Remains of famed pilot Zimmerman possibly discovered near remote village
BY KRISTINA SMITH HORN
CentralOhio
FREMONT -- Talented, handsome and famous, Lt. Col. Jack Zimmerman seemed indestructible.
The Fremont native, who logged more than two million miles in flight, escaped a fiery plane crash in Pittsburgh with only a few scrapes and bruises.
He flew FBI agents to nab notorious kidnapper and thug Alvin "Creepy" Karpis -- the FBI's "Public Enemy No. 1" -- and won the gratitude of bureau director J. Edgar Hoover.
He braved freezing wind, rain and snow in an open cockpit to deliver mail by plane. He flew missions for the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II in Northern Europe.
But the rough, icy waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, northeast of Maine, proved too much for the "Million Miler" during his final mission Nov. 2, 1942. Zimmerman's amphibious plane capsized, drowning him and four others.
Almost 67 years later, Zimmerman's body might finally be laid to rest. Canadian authorities suspect they discovered the wreckage of his plane this past week near the remote village of Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan in Quebec.
"Everything points in that direction," said Marc-Andr Bernier, chief of Parks Canada's Underwater Archaeology Service. "The witnesses and historical records match. There are more than half a dozen witnesses alive today."
Witnesses prompted archeologists to search for the plane while they were seeking shipwrecks, Bernier said. It took them about five hours to find the plane with sonar.
"Obviously, at the local level, it's a huge find," he said. "This story is very well entrenched in the community's historic background. There are not that many World War II finds in our waters."
OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE HISTORY
The discovery of the plane -- if the craft is the one Zimmerman flew -- provides an opportunity to examine the area's World War II history and the cooperation between the United States and Canada, Bernier said.
The U.S. Army Air Corps used that route to send aircraft, troops and supplies to Northern Europe, Bernier said. The Corps began building airfields near the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1941.
The day Zimmerman's plane sank, he and his crew flew to Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan to assess construction of an airfield there, Bernier said.
As snow fell that evening, they boarded their plane -- a two-engine amphibious aircraft known as a Catalina -- and prepared for takeoff for Presque Isle, Bernier said. Instead, the craft sprang a leak and quickly took on water, he said.
High waves battered the Catalina, and it slipped under the water. Four of the nine aboard escaped and were pulled to safety by fishermen who hurried out in open boats, according to Parks Canada.
Zimmerman and four others were trapped inside the flooded fuselage.
The last man to leave the plane turned back to see if anyone was following him, according to Parks Canada. But it was flooded, and he saw no one.
Shortly after the man was rescued, the plane sank to the Gulf's bottom.
A storied life
So ended the life of Zimmerman, a storied pilot who enjoyed many industry firsts during his career. He was 36.
Born and raised in Fremont, Zimmerman was one of the first pilots for TWA Airlines, said Nan Card, curator of manuscripts at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center. When he joined the Army, he was TWA's chief pilot for its Eastern and Atlantic Division.
"I think he was a pioneering pilot," Card said. "He really took it to a commercial aviation industry. He was at the foundation of it."
In 1929, he piloted a Ford Tri-Motor -- better known as the Tin Goose -- in the first air service from one side of the continent to the other for an airline that later became TWA, Hayes Center records show. Ten years later, he flew the first scheduled flight into LaGuardia Airport the day it opened in New York.
His role in the FBI's arrest of Karpis won him fame and a personal letter from Hoover.
"If you are ever in Washington, I hope you will let me know because I would like to show you some of the things here which we are trying to do in the crime situation," Hoover wrote. "If occasion should require the chartering of a plane for my use in the future in a similar case, I hope it may be possible to secure your services."
The country was enthralled with the young pilot.
Newspapers and aviation publications profiled him. Women waited near runways in hopes of meeting him. That's how he became known as "aviation's gift to women," according to Hayes Center records.
"If there is any doubt to the merits of that title, just fly Jack's route with him from Columbus to St. Louis," says a newspaper clipping in the Hayes Center records. "Flimsy handkerchiefs flutter in a lingering farewell to him as he lifts the wheels of his giant airliner off Port Columbus, and no less than three fair ones greet him when he sets them down again on the field at Indianapolis."
John. R. Tunis wrote a biography of Zimmerman called "Million Miler: The Story of an Air Pilot" in 1942.
"He did it all," Card said. "He was greatly experienced and highly intelligent."
The next step
Parks Canada needs to confirm whether the craft is the one Zimmerman and his crew flew, Bernier said.
This weekend, Parks Canada officials and representatives from the U.S. Embassy and the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Demand plan to use a miniature submarine equipped with cameras and lights to examine the wreckage and gather information on the environment. They also will send divers to the wreckage, he said.
"We have many good (sonar) images, and we can see features clearly," he said. "The plane seems to be in one piece. That is unusual."
To protect the site, Parks Canada is not releasing the exact location, he said.
Parks Canada knows the possibility of recovering bodies is important, he said. Parks Canada is working with the POW-MIA agency and the U.S. government.
"We're going to do whatever is possible to act in a respectful way," he said. "We're working very closely with the U.S. on this, and we have a very good relationship."
A spokeswoman at the POW agency declined to comment.
© Lancaster Eagle Gazette, OH