May 22, 2006
Not forgotten
Pilot’s remains found in lake decades after crash

Forty-six years after his death, a Reserve Marine pilot’s remains and his plane were located 275 feet below the surface of a cold Montana lake.

Capt. John Eaheart, 30, was on a training flight from Los Alamitos Naval Air Station, Calif., when his F9F Cougar fighter plunged into Flathead Lake in Missoula on March 21, 1960.

Eaheart’s great-nephew, Jay Ranstrom, announced at a news conference May 8 that search crews had recovered the Marine’s remains and that Eaheart’s family would bury him.

John Gisselbrecht, a volunteer with Missoula’s Museum of Mountain Flying who spearheaded the search, said the crash was most likely caused by engine failure. Crews searched unsuccessfully for both the pilot and the plane in the days following the crash; the cause of the crash was never officially determined.

Gisselbrecht became interested in Eaheart’s flight in 1991 after hearing local tales associated with it, the Missoulian newspaper reported May 10.


“Money wasn’t the issue,” Gisselbrecht told the Missoulian. “This was about restoring a Marine’s honor.”

— The Associated Press contributed to this report

Ellie