It would seem there should be some time limit on recovery, and if items are not recovered before that time limit, they are officially abandoned. It is quite interesting to note that all branches of the government are not as zealous about abandonment and recovery procedures. An aviation archaeologist notes, "Not all military services protect their old property as aggressively as the Navy does. If you're dead-set on recovering a B-29 stuck on a frozen lakebed in northern Greenland or a P-38 rotting away on the Aleutian Island of Attu, the Air Force couldn't care less" (Heck, 1998). Thus, the Navy and the Supreme Court are upholding laws that other branches ignore, which seems to give even more credence to the claims of the salvagers who want to retain ownership of the planes they recover.
The Navy sued Champlin, who initially won the right to salvage the plane in the courts. The Navy appealed, and the courts overturned the right. Eventually, the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, who refused to rule, which left the plane as Navy property. Champlin wanted the Navy to pay the costs of salvage...
At the heart of this discussion is the definition of abandonment. The Air Force has set a date that defines abandonment, and it seems that the Navy should, as well. It is unclear why the Navy is so insistent upon keeping ownership of their aircraft when other agencies are not, and it seems incongruous that two military agencies would have such different and divergent policies. The Navy seems to be acting unfairly in this policy, and it is only hurting the collectors and historians who want to preserve and restore these historic planes. The Navy maintains they do it only for financial gain, but many planes have been salvaged to show in museums, which make them available to many Americans.
References
Editors. (1999). Collector wins rights to sunken World War II bomber. Retrieved 30 Oct. 2007 from CNN.com: http://www.cnn.com/U.S./9907/09/sunken.plane.dispute/.
Heck, T. (1998). Whose planes are they, anyway? Retrieved 30 Oct. 2007 from a Personal Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/~manchurianhitchcock/asnov98.html.
