Page 16 - September 2019
P. 16
A Promise Kept
By Cam Hutchinson
Don Miller initiated the successful search for a plane The Grans were family friends of the Millers, with
that went missing in 1959, back in July of 2017. some of Ray Gran’s relatives living just down the
street in Meadow Lake. Miller’s mother and Marcella
Gran were best friends.
Their friendship led to Miller having lunch with the
Kapustas.
“I had laid out a scenario for them about how they
could possibly find the aircraft, but it was going to
take state-of-the-art sonar equipment, something
that was not available in Saskatchewan,” Miller said
in a conversation at the Saskatchewan Aviation
Museum and Learning Centre.
He said those who previously searched for the plane
used a rope and grappling hook.
Don Miller promised Maurice Gran he wouldn’t rest easy
“Based on how the plane was sitting upside down,
until the plane in which Gran’s younger brother died was the chance of even snagging one of those pontoons
found.
would have been pretty tough.”
True to his word, Miller initiated the successful search
that led to discovering the Cessna 180 that crashed into Soon after the lunch meeting, Dr. Don Kapusta
Peter Pond Lake on Aug. 20, 1959. returned to Toronto and started making a plan to
attempt to find the aircraft. That plan would include
On board were pilot Ray Gran and Harold Thompson, a
sonar equipment, as Miller had suggested.
conservation officer.
“Dr. Kapusta contacted a group of experts in Boston
who had been involved in looking (and finding) the
Avro Arrow aircraft remains in Lake Ontario,” said
Miller, who is 72.
The Avro Arrow was a scale model of a supersonic
interceptor that was being developed to keep
Russian bombers at bay. This was during the Cold
War.
In July 2018, the search for the Cessna 180 officially
began with Kapusta, a relative and two sonar experts
scanning the lake. They divided the lake into
quadrants. No. 1 was their target.
“It was right around supper time on July 31 that they
found the aircraft.”
The weather can turn bad quickly in the North, and Gran It was in quadrant No. 1.
was caught in a thick fog with no way out. The two men
were flying north from Buffalo Narrows to La Loche.
Some people believe they took to the sky that day to
nab a poacher.
In July 2017, Miller had lunch with Drs. Linda Rae
Kapusta and her husband Don, who were visiting from
Toronto. Linda Rae never got to meet her father. Her
mother, Marcella Gran, was pregnant with Linda Rae
when the plane crashed.
