How a team of amateur explorers and an underwater robot laid to rest the 'Ghost of Baker Lake'

The Yukon legend of the Ghost of Baker Lake captivated 10-year-old Steven Hanulik from the first moment he heard it.

It goessomething like this:

In the spring of 1969, an aircraft disappeared through the ice at Baker Lake, never to be seen again.

The plane was hauling fuel to support mining operations in the area. On what turned out to be its final landing, the starboard main wheel punctured the frozen surface of the lake, and the plane sank into the icy depths.

Thecrew of the Bristol Freighter CF-UME made it out alive, but the rapid rate of ice melt forced them to abandon their plane.

Baker Lake is about 60 kilometres northeast of Whitehorse, Yukon.

As a boy living in Whitehorse, Hanulik dreamed of being part of asubmarine crew that would one day dive down and locate the wreckage. In 1995, a jealous Hanulikeagerly followed the newsas a group of explorers launched an expedition to find the Bristol, albeit an unsuccessful one.

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Today, 41-year-old Hanulik lives as a filmmaker in High River, Alta. Last month, he joined three others from Yukonon a mission to find the aircraftwith the help of an underwater robot.

They were prepared for days of searching. It took them 45 minutes.

The discovery

Finding Bristol Freighter CF-UME had also been a goal of the other expedition crew members, sonar operator Doug Davidge and pilots Kyle and Sara Cameron in some cases fordecades.

In 2017, they made a handshake deal to attempt to find the sunken airplane the following summer.

A local historian supplied them withphotographs from 1969 of the Bristol on the ice, as well as comparative panoramic photos of the area from 1995. By lining up the landmarks, the crew determined a fairly accurate location from which to begin their search.

On Aug. 5, theirsmall float plane landed on the lake with aremotely operated underwater vehicle on board, commonly called an ROV.

After makingjust a few passes over the area,an unusual shape appeared on their sonar screen. A few more passes madeit clear: they hadfound the elusive plane.

"The look on Doug's face was just priceless, as far as seeing that we discovered it," recalled Hanulik.

Hanulikdeployed the ROV and piloted it to capture underwater images of the wreckage from as many angles as possible.

Watch underwater footage of the plane that had been lost for nearly half a century

6 years ago

Duration 1:04

Steven Hanulik piloted the remotely operated underwater vehicle that captured these images in Yukon's Baker Lake earlier this August.

The nose section of the plane appeared to be crumpled. The port door was missing. Long creases extended the length of the fuselage.

Hanulik was so consumed by the details of the mission at that point that the magnitude of the discovery didn't register until he wasback on land.

"It's something that doesn't really hit you until after you get back on shore and you start looking at the footage that you are the first set of eyes to have looked at something in 49 years," Hanulik said.

On to 'the next great adventure'

There are no immediate plans to recover the aircraft from the bottom of the lake. For the moment, Hanulik and his team are most interested in speaking with anyone who may have once piloted the aircraft, or who might know anything more about its history or ownership.

"What's our treasure at the end of it?" askedHanulik in reflection. "This is just a labour of love from everybody concerned."

He and his crew donated their time, equipment and energy in pursuit of the "joy of the unknown," he said.

"More than anything, it shows that there is still some mystery left in the North, and it still shows that there are some things that are left to be discovered out there," he said.

And as long as there are, he says he'll keep searching.

"There's always things on the horizon, as far as rumours that are out there, lost treasure and things like that. So we're always on the lookout for the next great adventure."

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With files from Rebecca Kelly.