SPICER, MINN. ? Divers on Saturday recovered a single-engine military plane that crashed into Green Lake during fog nearly 47 years ago, killing a Minnesota National Guard pilot.

More than 50 boats filled with curious spectators circled the site where the recovery operation was taking place, and dozens of people lined the shoreline nearly a mile away for the chance to watch as the Cessna L-19 “Birddog” was pulled from water 40 feet deep.

Divers used a large winch mounted on a pontoon boat to hoist the airplane from the bottom. They kept the aircraft submerged below a second pontoon boat that they used to tow it to shore.