X @caitlooby.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: A robot is trying to find a 1968 plane wreck in Lake Superior
