According to Finnish television reports, the aircraft was the subject of several rival search parties who were interested in raising the aircraft and smuggling it out of Russia. However, the Russian authorities have subsequently seized the aircraft and arrested several people involved with the salvage operation. The aircraft's identity, BW-372, is clearly visible on the side of the fuselage, which makes it the mount of Lt Lauri Pekuri who later flew Messerschmitt 109s with the Finnish Air Force, until hew was shot down in June 1944. Pekuri ended the the war with 18.5 confirmed 'kills'.
The Brewster is reported to be in very good condition, with fuselage and wings intact- apart from a few bullet holes! However, the aircraft's engine, propeller and guns had been removed by the salvage team before they were stopped by the Russian authorities! Finnish historians are hoping that after the legal wrangling over the aircraft has been sorted out, the Brewster 239 (the only one of its type in the world) can be preserved.--FlyPast November 1998
Russian lake yields sole example of Brewster fighter
The only complete Brewster Buffalo in the world, recovered from a lake in Russia's karelia region late last summer, is now stored at Shannon Airport in Ireland. The 1940 fighter arrived in an Antonov An-12 which flew in from Moscow via Cork on December 2; it is believed to be destined for restoration for a new owner in the USA.
Reports in Ireland suggest that the aircraft, which carries the Finnish serial BW-371, will be restored before it goes to America. Accompanying paperwork bore the address of the Irish Millennium Development Corporation in County Tipperary, according to the specialist publication Irish Air letter.
The tubby American fighter had lain on the bed of Segozero lake in Karelia, Russia, near he Finnish border, since it came down with Lt Lauri Pekuri at the controls in June 1942.
Researchers knew that the machine had survived relatively undamaged, but its location was uncertain. An American-funded recovery operation took aerial photographs of the area and contacted Lt Pekuri, who identified the lake into which he had crashed 56 years previously.
A magnetometer survey of the lake pinpointed the aeroplane's location, and divers were sent down. They were amazed at its condition, and it was duly lifted from the bottom during August. It then sat at the side of the lake as the rights to remove the Brewster were sorted out, before being suspended under a Mil Mi-8 helicopter and taken to an airfield at nearby Segezha, from where it travelled to Tver, a military aircraft transport base 100 miles north-west of Moscow.
Further problems wre encountered before the fighter could be exported, and at one stage the Russian police became involved. The Finnish authorities were also said to be unhappy, because they do not have a Buffalo in any of their aviation museums. A lot of interest is sure to be generated by its recovery, so the ultimate destination of this sole survivor may remain undecided for some time.-Aeroplane March 1999