Page 12 - April 2019

The museum hopes to recover an aircraft of
Saskatchewan historic significance. It crashed in
northern Saskatchewan nearly 60 years ago.

April 27, 2019

The single engine Cessna 180 vanished on Aug. 20,
1959, with pilot Ray Gran and Saskatchewan
conservation officer Harold Thompson onboard.
Cessna Crane Debut / First Engine Run
A private search, launched by Gran’s daughter and
son-in-law, used sonar to find the wreckage of a
plane in July 2018 in Peter Pond Lake and RCMP
divers recovered human remains and some
personal items from the crash site in January.

The Saskatchewan Aviation Museum in Saskatoon
is attempting to raise $150,000 to recover and
restore the plane.
“We’re trying to get our hands on as many 2019 is going to be an exciting year at The Hangar Flight
airplanes as possible that worked in Museum! We are currently in the process of hiring a full-time
Saskatchewan, and were part of the history of Collections Manager. We are all very excited to be expanding
Saskatchewan,” Dorrin Wallace, president of the our team in this essential way. Our Tiger Moth returns from
museum, explains. “This airplane represents an Heritage Park in March and the Hawker Hurricane will return
era of the Saskatchewan Government Airways from its restoration process later this year. Our CF-100 Canuck
(SGA) and we don’t have access to any of their fundraising is continuing to go well and we are in the process of
airplanes. There’s only one or two left that I know raising the last 25% needed to reach our $82,000 goal. We are
of.” accepting donations toward this project.
Gran and Thompson were on a short flight from
Buffalo Narrows to La Loche to investigate
poaching and deliver mail.

Wallace said the museum is waiting on
government approval to retrieve the plane and
hopes recovery operations can start as early as the
week of March 18.