Fw 58 book - Progress report!

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Dear Sergio

Hope you are progressing well in your work on the FW 58. Maybe you know already the existence of a FW 58 wreck close to Geneva: there is an amazingly preserved FW 58 in "le lac du Bourget", a lake in France, some 70 kilometers away from Geneva. The plane took off from Lyon-Bron airfield on 30 March 1944 at 13h15, with two instructors and two aspirants; they tried to buzz the lake surface but misjudged their height and slammed in the water; two of the crew were rescued by local fishers, the other two unfortunately drowned, the water being then at a chilly 3 degrees Celsius. Since that day, the Weihe is at the bottom of the lake, its wreck at a steep angle, tailplane high, at a depht of 112m; the cold fresh water preseved even most of the fabric covering the structure. The wreck was first dived in 2004; to see the current state of this FW 58 wreck, please check the following link:

http://www.watalibi.com/FW58.htm

and also this one:

http://resdlpbourget.free.fr/html/avion.htm

And here one look at the fin and rudder as is... after a 63 years immersion!

Hope this helps

Cheers from Geneva

Marc