US Navy formally notifies families about long-lost Seattle plane

The families of two lost Naval aviators have received formal notification from the U.S. Navy about the likely whereabouts of the men and their SNJ-5 trainer aircraft.

Lieutenant Benjamin Vreeland and Ensign Gaston Mayes disappeared in March 1949 while on a flight from the old Sand Point Naval Air Station on Lake Washington. Gaston Mayes’ mother, Nora Mayes, spent most of the next 20 years visiting the Northwest during the summer and searching for her son.