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The researchers said the lake's low water level helped them make the discovery of what they now suspect is the plane lost 56 years ago.

\"I think it's definitely a rewarding prospect to offer some sort of closure\" to the families of those who perished, Riley told KGO.

Due to the drought in California, Folsom Lake, which has the capacity to hold 975,000 acre-feet of water, is down to about 361,000 acre-feet of water, or about 37% of capacity, according to California Department of Water Resources data released in May.

Radican told ABC News that the plane was found at the bottom of what used to be a section of the American River before Folsom Dam was built in 1955. She said her late husband had searched the area during a drought in 2014 with the help of a different sonar company but came up empty-handed.

Lt. Nelson Resendes of the Placer County Sheriff's Office told ABC News on Monday that the plane was located in an area of the lake that is on the Placer County-El Dorado County line. He said his agency has opened an investigation and is putting together a \"game plan\" to send divers down to the wreckage to recover any human remains and determine how to salvage the wreckage.

The plane carrying Wilcox's brother on his first flight collided in midair with a small Beechcraft Debonair sightseeing plane at an altitude of about 2,500 feet, the Roseville Press Tribune reported at the time.

Despite being damaged, the Beechcraft managed to make a successful emergency landing at a local airport, but the Piper Comanche plummeted into the lake and disappeared, the newspaper reported. Rescue crews recovered the body of the pilot of the Piper Comanche, but there was no trace of the aircraft and its three passengers.

In a 2014 interview with KTXL-TV in Sacramento, Wilcox spoke of his mission to find his brother, telling the station, \"I'm going to find him and get him out of here.\"

\"He took a plane ride,\" Wilcox said of his brother, \"and that was the last thing he ever did.\"

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