Mystery of private jet disappearing on dark snowy night in 1971 solved

After more than 50 years, the mystery of a missing soldier has finally been solved. On January 21, 1971, a Jet Commander aircraft piloted by Donald Myers And George Nikita took off from Burlington, Vermont, with passengers Richard Windsor, Robert WilliamsAnd Frank Wilde.

The plane never arrived in Providence, Rhode Island, and despite 17 searches, no one was able to locate the missing plane. This search ended over Memorial Day weekend when Gary Kozak and a team of researchers located it about 200 feet below the surface of Lake Champlain in Vermont.

Kozak and his team used remotely operated vehicles to scour the lake floor and found several pieces of debris, including the fuselage, an instrument panel, part of an engine and a piece of a wing. They were able to confirm it was indeed the missing Jet Commander by using high-resolution imaging technology to identify the plane's custom paint job on the fuselage.

They kept their discovery a secret until they could notify family members of the five crash victims.

“Having this found now… it's a feeling of peace, at the same time it's a very sad feeling,” Barbara Nikitasniece of pilot George Nikita, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We know what happened. We've seen some pictures. I think we're struggling with it now.”