84-year-old passenger plane shot down by Soviets in World War II located

Over eight decades after the downing of the Finnish passenger plane Kaleva, a diving and salvage team in Estonia announced that they have located well-preserved parts and debris from the aircraft. The Junkers Ju 52 plane was operated by the Finnish airline Aero, which is now known as Finnair. The discovery of the plane's remains comes as a significant development in solving the World War II mystery surrounding the fate of the aircraft and its passengers.

The Kaleva plane was on a regular scheduled flight from Tallinn to Helsinki when it was shot down by two Soviet DB-3 bombers on June 14, 1940. The incident took place just days before Moscow annexed the Baltic states, resulting in the death of all nine individuals on board, including American and French diplomatic couriers.

Finland, which had signed a peace treaty with Moscow just three months prior to the downing of the aircraft, kept silent for years about the details of the incident to avoid provoking Moscow. This tragic event has remained a mystery for 84 years and is a crucial part of Finland's complex World War II history.

American Diplomat's Mission

American diplomat Henry W. Antheil Jr., who was aboard the plane, was on a mission to evacuate sensitive diplomatic pouches from U.S. missions in Tallinn and Riga, Latvia. His death as a result of the plane being downed marked one of the first U.S. casualties of World War II. The U.S. Embassy in Tallinn has extensively documented and researched the case over the years.

Since Estonia regained independence more than three decades ago, various attempts to locate the Kaleva plane have been made, with none being successful until now. Speculations about the contents of the plane's cargo and the reasons behind the Soviet Union's decision to down the civilian Finnish passenger plane during peacetime have sparked numerous theories and discussions over the years.