Posted 6/01/2008 05:33:00 PM by Douglas

Finally, some good news coming from the American West about the looming drought that's going to turn our bread basket into the vast wasteland of Rosie O'Donnell's appetite control: Finding old plane crashes.

A plane missing for 24 years was found partially submerged by canoeists on a receding, drought-stricken lake in the Texas Panhandle.

National Park Service officials said the Friday discovery on Lake Meredith was confirmed to be the fuselage of a small, two-seat Beech 77 that went missing during a two-hour flight on Jan. 27, 1984.

The 25-year-old pilot and a passenger died in the crash, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report.

In the first two days after the crash, one of the plane's wheels and a jacket believed to be the pilot's were found floating on the lake, the report said. The plane and bodies never turned up during a six-day diving search.

Park service personnel have closed the area around the wreckage so they can investigate the site, spokeswoman Rozanna Pfeiffer said in a news release.

Pfeiffer said Sunday more details might be released later in the day.

Lake Meredith, about 20 miles north of Amarillo, is at just 8 percent of its capacity of 500,000 acre-feet, according to the latest monthly report from the Texas Water Development Board.

Eight percent? Shit, wait 'till it hits five! Hell, Jimmy fucking Hoffa is more likely to turn up in the Texas Panhandle than a good rain.

Climate changing crime solving. Al Gore most just love this. Just wait 'till the Pacific Northwest looks like Eastern Colorado. You can run, but you can't hide, D.B. Cooper.