A five-year dispute over ownership of a rare U.S. Navy fighter plane from World War II that crashed in North Carolina could soon be decided in favor of a Minnesota airplane mechanic -- although it will take an act of Congress. The beginning of the end came last week when a team of federal officials arrived at Lex Cralley's rural home in Princeton, Minn., while he was out of town. They spent hours inspecting the wreckage of the Corsair that had been resting in his machine shed since 1990. "I had no intention of being there," Cralley said later. "For all I knew, they intended to interrogate me." The dispute began when the Navy learned that Cralley, a 49-year-old Northwest Airlines mechanic, had salvaged the remains of the plane that had crashed in a North Carolina swamp back in 1944. Shortly afterward, a Navy report noted the death of the pilot and described the plane as "demolished." Though more than four decades passed before Cralley salvaged the wreck, he learned the hard way that the Navy has a policy of exerting its ownership of things that have been long discarded -- and that they can play hardball. "In the past two years, things had gotten pretty ugly," Cralley said. In March, the U.S. Justice Department, acting as the attorney for the Navy, filed a lawsuit in Minneapolis seeking the plane, the cost of returning it and compensation for "any damage to or alteration of" the aircraft since Cralley dug it out of the swamp. At the time the lawsuit was filed, officials at the Justice Department declined to discuss the reasons behind the Navy's interest in getting the plane back. But historical aviation enthusiasts said Cralley's salvaged plane is a rare one -- perhaps the only existing Corsair of its kind. Specifically, it's a "Brewster F3A-1" Corsair, manufactured by the Brewster Aeronautical Corp. of Long Island, N.Y., after the original manufacturer, the Chance Vought Aircraft Corp. of Stratford, Conn., became overwhelmed by a wartime demand for new planes. Brewster, which no longer exists, built only 735 versions of the F3A-1 -- Cralley's was the 119th -- compared to more than 12,000 F4U Corsairs built by Chance Vought. A story about the lawsuit that was published in March by the St. Paul Pioneer Press and was picked up by The Associated Press and distributed nationally. Within days, Cralley said, the outraged calls started coming in. One came from U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., whose district includes the original crash site near the Cherry Point Marine Corps Training Station. Jones later wrote a letter to Navy Secretary Gordon England in which he asked England to exert some "common-sense leadership" to avoid having the Corsair dispute become a "laughable poster child" for big government run amok. Cralley also said he got support from Minnesota's former U.S. Sen. Rod Grams, a Republican who is now a Washington lobbyist, and from U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, also a Republican. A spokeswoman for Jones' Washington office said the congressman would be introducing a "private bill" that will specifically convey the Corsair from the Navy to Cralley. "The Navy has given their blessing on this particular option," said Anne Cassity, an aide to Jones. "Hopefully, it will be resolved in the near future." Cralley's Minneapolis attorney Boyd H. Ratchye said a continuance on the federal lawsuit against Cralley is expected to stop it from going forward until July. By then, he hopes the action will be dropped. "I don't have an argument with the Navy or anybody who served in it," Cralley said last week, the day after he returned from Washington. "But with some bureaucrats -- yeah, I have an argument." Cralley said his efforts to restore the Corsair have been largely "on hold" for the past five years because of the federal dispute. "I spent five years just trying to locate the parts and collect components that were scattered all over the place," Cralley said. Restoration of the plane by some estimates could cost millions. The plane itself could be worth more than $1 million if restored for flight. Only about 24 flyable Corsairs exist. "We have to preserve some of these planes statically, as artifacts," Cralley said. "But it's also important to see them fly, so that young generations have an appreciation of what they were."
Salvager to Land World War II Plane That Crashed in N.C.
The dispute began when the Navy learned that Cralley, a 49-year-old Northwest Airlines mechanic, had salvaged the remains of the plane that had crashed in a North Carolina swamp back in 1944.
