On November 5, 1979, 32-year-old Richard Phillips of Batavia, New York, disappeared as a passenger aboard a small four-passenger airplane with two other men, Albert Zeitler and pilot Michael Pfaff. The pilot’s last known transmission came at about 1:43 PM, a distress call that led search and rescue teams to concentrate on Lake Ontario. The prevailing belief is that the aircraft crashed into the lake, but no wreckage or remains of the three men were ever found.

Search efforts were hampered by Lake Ontario’s depth and size, and investigators never recovered physical evidence to establish a cause. Mechanical failure, sudden severe weather, or another catastrophic event have all been suggested as possible explanations, but none could be confirmed. The families were left without closure as the case remains unresolved.

Did anyone in the Batavia area in 1979 have information about the flight, the passengers, or sightings on Lake Ontario that could shed light on what happened?