Legendary Pilot Jack Zimmerman Remains Located Off The Gulf of St. Lawrence

 

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Legendary Pilot Jack Zimmerman Remains Located Off The Gulf of St. Lawrence

By Mike Mitchell

 
 
 

August 19, 2009, Finally after 67 years, the remains of pilot Jack Zimmerman, a native of Fremont, Ohio may have been located northwest of the crash site in a remote area of Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan, Quebec by the Canadian authorities.

 

On November 2, 1942, Captain Jack Zimmerman and his crew piloting a military amphibious seaplane attempted a take-off on the waters of the Gulf of St Lawrence in Canada. The day was cold and the sea was rough with swells as high as 6 feet. The seaplane was taking on water in its wheel wells. The captain throttled back the power hoping to bring the seaplane under control.  But the sea had taken control and the aircraft capsized drowning Captain Jack Zimmerman and his crew of four.

 

Canadian officials have sent a miniature submarine equipped with cameras and lights to examine the crash site wreckage. Canadian officials have reported they have good sonar images and other photos of the wreckage and the aircraft appears to be in one piece. To protect the crash site the Canadian government is not releasing the exact location of the wreckage.

 

Captain Jack Zimmerman, born in 1906, was a pioneer of aviation. Upon completing high school at Culver Military Academy, Jack Zimmerman enrolled at Dartmouth College.

 

In 1929, Zimmerman began working for Transcontinental Air Transport piloting a Ford Tri-Motor known as the Tin Goose. In 1930, Transcontinental merged with Western Air forming TWA. The merger was a result of the urging of Postmaster General Walter Folger Brown, who was looking for bigger airlines to give airmail contracts to.

 

Zimmerman began flying U.S. mail and flying coast to coast. On a spring night in 1936, departing New Orleans at the flight controls of Flight No.7 was Captain Zimmerman and 14-passengers. On board was FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and a small army of heavily armed G-men. On board was FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover; a ?small army of heavily armed G-men; and Alvin Karpis, America?s ?Public Enemy No. 1.? With submachine guns at the ready, the G-men were transporting Alvin Francis "Creepy Karpis" Karpowicz to St. Paul, Minnesota to stand trial on kidnapping charges. Karpowicz nicknamed "Creepy" for his sinister smile, was a noted American criminal known for his alliance with the Barker gang in the 1930s. He was the last "public enemy" to be taken, a capture which elevated J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to national prominence. 

 

Jack Zimmerman Photo Credit To Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center

 
 
 

In 1939, Zimmerman flew the last leg of the West-East inaugural record flight of TWA?s first Boeing 307, known as the Stratoliner. The Boeing Model 307 Stratoliner was the first commercial transport aircraft with a pressurized cabin. This feature allowed the plane to cruise at an altitude of 20,000 ft (6,000 m), well above weather disturbances. The pressure differential was 2.5 psi (17 kPa), so at 14,700 ft (4,480 m) the cabin altitude was 8,000 ft (2,440 m). The Model 307 had capacity for a crew of five and 33 passengers. The cabin was nearly 12 ft (3.6 m) across. It was the first plane to include a flight engineer as a crew member. 

In 1942, Zimmerman entered the United States Army Air Corps where he trained at March Field Riverside, California.

 
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