Is this where the men who tried to beat Lindbergh crashed? Frenchman identifies tiny island off the Canadian coast, where he believes aviation pioneers crashed Flight would have been only the second time a pair of pilots has crossed the Atlantic The wreckage, cargo and bodies of the pilot have never been found after it crashed off the coast of Newfoundland in 1927 Search being conducted for the fifth year in-a-row to look for wreckage of the plane A French businessman claims to have identified the island where two French aviators crashed off the coast of Newfoundland in May 1927, just days before Charles Lindbergh's record-breaking solo flight across the Atlantic. Charles Nungesser, a daredevil aristocrat and top French flying ace, and François Coli, a one-eyed mariner and former infantryman, aimed to pilot their single-engine biplane, L'Oiseau Blanc, or The White Bird, from Paris across the Atlantic - but they never arrived and the plane was never recovered. Now Bernard Decré, who is in his 70s, says there is evidence the plane came down near St.-Pierre, a tiny island about 10 miles south of Newfoundland. Searching: For the fifth summer running, Bernard Decre, 73, is looking off the coast of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, to look for Charles Nungesser and Fran ois Coli plane's wreck 'Oiseau Blanc' (White bird) which mysteriously disappeared in 1927 The L'Oiseau Blanc (White Bird) plane took off from Paris in 1927. Pilots Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli were heading for New York, but the plane vanished near Newfoundland and the pilots were never seen again. French aviation enthusiast Bernard Decre has just begun his fifth annual search for the wreckage Searching: The plane is believed to have crashed 10 miles off the coast of St.-Pierre, a small French-owned island near Newfoundland. The flight was supposed to have been the first between Paris and New York French pilots: Francois Coli, left, and Charles Nungesser, in the plane they attempted to fly from Paris to New York. The flight took off just 12 days before Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic solo flight made the record books He has spent the past five years carrying out a full-time search for L'Oiseau Blanc. Their disappearance, considered one of aviation's great mysteries, has inspired decades of conspiracy theories with virtually every possible location for the crash, discussed as an option. The Frenchmen were thought to have ditched in the English Channel, or perhaps over the Atlantic, or somewhere between Newfoundland and Maine. Mr Decré, 73, is hoping to readjust the history of aviation. 'We just want to recognize that they accomplished a fantastic crossing,' he told the New York Times. Record breaker: American Charles Lindbergh successfully flew the Spirit of St Louis from New York to France in May. He won $25,000 from hotelier Raymond Orteig and claimed the U.S. Medal of Honour and the French Legion d'Honneur Aviation pioneer: Charles Nungesser, French pilot and adventurer in front of his biplane A nonstop flight from Paris to Newfoundland would have been the first between Continental Europe and North America, and the first Atlantic crossing from east to west. Decre's theory is that pilots Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli took off from Paris on 8 May 1927 at 5:17am. Loaded with 3,800 liters of fuel - barely what the 3,600-mile journey was thought to require, their PL.8-01 sea plane, made of wood and cloth, weighed 5,000kg and was only just able to clear a line of trees at the end of the field they were taking off from. To save fuel for the flight, the pilots were said to have jettisoned everything they didn't need including a lifeboat, parachutes and radio. Even the landing gear was jettisoned shortly after takeoff. 'They really needed to have a tail wind the whole way to make it,' Mr. Decré said. But these guys were gamblers. Decre believes that, running low on fuel, the pilots 'cut the engine for a water landing.' However, in the dark, the earth would have looked like water and they crashed. The pilots intended to fly across the English Channel, over the southwestern part of England and Ireland, across the Atlantic to Newfoundland, then south over Nova Scotia, to Boston, and finally to a water landing in New York planned beside the Statue of Liberty. Stop the press: 'Nungesser and Coli have succeeded,' declared La Presse, detailailing their sea landing in New York Harbor and the 'cheers that rose up from the ships that surrounded them' - such reports proved to be premature and ultimately false Jumping the gun: newspapers across France proclaimed 'the triumph of French wings' and a 'golden age of French aviation' Pilots Coli and Nungesser vanished when their plane, the White Bird, crashed off the coast of Newfoundland in May 1927. A lobsterman in Maine discovered a large chunk of white wreckage in 1958, which is believed to have been from the fated flight, but the pieces have since been lost Francois Coli and Charles Nungesser posing for publicity photographs before their fated flight to New York in 1927 Like Mr. Lindbergh, the two aviators were competing for the Orteig Prize, a $25,000 reward for the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris, or vice versa. Mr. Decré believes the French fliers were forced off course by storms over Newfoundland. With fuel running low after about 35 hours, the men attempted a fateful sea landing off St.-Pierre, amid a heavy, late-morning fog. The plane is thought to have broken up on landing, killing both men. Ocean currents could have then carried the debris away from the crash location. An international search began after the disappearance, and the area between New York and Newfoundland was searched for nine days. When there was no sign of the craft, the search was abandoned. Mr. Decré began his investigation in 2007 after reading an account by the novelist Clive Cussler of his own search for the plane in Maine. A small team of technicians has repeatedly scoured the seafloor for the remains of L'Oiseau Blanc close to St.-Pierre using sonar and a magnetometer to try to locate the plane's engine. It is thought this is the only part of the plane that survived, but the search is a difficult one because of other wrecks across the ocean floor. Daring: Lieutenant Charles Nungesser in his biplane. So concerned were the pilots about weight even the landing gear was jettisoned soon after taking off Not giving up: So far, after three weeks of trawling the ocean off Newfoundland, Bernard Decre's search has turned up nothing. He is convinced that wreckage of some kind will be found The French government and Safran, the aerospace and defense company, have given Mr. Decré a $200,000 budget for this summer's searching. Three weeks of scans in about 180 feet of water has so far turned up nothing. Mr. Decré has found archival records showing that 13 people saw or heard the plane heading south along the eastern coast of Newfoundland on the morning of May 9th, along with at least four residents of St.-Pierre. A local fisherman, no longer living, used to speak of hearing a plane crash and cries for help. Residents and sailors reported debris in the area shortly after L'Oiseau Blanc went missing, and other fishermen are said to have dredged up aircraft wreckage over the years. Mr. Decré"s new search is the first to focus on St.-Pierre. The Coast Guard may prove to be a key to finding the plane. At the National Archives in Washington, Mr. Decré has unearthed a Coast Guard telegram from August 1927 describing what appeared to be the wreckage of a biplane wing floating off the Virginia coast. 'It is suggested to headquarters that this may be the wreck of the Nungesser Coli airplane,' it reads. That sighting would be in keeping with a crash off St.-Pierre. Mr Decré suspects that the Coast Guard plucked the wreckage from the water and that it is now resting forgotten in a warehouse, somewhere. 'We're sure they've got a piece of the wing,' he said. Many locals remain to be convinced that Mr. Decré's search will unearth anything at all. A reporter in the town described the story as a type of local 'Santa Claus tale', with some believing it to be true and others who remain sceptical. Some have even suggested that locals had invented memories of the plane, perhaps after reading about the fascinating tale over the years. Either way, Mr Decré shares the view of aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh, who completed his own solo flight from Paris to New York, just 12 days later. He wrote that Mr Nungesser and Mr Coli vanished 'like midnight ghosts,' He said. They may not have succeeded, but their daring ought to be celebrated.