MOSCOW. July 10 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian Northern Fleet divers have discovered a U.S.-made Bell P-39 Airacobra fighter aircraft dating back to WWII on the bottom of a lake in the Murmansk region and raised it to the surface, Northern Fleet spokesman Capt. 1st Rank Vadim Serga told Interfax on Monday.
The plane, which the Soviet Union received under the Lend-Lease program, sat in the lake for 72 years.
"The operation to explore the floor of the northern part of Lake Shchukozero, which is located not far from Severomorsk, the Northern Fleet's main base, started on June 29. It involved divers from the Northern Fleet's search and rescue department and also special diving equipment and a boat equipped with a side-looking locator and a remotely-operated submersible," he said.
After the plane's precise location on the ground was detected and a signal buoy was placed above it, divers started attaching hoisting slings to the fuselage. Before the slings were reliably affixed to the plane, employees from the Northern Fleet Air Force Museum had consulted the divers on the plane's supporting elements so that it would not fall apart while being lifted.
The fighter aircraft was sitting in bed silt 45 meters underwater. Apart from the significant depth, the divers' work was also complicated by poor visibility. It took careful and slow efforts to tear the fuselage off the ground, drive a pontoon under it and tow it toward the shore so as not to damage it.
The plane was lifted from the water to the shore using an automobile crane and was then delivered to the Northern Fleet Air Force museum in the community of Safonovo for restoration.
Information on the downed plane sitting on the lake floor was available in archives. Sub-Lieut. Fyodor Dmitriyevich Varavikov, a pilot of the 2nd Squadron of the 255th Fighter Air Regiment of the Northern Fleet Air Force crashed while on a combat training flight on March 6, 1945. The plane likely stalled and crashed into the icebound lake just several kilometers away from the Vayenga military airfield.
The list of irrecoverable losses sustained by the 5th Kirkenes Mine and Torpedo Aviation Red Banner Division of the Northern Fleet's Air Force from March 1 to 10, 1945 indicates that Sub-Lieut. Varavikov died in a plane crash. However, no human remains were found in the plane's cockpit.