After 50 years a mysterious incident happened in which a private jet got discovered that got vanished over Vermont in January 1971 on a snowy evening after taking off from Burlington airport, heading for Providence, Rhode Island. At the time of disappearance, the jet consisted of five men whose families left in limbo after this discovery. The passengers in this jet included two crew members and three employees from Cousin Properties, a Georgia development company, who were there in Burlington for a project.
Despite of extensive searches just after its disappearance, there were no traces found of the 10-seat Jet Commander. The jet was discovered in Lake Champlain by underwater searcher Garry Kozak and his team while utilizing a remotely operated vehicle last month. The discovered jet resembled the lost one and was found near Juniper Island which is close to the last known position by the radio control tower. Kozak found the jet at a depth of 20 feet (60 meters). Pilot George Nikita’s niece, Barbara Nikitas shared her emotions after this discovery by saying, “To have this found now… it’s a peaceful feeling, at the same time it’s a very sad feeling.”
In 1971, the initial search efforts were made when ice melted in spring and this yielded some debris but failed to locate the wreckage at that time. Many subsequent searched were made including of 2014 inspired by new technology and curiosity when Malaysia Airlines disappeared but all the efforts were unsuccessful till now.
The verification of the wreckage has been currently investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) but they did not started any salvage operation due to high costs.