The Canadian Harvard Society has started looking for an RCAF P-51D Mustang that crashed in Lake Ontario in 1952. The society hopes to recover the aircraft and possibly restore it and it also plans to recover the remains of the pilot, Flying Officer Barry Allen Newman and hand them over to the Department of National Defence for repatriation. Newman took off from Trenton Air Force Base on June 10, 1952 on a training hop. He reported problems with the oxygen system and witnesses said they saw it diving for the surface of the lake before levelling off briefly before losing a wing and slamming into the water.
Based on the 100-page air force report on the accident and eyewitness accounts, the volunteers have narrowed the search area to 16 square kilometres in the eastern end of the lake. Using side scan sonar and an underwater drone, the society members covered about one square kilometre in a day and a half of searching before weather forced a halt. If they can recover the data plate from the plane, they hope to rebuild it to flying condition.