Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2003 | 11 a.m.
A B-29 Superfortress bomber that crashed into Lake Mead in 1948 will remain under 200 feet of water and in the custody of the National Park Service, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson denied a motion to transfer custodial rights to the plane from the park service to Gregg Mikolasek, a diver who used side-scan sonar to locate the plane in 2001.
Mikolasek had plans to film footage of the 141,000-pound bomber for a documentary. He had also partnered with Historical Aircraft Recovery Corp., a California corporation that recovers and restores historic planes, to try to salvage the aircraft, but Dawson's order calls for more study of the wreckage.
"The aircraft has existed under water for more than 50 years and the public interest would not be served by allowing salvage operations to begin without more study and an official determination by the National Park Service or the federal government to abandon the aircraft," Dawson stated in his written order.
Peter Hess, Mikolasek's attorney, had argued during a July 18 hearing before Dawson that the plane is actually resting in the Virgin River Channel, a region of the lake retained by the state of Nevada. If that was the case the park service would have no claim on the plane, but Dawson found that the plane actually rests about 160 feet above the channel and is clearly within park service jurisdiction.
Reached by telephone at his Delaware office, Hess said he had not seen the order and could not comment other than to say he was disappointed. Calls to Mikolasek's Henderson-based company, In-Depth Consulting, were not immediately returned.
Dawson also denied Mikolasek's motion for a temporary restraining order in the case that would have stopped the park service from diving on the plane and studying it.
The park service plans to continue to enforce dive restrictions in the area where the plane crashed near the Overton Arm in the northwest portion of the lake, Lake Mead National Recreation Area spokeswoman Roxanne Dey said.
"The first thing we're going to do is meet with the local diving community and come up with a management plan that will best allow for scientific studies to continue without disturbing the site," Dey said. "Down the road it would likely open up so that anyone who wants to can go down and look at it.
"It really belongs to everyone."
If diving is ultimately allowed on the wreckage the site would become a world-class diving area, according to park service archeologist David Conlin.
The park service has shot video footage of the wreck that could be used in a documentary, Dey said.
"Currently we're analyzing data we've gathered and working on some studies related to corrosion," Dey said.
She added that it was unlikely that the plane would be salvaged or removed from the bottom of the lake.
Dawson's order does not mention the ownership of specific pieces of the plane taken by Mikolasek when he discovered the bomber, including a part of the canopy. The park service has alleged that Mikolasek and his diving team caused some damage to the plane with an anchor and by setting up underwater lights on the wreckage.
When asked about the possibility of pursuing criminal charges against Mikolasek for the alleged damages and the return of the artifacts, Dey said she could not comment on that.
The mystery of the sunken B-29 began with its morning takeoff from Armitage Field in Inyokern, Calif., 140 miles west of Las Vegas. The plane and its five-member crew were on a mission to measure radioactive gamma rays.
Over Lake Mead, one of the engines caught fire and the plane hit the water, skipped a quarter of a mile and sank in 15 minutes, the Boulder City News reported at the time.
Only one crew member was injured, suffering a broken arm, and all five were rescued after being spotted by a passing plane.
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