Back in 2003-04, our assigned helicopter mechanic was involved in all sorts of aircraft acquisition shenanigans. Now I have no way to verify the information but it did sound totally plausible.
As I remember the story:
Prior to 2003, he was involved in a recovery project that involved a very rare Brewster Buffalo flown in Russia during WWII. It too was located submerged in a lake. After spending a very large sum of money on the operation, travel, resources, travel, research, governmental contacts, etc...... and time. He went on to explain that once the plane was recovered and on the transport trailer and they were in the process of site clean up and arranging transport back to the U.S., a rather large group of “shady” Russians arrived on scene and took possession of the plane giving them a choice, “surrender the aircraft and be able to go home.........or “not” “. After the fact, he suspected Russian mafia. At the time of the telling, they had no idea the undisclosed location somewhere in the country.
As I mentioned, I have no way of knowing the validity of his story but it did make a good story coming from him. The shady actions of the locals did sound legit.[emoji848]
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