SHATTERED PLANE FISHED FROM LAKE

MOST of a shattered plane carrying two former Manitoba biker
associates has been fished out of West Hawk Lake, but RCMP say they've
found no drugs or large amounts of money that could be drug proceeds.

The plane was flying low over West Hawk Lake around 6 p.m. last Monday
when cottagers on Jackfish Bay said they saw it crash into the water,
hitting a hydro line and toppling a hydro tower.

The 33-year-old pilot, Joel Maguet, and 42-year-old passenger Dan
Atkinson died in the crash.

A member of the Hells Angels told the Free Press last week the plane
was used by Maguet, a one-time member of the now-disbanded Spartans
motorcycle gang, to ferry drugs across Canada.

An RCMP spokesman said Monday nothing had turned up to indicate the
plane, a single-engine Mooney Mark 21, was used to carry illegal goods.

"There were no other bodies or any illicit substances found around the
plane area," said Sgt. Steve Colwell, RCMP Manitoba spokesman.

No cash or baggage containing large amounts of money was found around
the plane either, he said.

He said RCMP divers are finished at the site.

Today, Manitoba Conservation will continue overseeing environmental
assessment of the crash site.

"With the plane, with the impact like that, I imagine there were some
small pieces, but they've got the majority of the wreckage out," said
Colwell.

An RCMP Underwater Recovery dive team later identified the plane as
one registered to Maguet, a Ste. Rose du Lac resident who recently
obtained his pilot's licence and built a small private landing strip
on his ranch.

Maguet was arrested in 2001 after police found a hydrophonics drug
operation constructed in eight railway boxcars buried three metres
underground on a property near Dauphin.

The aircraft split into pieces due to the high impact of the crash,
and Colwell said the fuselage and wings were all hauled out separately
from the water Monday.