U.S. divers searching the wreckage of a U.S. Army amphibious plane that went down in the St. Lawrence River during World War II have recovered what appear to be remains of the crew that went missing nearly seven decades ago.
The plane, a PBY-5A Catalina based in Presque Isle, Maine, had completed the first leg of a routine flight and was taking off for the return trip to base when it capsized in rough weather in the eastern Gulf of Saint Lawrence on Nov. 2, 1942.
Nine people were onboard and four were pulled to safety right before the plane sank, taking the lives of the five others.
Parks Canada discovered the plane in 2009 while conducting a survey near the village of Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan in eastern Quebec. Earlier this month the Joint Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command, a federal agency that works to recover members of the military who are missing in action, dispatched a 50-person team on the USS Grapple.
Marc-Andre Bernier, the chief underwater archaeologist for Parks Canada, said Monday that some of what appears to be remains has been found and will be sent to a lab to be identified.
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