Pages from the Archives
RECOVERING A LOST FLIGHT AND A SUNKEN HISTORY
By DeWAYNE WICKHAM
On April 11, 1944, the headline that stretched across the front page of the Port Huron Times Herald left little doubt about the fate of the pilot of a military training plane that crashed into a nearby lake early that morning.
“ U. S. Pilot Dives To Death in Lake,” it exclaimed.
According to the newspaper, the plane plunged into the water at great speed. While the search for the submerged aircraft and its pilot was quickly called off because of rough water and rain, the pilot was presumed dead.
The unnamed man, the paper reported, was thought to be one of the Black pilots training at Selfridge Field, a nearby Michigan air base. The base was home to the 332nd Fighter Group, which years later would come to be known as the Tuskegee Airmen.
Proof that the plane, parts of which were scattered across 10 acres of Lake Huron’ s bottom, belonged to Moody came with the discovery of its instrument panel. Still visible on it was his radio call sign: 221 226.
Radio Call Number 221226
If this story ended here, it would be a remarkable account. But it doesn’ t. There is another chapter being written by another group of Black pioneers— warriors of a different kind.
When Michigan’ s state archaeologist determined that the wreckage found in Lake Huron exactly 70 years to the day after the crash was Moody’ s P-39, he asked a group of Black underwater explorers called“ Diving with a Purpose” to help preserve the site’ s history.
“ This was our mission, to completely document the site,” said Jay Haigler, a master dive instructor and one of five DWP members who explored Moody’ s crash site. The group specializes in the protection, documentation and interpretation of African slave trade shipwrecks. In taking on the Lake Huron assignment, the group took on a new, but not so different job. They were searching for the wreckage of Black lives that were tragically lost at sea.
In addition to Moody, the Tuskegee Airmen who died during World War II when their planes crashed into Lake Huron are 2nd Lt. Wilmeth W. Sidat-Singh, 2nd Lt. Nathaniel Milton Hill, 2nd Lt.
Nearly two months later, on June 3, 1944, the body of 2nd Lt. Frank M. Moody— the plane’ s pilot— washed ashore. But his plane remained missing for 70 years until two divers, David and Drew Losinski, found a wing of the P-39 fighter plane.
DWP _ UAS Underwater Investigation Team. Left to right: Kamau Sadiki, Dr. Melody Garrett, Ernie Franklin, Erik Denson, Jay Haigler. Credit: Courtesy of Jay Haigler
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