Judge weighs ownership of submerged bomber

Jace Radke

Monday, July 21, 2003 | 10:56 a.m.

The ownership of a B-29 Superfortress bomber that sits below 200 feet of water after crashing in Lake Mead in 1948 remains in question after a morning of testimony in federal court Friday.

U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson is considering a motion to transfer ownership of the plane from the National Park Service to Gregg Mikolasek, who used side-scan sonar to locate the plane.

Dawson, who has not yet issued a ruling, said that the park service would retain control of the crash site and the plane until he makes a ruling. Mikolasek will remain in control of various artifacts removed from the site including a part of the plane's canopy.

The 141,000-pound bomber -- the world's largest at the time of the crash -- is located near the Overton Arm in the northwest part of Lake Mead.

Park service officials argue that it is a cultural resource that needs to be protected, while the plaintiffs in the case, Mikolasek and the Historical Aircraft Recovery Corp., a California corporation that recovers and restores historic planes, want to salvage the plane.

Currently only park service personnel are allowed to dive on the plane, but they have allowed a documentary company to film footage of the wreckage.

Mikolasek, who also had plans to film documentary footage of the plane, has been banned from diving on the wreck.

During Friday's hearing, Peter Hess, attorney for the plaintiffs, argued that the plane is resting in the Virgin River Channel, which is retained by the state of Nevada, and therefore the park service has no claim on the plane.

Park Service officials questioned by Philip Berns, a Justice Department attorney based in San Francisco, disagreed, saying that the plane is resting on a bluff about 160 feet above the channel.

David Tallichet, part-owner of Historical Aircraft Recovery Corp. and several airport restaurants across the country that have an aviation theme, said that the public deserves to have the plane salvaged.

"It could be restored, and I think it means a lot more to everyone if it's flying then if it's sitting at the bottom of a lake where only fish can see it," Tallichet said.

The park service is studying the wreckage to determine the best way to preserve it and for the public to be able to use it, park service archeologist David Conlin said.

Conlin also testified that it appeared that the plane had been damaged by an anchor and by the installation of underwater lights used by Mikolasek's diving team.

Dawson is expected to make a written decision in the coming weeks.

This is not the first time that the plane, nicknamed the "Beetle Bomb," has been the subject of federal court proceedings. In September 1994, a federal court ruled that the plane had been abandoned by the Air Force and belonged to the park service -- even though it had not yet been discovered.