The wreckage of the Learjet that disappeared on Christmas Eve in 1996 was found Thursday, ending the largest land and air search ever in the history of the state of New Hampshire.
Authorities now know the plane crashed not far from the Dartmouth Skiway, into the north side of a hill near Smarts Mountain in Dorchester, N.H., instead of landing at its expected destination of the Lebanon Municipal Airport.
The 40-foot plane was discovered last week by Quentin Mack, a semi-retired forester from Orford, N.H., in a private forest area known as Green Woodlands. He was inspecting the area before removing trees that had been damaged by ice storms.
The area where the plane was found is used heavily for logging because of its dense growth of flexible hardwoods and fir trees that severely hampered the search, officials said in 1996.
No information has been released on the cause of the crash, but a pilot voice recorder and gauges were recovered. The site revealed only that the plane went down suddenly, hitting trees and breaking into many parts.
Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board inspected the site on Saturday to help them determine what caused the crash.
As he found small pieces of metal, he was not entirely sure if he had encountered the missing plane, but then, upon further investigation, he discovered a passenger seat's safety placard reading "Your safety instructions for a Learjet."
Mack notified the landowners, and they then called Jay Hayes of Essex, Conn., brother of one of the two pilots of the plane, before later notifying authorities.
Johan Schwartz, 31, of Westport, Conn., and Patrick Hayes, 30, of Clinton, Conn., who both apparently died in the crash, were flying the Learjet from Bridgeport, Conn. to pick up a Lyme family for a holiday trip to Long Island when they disappeared.
Their remains were found still seat-belted in to their seats, which were discovered outside of the plane.
State aeronautics director Jack Ferns told the Associated Press the plane was identified by the registration number on an intact piece of wreckage.
The plane and its two pilots vanished after missing two attempts to land on a rainy and foggy morning at the airport. Searches using planes, helicopters, snowmobiles, night-vision technology and hikers began that Christmas morning to no avail.
The official search had been called off in early 1997 because of winter, but volunteers continued to look.
In July, teams from New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire spent 10 days searching 3,452-foot Carr Mountain in Warren and Wentworth -- an area suggested by a group of Dartmouth engineering students who examined the case.
The Boston Globe reported that because there was no sign of the aircraft, the press and some locals had suggested that the pilots stole the plane and traveled to Canada or elsewhere.
Moose Mountain, where many Dartmouth Outing Club trips travel each fall, was the location of one search that turned up a plane wreck of which the airport had not been aware -- not the Learjet. It was also the site of a 1968 crash that killed 32 people.
Quentin Mack declined to comment about his discovery to The Dartmouth.
