Plane salvage group faces court battle

PORTLAND – A salvage team that has apparently found one of two World War II fighter planes at the bottom of Sebago Lake will have to win a court battle before it can recover them.

According to state officials, Historic Aircraft Restoration Corp. found one of the sunken planes last weekend through the use of sonar images and a remote-controlled underwater video camera.

The plane was apparently nose-down at almost a 90-degree angle in the mud on the lake’s floor. Sonar images showed the wings of the plane had been sheared, but the fuselage was intact.

Peter Hess, a Delaware lawyer representing Historic Aircraft Restoration, would not confirm the plane’s discovery, but said the group would make an announcement in the next few days.

Ownership of the British Corsairs, which collided during a training mission on May 16, 1944, is likely to be the main issue in a federal court dispute over the recovery operation. The U.S. government, the British Royal Navy, the state of Maine and the salvage company are all staking a claim.

The Royal Navy has stated that the planes are the final resting place of two British pilots and should be treated as war graves.

But Hess questioned why the state would allow the salvage company to look for lost artifacts and not give them the opportunity to raise the planes.

On June 20, a federal judge in Portland said the planes could not be removed or tampered with until all sides had the opportunity to make their case for ownership. The same day, the state’s historic preservation commission declared the site protected for a 10-year period.

Although a court date has not been set, all parties expect a hearing to be held in the next several weeks.

The gull-winged fighter planes based at Brunswick Naval Air Station were on a training mission when they collided. Killed were Royal Navy pilots Vaughan Reginald Gill and Raymond L. Knott.

Just a handful of F4U Corsairs are in flying condition in the United States and they’re worth roughly $1 million each, aviation experts say.

Even a muck-covered hulk is worth $600,000 to $800,000 because the airplane can be restored as an original Corsair, said John James, director of public affairs at the Brunswick Naval Air Station.