Cressie is one of the many cryptids that appear in lakes in North America in popular legend. (Joe Nickell, Skeptical Inquirer, Volume 33, No. 4, July/August 2009. p.18) It's supposed to be an eel-like creature up to 25 feet long, although no photos have ever been seen of it.
RCMP Scuba divers were reported to have seen eels 'as thick as a man's thigh' when they attempted to recover the body of a pilot who had crashed his plane into Crescent Lake in Newfoundland sometime in the 1980s. Nickell says that the RCMP were unable to confirm this account and I wondered if there was any media accounts of a fatal plane crash. I contacted Memorial University archivist Nicole Penney, who had been quoted by the CBC in their 2019 story about the cryptid and she said the story came from an oral account in their files.
Penney contacted an aviation historian who knew someone who was a pilot who lived in the lake's neighbourhood. From their information, Penney sent me the story of a fatal plane crash near Crescent Lake, which happened in Robert's Arm in the early 70s, which seemed to be the one the informant who gave the oral account was referring to.
The aircraft was really a home made glider piloted by Maxwell Anthony, and it crashed suddenly in a downdraft while returning through the narrows of the harbour. The story mentions ice, and does not mention any dive crews being called, so the glider may have crashed and remained on the surface of the ice. The story was described in "Moments in time : a cultural portrait of Green Bay, Newfoundland." Green Bay Economic Development Association.Springdale, Nfld : Green Bay Economic Development Association; 1994"
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