Although Germany has never officially confirmed it, rumours have swirled for years that a German fighter plane crashed into Hald Lake in Viborg in 1944.

The Viborg Museum has decided to scan the lake’s bottom in the hope of finding the fighter, which is rumoured to be a Junkers Ju 88g.

“Marine archaeologists from the Kystmuseet – the coastal museum – are doing a sonar survey of oak poles from the Middle Ages,” Dan Ersted Møller, the archives manager from Viborg Museum, told Ekstra Bladet.

“They suggested we take advantage of this unique opportunity to scan the deep lake bottom in an attempt to confirm or disprove the story of the fighter.”

An ear witness?
A former professional fisherman, 91-year-old Edvard Ammitzbøl, said he heard the aircraft minutes before the alleged crash.

“The distressed engine sounds told us something was wrong,” said Ammitzbøl. “It flew so close we thought it would hit the house.”

The Germans sailed out onto the lake later and forbade Ammitzbøl and his family from going out onto the lake for the rest of the day.

“I later ruined two trawl nets on something sharp on the bottom, and some years later I saw a modern sonar of something that could be a plane wreck,” Ammitzbøl said.

An old story
The crash was partially confirmed in an article in Viborg Stifts Folkeblad in 1947.

That article claimed the wreck had been located and would be removed, but it didn’t happen.

A reference to a plane crash in Hald Lake has never been found in any German records, but Møller said that didn’t necessarily rule out the possibility that it happened.

“The Luftwaffe destroyed large parts of its archives during the last days of the war,” he said.

The search for the plane will be conducted this week.