06:07 PM PDT on Friday, June 18, 2004

By GLENN FARLEY / KING 5 News

KING The B-17 crashed onto a frozen lake in Labrador in 1947.

A group of airplane enthusiasts say the crash of a Boeing B-17 into a Canadian lake may have been the best thing to happen to it.

A diver from Washington State is part of a team trying to pull the plane from the frigid lake in Labrador where the cold waters have done much to preserve the craft.

The plane went down right before Christmas in 1947.

The crew was unhurt and rescued a few days later. But the plane was abandoned, left to fall through the ice during the spring thaw.

In 1998, searchers finally found it again, covered in silt, but in remarkably good condition.

"These guys actually saved this airplane for future generations by leaving it up in Labrador," said Don Brooks, of Brooks aviation in Georgia.

Brooks is well known for his involvement in rescuing the "lost squadron" of P-38 lightning fighters from the icy grip of Greenland.

Out of the 14,000 B-17s built, there are only about a dozen flyable ones left, making it worth putting this plane back in the air.

The plane is now in two pieces, but that's not daunting to the would-be rescuers.

Two restored fighters now in the Museum of Flight were also recovered from lakes, including a Corsair from in the Lake Washington and another from the bottom of Lake Michigan.

Diver Bob Mester of Puyallup will lead the effort to raise the plane.

"Our job is to go out to the boreal forests of Labrador, bring every facility we need with us raise this aircraft and transport it 66 miles to the place where we can disassemble it," he said.

To do that, Mester's teams is looking at other B-17's to find out where the best points to lift the plane are.

One B-17 in the Museum of Flight is serving as a Guinea pig for the rescue attempt.

"We can get a lot of first-hand experience here and also by talking to the people who know how these planes were put together," Brooks said.

KING Years later, the plane was in remarkably good condition at the bottom of the lake.

He said it could take five or six years to rebuild the plane.

Salvage operations on the B-17 are slated for August.