Page 18 - September 2019
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Don Miller was 12 years old and living in Meadow Lake
when the plane went down. I recall seeing/meeting
Raymond Gran on two different occasions because he
had relatives living about a block from us. Raymond
Gran was a friend of our family for years
July 2017
I met with Dr. Linda Kapusta who is the daughter of the
deceased pilot, Raymond Gran, as well as her husband,
Dr. Donald Kapusta of Toronto.
We met at a restaurant on Eighth Street. I had laid out a They came in and did a dive and brought up some
scenario for them about how they could possibly find artifacts, human remains
the aircraft, but it was going to take state of the art I believe there was a wallet and a knife and a few
sonar equipment, something that was not available in other things that were brought up at that point in
Saskatchewan time.
Dr. Donald Kapusta made a lot of notes that afternoon. Once the RCMP were done, we had a meeting at the
They got back to Toronto and put a plan in motion. He museum and Dorrin Wallace, our curator and
contacted a group of experts in Boston who had been chairman of the board
involved in looking for the Agro aircraft remains in Lake IN the past weeks, with the assistance of the great
Ontario people of Michel Village and others living in the
Fast forward again to July 2018 when Dr. Don Kapusta northern part of the province providing untold hours
and Martin Gran, a relative of the family as well as these of assistance and generosity, they brought this to
two gentlemen from the Sonar company out of Boston fruition. They were feeding the crew out on the lake
went out on Peter Pond Lake and started scanning the and helping with everything they possibly could
lake It was a very emotional experience for the people
It was right around supper time, on July 31, that they working on the crew
found the aircraft after it came up as a full image on As a result we have two families that have been
their computer screen. provided with closure and it has also provided
Once the aircraft had been located the next step was closure for the people living in the area. It was
how or if they could bring up remains and how they always on their minds as well
were going to bring up the aircraft or aircraft pieces. Back in the fall of 2006, I was friends with Morris
Gran, Raymond’s Gran’s older brother. I would have
There was an attempt in September 2018 when the
coffee or lunch with everytime I went on business
RCMP dive team had gone up to Peter Pond Lake
trips to Meadow Lake
That lake is over 400 square miles of open water. Even a One thing he did was say Don I want you to promise
slight breeze you are going to wind up with five and six
to never let this issue go. He said, please promise me
feet waves. He try to hold any kind of boat 58 or 60 feet that. I promised him that I would somehow, at some
above the wreckage in a still position and do almost
point in time I would do exactly that
anything with divers down below is going to be almost
an impossibility I did that in 2017 with Dr. Don Kapusta and his wife
Linda Rae. Linda Rae’s mother Marcella was living
here in Saskatoon. Marcella and my mother were
At that point further discussions were held with the
great friends . Marcella lived not even a block away
RCMP and they decided they would do a winter dive and
from my mother on Louise Street. I knew Lind Rae
that is what they did in January of 2019
and her husband were coming into Saskatoon .. we
were also talking about a class reunion in Meadow
Lake so we made contact through Marcella and
ended up going for lunch