Kristina Nikita Coffey was only 4 years old when the plane her father had boarded lost contact with air controllers and vanished over Lake Champlain in Vermont in 1971. Despite the crash site never being found, she held onto the hope that it would one day be uncovered. Her long wait took a surprising turn last month when she received a call with unexpected news: an underwater searcher is believed to have found the jet that her father and four other men boarded 53 years ago.
Upon seeing images of the jet submerged underwater, Coffey felt certain it was the right plane. “I’ve looked at that picture of the plane my whole entire life,” she said, expressing a deep sense of recognition and closure. The discovery brings an end to a decades-long mystery and offers Coffey a profound connection to the memory of her father.
