An RCMP dive team has called off its search for a plane believed to be in Peter Pond Lake.

Authorities suspect the pilot and a passenger are in the wreckage of the small craft that went missing in 1959.

Ray Gran was going to La Loche with Conservation officer Harold Thompson.

Their disappearance has been a mystery for 59 years but a private sonar search recently spotted a plane in the lake prompting the RCMP recovery mission.

However conditions were made too rough by strong winds and high waves. Police say low visibility and the significant depth of the wreckage were also factors.

RCMP divers believe conditions will be better to try again during the winter and are confident the plane and the people inside can be recovered. The dive site is two hours by boat from the staging point on shore and recovery crews believe they will have more success when they can make the staging location closer to the wreckage, on the ice.

Gran’s wife was expecting when he went missing. She died shortly after the plane was spotted by the private search team.