On November 5, 1979, 26-year-old Albert Zeitler of Batavia, New York, vanished when the small Cessna 172 he was aboard went down in Lake Ontario. The flight included pilot Michael Pfaff and another passenger, Richard Phillips; at about 1:43 PM Pfaff transmitted a distress call reporting engine failure and that was the last communication from the aircraft. The plane crashed into the lake and one passenger, Dennis Flattery, was rescued alive, but Zeitler, Phillips and Pfaff were not found during the search that followed.

The wreckage is believed to lie on the lake bottom and no bodies were recovered. In 1980 Zeitler was legally declared deceased, but the case remains officially an open missing person investigation. Does anyone have memories of search activity on Lake Ontario in November 1979 or information about the flight that could help fill in what happened?