If the reader is referring to the dredge pond/lagoon I think he is, there is no airplane at the bottom.
This shallow body of water accessible from the Cape Fear River or from Dow Road, where a gate and “No Trespassing” sign are erected, is often used for military and law enforcement training. It’s also used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a safe haven for its boats during a hurricane.
My husband, who helped found the Mid Atlantic Narcotic Training Academy at Fort Fisher has taught search and rescue and recovery diving in the “pond.” This entails gridding out the entire pond and searching it, 3-foot-square by 3-foot-square, for an item the instructor has thrown in until the entire bottom has been scoured. He nor any of his former co-workers ever ran across an airplane.
Also, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokeswoman Susan Clizbe asked around the Wilmington District office and no one there has seen an airplane at the bottom of the pond, either.
“It’s not our property, and I’m not sure whose it is. The consensus of the several people I talked to is that it’s the state’s. And no one here knows anything about a plane in the hole, including one of our guys who’s also done counter-narcotics dive training out there,” she said.
Related links:
Did German U-boat sailors see a movie in Southport during World War II?
Is it true a Cadillac fell off the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge into the river?
What’s the deal with the blast zone at Sunny Point?
Who is the Fort Fisher hermit?
Date posted: November 9, 2010
User-contributed question by:
Jonathan Lamb
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