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Mystery of private jet that vanished on cold, snowy night in 1971 with five people on board is finally solved
A private jet that vanished in 1971 with five passengers onboard was miraculously found by an expert during a recent recovery mission.
On January 27, 1971, a jet took off on a snowy and cold night from the Burlington International Airport to Providence, Rhode Island. The plane was carrying two crew members and three employees from Cousin's Properties, an Atlanta-based development company.
The flight vanished and George Nikita, Donald Myers, Frank Wilder, Richard Kirby Windsor, and Robert Ransom Williams III were never found, despite multiple searches conducted over the last five decades.
Garry Kozak of Goffstown, New Hampshire, has found what he believes is the 10-seat Jet Commander aircraft, at the bottom of Lake Champlain, off Juniper Island.
'You can't find peace until you find all the pieces, and today's the day. Today's the day. And it's done,' Kristina Coffey, the daughter of George, the pilot of plane, told NBC5 News.
On January 27, 1971, a jet took off from the Burlington International Airport to Providence, Rhode Island, but appeared to have crashed in Lake Champlain. Pieces of the aircraft were found over Memorial Day weekend. (pictured: An undated photo of the plane)
The flight vanished and (from left to right) George Nikita, Donald Myers, Frank Wilder, Richard Kirby Windsor, and Robert Ransom Williams III were never found
Kozak located the wreckage over Memorial Day weekend, but news of its discovery was withheld until the victims' families were informed.
Prior to the recent discovery, pieces of debris, including wreckage from the plane and an oxygen tank were found, but the entire aircraft was never located.
Kozak said that he spent years looking for odd shapes at the bottom of Lake Champlain and analyzing previous scans of the water.
'Searching for anything that's been lost underwater is always an interesting story,' Kozak said.
'And the other [factor], in this particular case, it's the families. You know, I had spoken to a couple of them back in 2014, and I knew that they really were hoping for the plane to be found.'
During a follow-up search in May, Kozak and his team used remote-operated vehicles and high-resolution imaging technology to find multiple pieces of debris that have never been located before.
The crew discovered a broken fuselage, or main body of an aircraft, in the depths of the water with matching paint to the plane that vanished all those years ago.
They also found an instrument panel, wing structure, apparent remains of an engine and other telling evidence.
Kozak told NBC 5 News that he is positive that he found the long-lost plane, as no other corporate jets were reported found at the bottom of the 490 square-mile lake.
'If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks sort of like a duck, it's probably a duck,' he said.
He credited the team that helped him make the discovery- Hans Hug, of Sonar Search and Recovery in Exeter, Hug's colleague Bruce Stebbins and Tim McDonald of Marine Solutions.
After they located the missing plane, Kozak provided all their findings to the National Transportation Safety Board and authorities for confirmation.
Although the team cracked the cold case, Kozak said that they wouldn't have been able to do so if others hadn't made breakthroughs over the years.
'There were a lot of people that contributed something that made this happen,' he said. 'And if any one of them didn't contribute, this never would have happened.'
The exact location of the downed plane will remain confidential in order to protect and respect the site, NBC 5 News reported.
Other family member's of the passengers who have been presumed dead all these years felt a great deal of closure and pain from the recent update.
The crew discovered a broken fuselage, or main body of an aircraft, in the depths of the water with matching paint (pictured) to the plane that vanished all those years ago
Frank Wilder's son, also Frank Wilder, said that he was overcome with many emotions.
'I'm feeling a mix of shock and disbelief at this time. I never thought this day would happen,' Wilder said.
'I'm so relieved that they did find it,' he added.
George's daughter said that she is also relieved that the aircraft was located.
'I'm just glad it's here in my lifetime, and I'm glad my mom's still alive,' Coffey said.
'I cried because, you know, we've had a lot of false alarms. Something that looks like a plane that's not a plane. And it's it.'
Barbara Nikita, the niece and goddaughter of George has a similar reaction to the major update in the case.
'It's a very odd feeling,' she said. 'When I look at the photos, I go between shock and awe and sick to my stomach. It is closure. It will be closure. This will be their resting place.'
After they located the missing plane, Kozak provided all their findings to the National Transportation Safety Board and authorities for conformation
Like Kozak, both Nikita and Coffey are extremely grateful to the state police, environmental, conservation teams, non-profits, historians, and everyone else who has been involved in the decades-long search.
It is unclear what will happen to the sunken plane, as an expert close to the investigation told NBC 5 News that extracting the aircraft would take a lot of time, patience and money to complete.
The families plan to wait and see what the next steps will be now that they have gotten some sense of closure.