On November 25, 1999, 19-year-old First Nations woman Katy Lynn Mitchell boarded a single-engine Cherokee 140 with her mother, Mary Sinclair, and pilot Milton Menzies for a routine flight from Poplar River to Fairford First Nation. Katy was 5 feet 6 inches and about 119 pounds. At roughly 10:30 a.m. the pilot made two distress calls reporting an engine seizure and an attempted emergency landing on Reindeer Island; his final transmission said the plane was going down into the water.

A large aerial search followed, including two RCMP Twin Otters and an Air Search and Rescue Hercules, but heavy ice on Lake Winnipeg prevented boat searches and no wreckage or occupants were found. Katy, her mother, and the pilot were soon presumed to have perished, either on impact or from drowning in the freezing water. That presumed outcome is recorded, but no physical trace of the Cherokee 140 or its passengers has been located.

Did anyone in the area around Reindeer Island at the time see unusual aircraft activity or debris that could still be relevant to this case?