ME Me - Fred Corrow, 43, Dixfield, 18 November 1969

[Peter Noddin]

The seat adjustment had let go several times.

 

[Alleykins]

I am in the process of planning a search for Fred. If I am lucky, all of the equipment and assets will come together for a 2018 search. If not, July 2019. I am convinced that he impacted Moosehead Lake at high angle of attack. I have interviewed 3 hunters who heard it happen, but could not see the aircraft at the time. He may have had trouble recovering from a stall or ran into trouble while shooting a landing approach. The search area is one where his instructor had him do landings and the aircraft did have a minor mechanical defect that could have contributed to him losing control while pulling positive g.

Do you have a way of confirming that the plane the hunters heard was the one being flown by Mr. Corrow and not someone else? Do you know if there was a lot of planes landing on Moosehead back then? Also, how deep was the water in the area where the plane might have gone down? Did the hunters try to make it to the water's edge to see if they could spot anything?

 

[Peter Noddin]

They were hunting together but all were separated at the time and none were close to the side of the island facing the impact. All three made the same basic statement. They heard he aircraft flying north to south and a loud impact upon which all noise stopped. This was reported and discounted by CAP as air search of the area revealed no floating debris. Of course we now know that a Skyhawk may not leave any surface wreckage if the impact angle is over 50-60 degrees. I suppose it could have been some other aircraft impacting the lake that day. Who knows? The only way to determine
if it was this aircraft is to search the area. This is planned for next summer. I attempted to cash in a favor and get a USN red/green laser pass down that part of the lake with no result. So sidescan and RUVs it is. A fairly large search area with depths around 80-90' for most of it. Divers as secondary.

 

[Peter Noddin]

It was reported that this aircraft was located a few years back by an aqua logger but it was a false alarm. There is a current operation documenting ship wrecks in Moosehead and perhaps they will find it as well. I will be there in two weeks working on a land search for another aircraft but will be doing some planning and scouting for this project as well. Of the three such missing airman projects on the table right now, this appears to be the one with the highest probability of location.

 

[Alleykins]

Thank you. I've never been to Moosehead so I'm not familiar with the area, but I see articles about the fly-in they have every year and wondered how heavy air traffic is on that lake. The two lakes I'm familiar with only seem to have one float plane on them on a regular basis, but I imagine Moosehead attracts more pilots.

 

[Valerio]

I sure wish you luck finding his plane and hopefully him in it for some family closure after all these years.

 

[Peter Noddin]

It would be nice. Of three such projects, this one has the highest probability of location.

 

[Suglo]

Bump.

 

[Richard]

Missing for 50 years...

On November 18, 1969 Fred Corrow of Dixfield Maine left Folsom's Flying Service in Greenville for a solo student flight with rented Cessna 180 N9113T. Witnesses later saw him shooting practice float landings on Fitzgerald Pond (Now called Mountain View Pond). Neither he nor the aircraft were ever seen again. A extensive search failed to locate a crash site.

One report stated that the aircraft was seen flying over several hunters in a power dive and heard to impact on Moosehead Lake, in an area with 60-80 feet of water. This report was discounted by searchers at the time because of a lack of floating wreckage or oil slick.

LINK:
closure

 

[CastlesBurning]

Bumping for Fred...it's now been over 51 years.

 

[Richard]

Fred has been missing for over 55 years.