Eloise Ogden/MDN An F-106 Delta Dart fighter plane from the 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Minot Air Force Base, similar to this F-106 displayed on the grounds at the Dakota Territory Air Museum, Minot, crashed through the ice of Lake Sakakawea near New Town 55 years ago on March 10, 1969.

NEW TOWN – Fifty-five years ago on March 10, 1969, an F-106 Delta Dart fighter plane from Minot Air Force Base plunged through the ice of Lake Sakakawea, northwest of New Town.

The pilot, Capt. Merlin Riley, bailed out safely before the plane crashed.

According to the files of The Minot Daily News:

Riley, 27 years old at the time and a veteran pilot who had flown more than 200 missions in Vietnam, and the F-106 Delta Dart plane were assigned to the 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Minot AFB.

Riley was on a routine training flight with other fighter pilots from the Minot AFB squadron when he encountered trouble. He ejected from the 1,500 mph jet, a plane costing at that time $3 million, and the plane crashed through about 3 feet of ice, forming a hole around 40 feet in diameter.

Rancher Arthur Langved, an eyewitness to the crash, was the first person to reach the crash with his snowmobile. He related in a March 11, 1969, story published in The Minot Daily News that he saw where the plane hit but didn’t immediately see the pilot. He found the pilot about a mile away.

“He appeared quite calm, a lot calmer than I’d have been in that situation,” Langved said.

Riley told Langved the plane had gone into a roll and his repeated efforts to bring it out into a steady flying position failed. He kept trying but finally had to bail out.

The rancher took the pilot to the site where the plane crashed and got as close as they dared to the huge gaping hole in the ice.

About half an hour later a helicopter from Minot AFB arrived to take the pilot back to the base.

Following the crash, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimated the nearly 18-ton plane was resting in about 70 feet of water, apparently on the bottom of the old Missouri River channel.

The next step was how and when the military would go about recovering the aircraft.

Air Force security guards, living in a camper and keeping a 24-hour vigil, guarded the hole where the plane went down while a board was assembled at the base to inquire why the jet crashed.

A few days later, divers contracted by the U.S. Navy spent a week going down in the icy lake to check the wreckage and bring up small pieces of the plane. The plane reportedly had broken apart. Minot AFB officials said consideration was being made to attempt to lift the engine of the plane with a crane. The air police who had been guarding the site were also pulled off duty.

The hope of retrieving the 5,000 pound engine was given up because of melting ice.

Years later, groups have dived to look for the remains of the plane. Then in the early 1990s, the North Dakota Professional Society of Land Survey decided to find the wreckage using the U.S. Air Force’s original survey notes and also new calculations. The mission was a success and divers located the site northwest of the Four Bears Bridge, bringing up a number of pieces from the wreckage.

The story of the F-106 that crashed 55 years ago remains part of history.