GOOSE BAY, Labrador -- A West German air force team has flown into the Goose Bay air base to aid in the investigation of the crash of one of its F-4 Phantom jet fighters that killed a pilot and navigator.
Canadian Armed Forces Maj. Bill Turnbull said technicians lowered a special underwater camera Monday in hopes of finding the victims' bodies but only debris from the wreckage was sited.
'It's a fairly painstaking operation,' he said. 'The camera can only see a very small part of the bottom -- about a six-foot square area.'
The plane was returning to CAF Base Goose Bay after a low-level training mission Saturday when it skipped off the water three times, turned over and plunged nose first into icy Lake Melville about 11:00 a.m. EDT.
An armed forces spokesman identified the victims as the pilot, First Lt. Klaus Langenhahn, of Varel, West Germany, and the navigator, Capt. Uwe Carstensens, of Wittmunde, West Germany. Their ages were unknown.
Most of the Phantom's wreckage was in about 180 feet of water while some floating debris was picked up by Canadian Coast Guard vessels.
The pilot and navigator of a second West German plane, who witnessed the crash, landed safely at CAF Goose Bay, located in a forested area about 200 kilometers east of Churchill Falls.
