Three decades earlier, on a frigid winter night with snow in the air, a single-engine aircraft carrying two couples from Ohio to Wisconsin crashed into Lake Michigan off the Indiana Dunes shoreline.
The only witness heard what sounded like a power dive followed by a muffled impact. Police responded promptly, but darkness and deteriorating weather obscured the shelf ice and water beyond it. The aircraft was believed to have sunk within minutes.
An extensive air and surface search began the next day. The U.S. Coast Guard, Civil Air Patrol, Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Indiana State Police and local law enforcement contributed resources. Poor weather severely hampered the operation, no debris was found and the search ended after three days with no indication that anyone had survived.
Ten months later, the body of one passenger was recovered on the beach at Beverly Shores near the presumed crash area. Five years after that, part of an aircraft’s horizontal stabilizer—the flat portion of its tail—was found on the beach, though it was not believed to have been conclusively linked to the missing plane.
For roughly a quarter-century, the case remained unresolved. Three people were still missing, and their families had no graveside at which to mourn them.
A forensic search proposal
Years later, an Indianapolis researcher learned about the accident while working on an aircraft-crash survivability project as an undergraduate. He believed that additional documentary research and appropriate equipment might locate the aircraft and determine whether it remained intact with the three missing people aboard.
He returned to the case in 2016 through a nonprofit forensic search-and-recovery organization. With help from local authorities, the group assembled as complete a documentary record as possible from files created before routine digitization.
The research narrowed the probable location to a contained area several hundred feet offshore at an estimated depth of 40 to 90 feet.
A protected grave site
The group declined to disclose the aircraft’s suspected position, exact crash date, occupants’ names, model and flight plan. Its stated reason was straightforward: any wreck containing human remains would also be a grave site, and publishing precise details could attract unauthorized divers.
Most divers were described as respectful, but the group warned that unauthorized entry into a possible grave site could disturb remains and compromise an official investigation.
The county coroner’s office likewise advised that potential wreckage and human remains would fall under its investigative jurisdiction. The archival report warned readers not to interfere with such a site and to provide relevant information to the proper public authorities.
Planning the sonar search
The proposed next step was a summertime survey using side-scan sonar. The project’s researchers believed the available records made an on-water search viable, but emphasized that only a systematic survey could test their theory.
Specialists consulted for the project considered it possible that an aircraft of the type described could have remained substantially intact after striking the water. If so, its shape might be recognizable in sonar imagery.
The planned operation brought together experience in diving, emergency medical services, aviation, underwater search and archaeology. Proposed support included a sonar-equipped boat, a possible remotely operated underwater vehicle and additional boats capable of assisting divers and carrying another side-scan unit.
Resources were still needed
The group estimated that a five-day operation would require approximately $4,000 in 2017 to cover travel, fuel, meals and lodging. Participants were expected to volunteer their time, but the boats and sonar equipment still carried operating expenses.
The appeal focused on resolving a long-standing local mystery and, more importantly, giving the missing people’s families the possibility of recovering and burying their loved ones with dignity.
Those involved described the work as a responsibility to the missing and their families: a commitment to continue through practical obstacles because unresolved loss still mattered decades later.