Explorers find US Air Force plane that crashed into Lake Ontario in 1952 after crew bailed out

OSWEGO, N.Y. – Underwater explorers say they’ve found the wreck of a U.S. Air Force twin-engine plane that crashed into Lake Ontario more than 60 years ago.

The C-45 flew for miles on its own after its three-man crew and two civilian passengers bailed out when one of the engines failed during a flight over central New York in 1952. The aircraft flew on automatic pilot for more than an hour before it crashed into the lake off Oswego.

A team of explorers from the Rochester area say Tuesday that they located the nearly intact plane in deep water while searching for historic shipwrecks on the lake’s eastern end.

The C-45 was on a routine flight on Sept. 11, 1952, from Bedford, Massachusetts to Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, New York when it crashed.

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