Local divers find WWII bomber

Alone on his boat in Lake Mead, Gregg Mikolasek made a discovery he had been dreaming of for years -- and he almost missed it. Mikolasek, a Henderson resident for eight years, discovered the location of a World War II B -29 bomber that sunk more than 50 years ago.

"It would have been great to have had one of my friends with me to share that with," Mikolasek said. "The lake heard all about it."

The story begins on July 21, 1948, when a B-29 was on a scientific mission studying the sun. The crew crash-landed in Lake Mead when research at low altitudes went wrong. As the plane struck the water at a speed of 250 miles-per-hour the five-person crew safely ejected and was picked up hours later. The plane, however, has remained at the bottom of the lake since then, in spite of several attempts to find and retrieve it.

For Mikolasek, a certified diving instructor, the adventure began when he first heard the tales of a bomber that crashed in the lake. At first, he wasn't certain the crash actually happened.

"The bomber has always been a part of local folklore," he said. "People would talk about it almost joking."

The diver finally gave in to his curiosity after buying a side-scanning image machine and starting his business, In Depth International. After working a few salvaging jobs, Mikolasek decided to try and find the biggest prize in his "back yard."

He began almost two years of research by requesting the 150-page accident report, de-classified by the government about four years ago. Mikolasek is a licensed airplane pilot and used those skills to analyze the crash conditions and trajectory. After surmising the area where the plane went down, he then attempted to ascertain the geography of the lake bottom, which is filled with ridges, buttes and cliffs.

"The terrain at the bottom of Lake Mead is quite complex and it made it pretty risky," Mikolasek said.

After months of planning, the diver was finally ready to get into his boat. He suspected the plane crashed in the upper basin. Based on his research, Mikolasek established a search area and used a depth finder to generally map out the lake floor and laying survey tracks. The tracks were then used like a grid he followed methodically to be sure he checked the entire search area.

Despite Mikolasek's careful planning, when he first saw an image of the plane, he almost missed finding it. The plane was on the boundary of this search area and thus in an area where he was turning the boat around to do a sweep on a new track. On his third day of searching, he went back over the turning spot to re-image the bottom. To his delight, the image of an airplane appeared again.

"I realized pretty much right away that I would need pictures to prove what I'd found," he said.

The plane was found at depths approaching 300 feet, far deeper than he was certified to dive. He began recruiting the most experienced team he could find to help him train and reach the bottom to identify and photograph the bomber. Locals Melody Gritz and Alan Bruns were soon on board to assist Mikolasek.

Gritz, a technical diving instructor, worked to train the team in the skills needed to dive in such deep and dark water. Mikolasek trained for six months to get accustomed to the equipment, weighing in excess of 100 pounds, and the procedures for deep diving. To go into deep water depths, divers must be ready for not only the physical toll, but also possible psychological factors. Both the gases breathed at deep depths and the experience of descending into dark water for prolonged time periods can affect people in different ways. In the event of trouble, one cannot ascend rapidly, but must spend hours decompressing at various depth intervals.

"You have to respect that lake," Mikolasek said. "We've all seen that lake go from zero to 'Oh My God' in five minutes."

Finally, the team managed to descend to the depth of the plane. It was situated on the edge of a steep sediment field. In fact, if it had crashed in a slightly different location it might have been lost in the sediment, buried beyond recognition. However, when Mikolasek, Gritz and Bruns finally reached the plane, aside from some accumulated sediment, it was preserved.

On the first dive, they landed near the nose and cockpit. Mikolasek recalls with vivid detail the moment he realized he was next to one of the yokes. Gritz was on the exact opposite side of the plane at the same time. Mikolasek reached out and touched the yoke on his side first and then she touched the yoke in front of her and they exchanged a look.

"I remember reaching out to touch the plane just to be sure it was real," he said. "I don't think I got it, the scope of the plane, on that first dive. We wanted to show the incredible size of this plane."

Because tank air is a factor in a dive, the crew could only spend about 10 minutes at the bottom of the lake before beginning the decompression process of ascension. Before leaving the plane on the first dive, the crew swam to the tail fin to look for its identifying marks. The letters and numbers matched and it was the final confirmation of Mikolasek's discovery.

At a press conference Aug. 9, Mikolasek and his team told the world of the discovery.

Mikolasek said he felt anyone else could have found the plane, but he added for him, "It was something between dedication and obsession."

As to why it's important to find and preserve things like the B-29, Mikolasek said, "This is a piece of history. To kind of reclaim a piece of history, it feels great to find that."


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