Breadcrumb Trail links
In some cases, it takes decades to find aircraft that go missing in the rugged territory north of Sault Ste. Marie
Publishing date:
May 23, 2022 • 38 minutes ago • 3 minutes read • Join the conversation 
It was a Beechcraft Staggerwing, similar to this vintage plane featured at a 2010 Ottawa air show, that crashed north of Sault Ste. Marie in 1969. Postmedia
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The discovery Saturday of a Piper Comanche aircraft, missing since April, brings up memories of other planes that also became lost in the region. In 2000, the Sault Star documented the discovery of tattered remains of a Beechcraft Staggerwing, found earlier that year in the Havilland Bay area. The plane reportedly went missing on June 5, 1969 after becoming separated from three other aircraft returning from a fishing trip near Jellicoe, Ont., sending two Toledo, Ohio men to their deaths. In June 2000, the Sault Star’s Jeffrey Ougler sat down with Louis Fink, who was part of that fishing trip and whose plane was one of those that made it to Sault Ste. Marie that fateful evening. This is the story as it appeared in the June 24, 2000 edition of the Sault Star.
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Louis Fink pores over photographs of the tattered remains of a Beechcraft Staggerwing discovered earlier this year in the Havilland Bay area.
Save for what appears to be a propeller, there’s little indication that the tangled mass of metal strewn out over the leaf-laden forest floor could ever actually depart terra firma on its own accord.
But indeed all the parts were intact and sky-bound at one time, and authorities say they’re ”everything but 100 per cent positive” the wreckage is that of a plane that went missing on June 5, 1969 after becoming separated from three others aircraft returning from a fishing trip near Jellicoe; corresponding serial numbers have confirmed the match and bone fragments found near the scene have been identified as that of being human.
That’s enough for Finch; he’s convinced that what he’s looking at is the carnage of the doomed aircraft that sent two Toledo, Ohio men to their deaths more than 30 years ago, two men he bade farewell to before hopping aboard his own plane with plans of meeting up later in Sault Ste. Marie for an evening of perhaps slugging back a few cold ones and shooting some scuttlebutt about the big one that got away.
On that evening, however, only three planes made it to the Sault. The one carrying Henry Kolwitz and Robert Cottingham never showed up.
Fink and his companions did not initially fear the worst for their mates.
”We went out and had a few drinks and stayed in a motel,” said the Gaylord, Mich., man, now in his early 70s; he was in town Friday to see both see the wreckage photos and meet Hugh Wyatt, the man who discovered the site in April. ”We figured they went back to Wawa. We just figured (pilot Kolwitz) saw that bad weather, he knew Wawa was clear, made a 180 (degree turn) and went back to Wawa.”
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The grisly truth didn’t dawn upon the party until the next morning when they contacted the Wawa airport only to discover the other plane didn’t arrive.
“That’s when it hit me . . . that’s when it hit me,” said Fink, who became choked up as his memory
flashed back to that fateful evening when two of his fishing buddies and their aircraft entered the annals of local mythology.
The deep northern forest kept its prize hidden well for over 30 years. According to Transport Canada officials, the wreckage might have been first discovered in the early 1970s by someone who found the aircraft’s serial number plate but later on couldn’t recall the exact site of the discovery.
Wyatt, a Sault Search and Rescue member, researched the case of the missing Beechcraft for about six weeks before finding the wreckage.
Sporting trips to Northern Ontario were commonplace for Fink and his friends, a couple of whom owned camps in the Jellico area.
“We knew a lot of people up there and spent quite a lot of time up there,” he said. “I never went back (after the mishap). no sir None of the other guys went back either. I think they sold the camp or gave it away.”
Fink said he has no desire to visit the plane’s resting place; he did, however, probe the area 20 years ago when the serial number plate was found.
He says the discovery serves as a comforting closure to the matter for everyone involved, including the families of the victims.
Cottingham’s son and grandson recently visited the site.
“I’m sure they’re happy to lay this to rest,” Fink said.
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