Divers work to lift WWII plane from Calif. lake
SAN DIEGO – Salvage divers gently cleared away silt and mud covering a WWII dive bomber buried in the bottom of the San Diego reservoir, carefully working Thursday to lift the rare plane from the water 65 years after it was ditched during a training run.
Bob Metz, 84, who watched the painstaking work, said he recalls his oldest brother, Sgt. Joseph Metz, telling about how he and the pilot — who have both since died — managed to swim ashore to safety, then hitchhiked back to the nearby military base.
"It's going to be interesting to see it," said Metz of Montebello, Calif. "I remember when he got a jeep and brought me up here and told me, 'You want to see where we ditched the plane?"
The aircraft was forgotten until Duane Johnson and his friend, who were searching for bass, spotted the outline of the plane on an electronic fish finder last year....
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Bob Metz, 84, who watched the painstaking work, said he recalls his oldest brother, Sgt. Joseph Metz, telling about how he and the pilot — who have both since died — managed to swim ashore to safety, then hitchhiked back to the nearby military base.
"It's going to be interesting to see it," said Metz of Montebello, Calif. "I remember when he got a jeep and brought me up here and told me, 'You want to see where we ditched the plane?"
The aircraft was forgotten until Duane Johnson and his friend, who were searching for bass, spotted the outline of the plane on an electronic fish finder last year....