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August 19, 2009, Finally after 67 years, the remains of pilot Jack
Zimmerman, a native of Fremont, Ohio may have been located northwest of
the crash site in a remote area
of
Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan, Quebec
by the Canadian
authorities.
On November 2, 1942, Captain Jack Zimmerman and his crew piloting
a military
amphibious seaplane attempted a take-off on the waters of the Gulf of St
Lawrence in Canada. The day was cold and the sea was rough with swells
as high as 6 feet. The seaplane was taking on water in its wheel wells.
The captain throttled back the power hoping to bring the seaplane under
control. But the sea had taken control and the aircraft capsized
drowning
Captain Jack Zimmerman and his crew of four.
Canadian officials
have sent a miniature submarine equipped with cameras and lights to
examine the crash site wreckage. Canadian officials have reported they
have good sonar images and other photos of the wreckage and the aircraft
appears to be in one piece. To protect the crash site the Canadian
government is not releasing the exact location of the wreckage.
Captain Jack Zimmerman, born in 1906, was a pioneer of aviation. Upon
completing high school at
Culver Military
Academy, Jack Zimmerman enrolled at Dartmouth College.
In 1929,
Zimmerman
began working for Transcontinental Air Transport piloting a Ford
Tri-Motor known as the Tin Goose. In 1930, Transcontinental merged with
Western Air forming TWA. The merger was a result of the urging of
Postmaster General Walter Folger Brown, who was looking for bigger
airlines to give airmail contracts to.
Zimmerman began flying U.S. mail and flying coast to coast.
On a spring night
in 1936, departing New Orleans at the flight controls of Flight No.7 was
Captain
Zimmerman and 14-passengers. On board was FBI Director J.
Edgar Hoover and a small army of heavily armed G-men. On board was FBI
Director J. Edgar Hoover; a ?small army of heavily armed G-men; and
Alvin Karpis, America?s ?Public Enemy No. 1.? With submachine guns at
the ready, the G-men were transporting Alvin Francis "Creepy Karpis"
Karpowicz to St. Paul, Minnesota to stand trial on kidnapping charges.
Karpowicz nicknamed "Creepy" for his sinister smile, was a noted
American criminal known for his alliance with the Barker gang in the
1930s. He was the last "public enemy" to be taken, a capture which
elevated J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
to national prominence. |
