Posted by harry on May 27, 19100 at 16:07:39:
In Reply to: UAL 747 Down in L. Michigan? posted by Steve Ceskowski on May 27, 19100 at 12:43:12:
: I was formerly a commercial gillnetter out of Waukegan Illinois, I teach high school now. About 1978, a very well dressed man approached me while my tug was hauled out for painting. He asked to hire our tug for about two weeks as soon as we were back in the water. Spring is poor fishing for us so I inquired as to what he wanted us to do. He explained that he was a salvor and needed us as a base of operations to locate and retrieve items from a crashed airplane. When asked where this plane was, he responded "about eighteen miles off Highland Park." The man was willing to pay $5,000. a week for fishtug and captain, but secrecy was of the utmost importance. I gave him my phone # and told him to call me later. I was very leery that such a high price was willing to be paid, and without negotiation! The man seemed very desperate and called many times. I thought he was a nut, particularly when he finally said that the aircraft was a United Air Lines 747 that was on a non/revenue training/ferry flight that disappeared over Lake Michigan. The aircraft allegedly contained two flight crews, no attendants or passengers. He said he worked for UAL and that the boat he originally rented broke down and that he needed a replacement. Apparently he was looking for the black box. In one of our conversations he asked if we had a hydraulic system aboard. We used one for our net lifter, and he asked if we could modify it to drive a small lifting arm/crane that he proposed to install. Very suspicious of this guy, I told him I wasn't interested, and not to call back. His final comment was that a warning that I should cooperate with "the government!" About two weeks later an odd looking work boat with crane amidships tied up at the transient dock. This boat appeared to be a reworked ex-fishtug of Lake Erie (shallow draft, and beamy)style. It stayed about two days then left without returning. I've always wondered about this incident. Any Comments from you divers?