Page 18 - September 2019
P. 18

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
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