( CNN ) -- Penny Malphrus got her long-awaited answer in the form of a one sentence text message : `` We had a productive day and determined the engine contained a two bladed propeller . '' It was not what Malphrus wanted to hear ; nevertheless , she was prepared for it . Malphrus had been hoping to learn if plane wreckage recently discovered eight floors below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean , 20 miles off the coast of St. Augustine , Florida , was her father 's twin engine Piper Aerostar which disappeared without a trace one February night 16 years ago . Joe Kistel , a marine conservationist and the executive director of an artificial reef building company in Jacksonville , led a dive last weekend to search for clues . `` I personally felt bad that we were not able help her further in her journey for closure at this point , '' Kistel said later . `` I had prepared myself for the news that it may not be my Dad 's plane , '' Malphrus admitted . `` It is very comforting and refreshing to know there are people like Joe out there that have the kind of heart to want to help someone that may need answers . Joe Kistel and his team have brought me closer to finding this thing called closure . '' Kistel found himself in the middle of this aviation puzzle purely by happenstance . During a dive last month to map a site for artificial reefs , he discovered the plane wreckage : tires , turbine blade , a pair of engines and other parts . Malphrus heard about Kistel 's find and drove from her home in Hilton Head , South Carolina to meet him and learn more . See the photos and videos . Two diving teams comprised of eight people went down on Sunday morning . Kistel 's goal was to lift one of the two engines buried 75 % in the sandy sea floor . He and his group wanted to figure out how many blades were on the propeller . If there were three blades , there was still a chance it was the plane belonging to Malphrus ' father . The first diving team consisted of Kistel , photographer Larry Davis and lift bag operators Ed Kalakauskis and Nate Tucei . The second dive team included Jack Leone , Emily Leone and Dane Shields who went along to observe . The conditions were favorable although the water a bit murky when the first team dove around 8:30am carrying two lift bags , one for each buried engine located about 40 feet apart . Kistel said , `` For safety reasons and to avoid the possibility of the engine drifting off and being lost , I connected a 50 foot tether line between the two engines . '' It did n't take long for the inflatable lift bag to raise the approximate 400 pound engine from its resting spot . `` When the engine ripped out of the ground from the brute force created by the lift bag it shot up until the tether caught it , '' Kistel recounted . Immediately , the search teams saw it was a two bladed prop with stamped numbers 15911 imprinted in the metal . Using the information , Kistel contacted Hartzell Propeller Inc. , an Ohio-based designer and manufacturer of propellers . Kevin Ryan , a technical support employee at Hartzell , said , `` It 's not the first time '' someone has contacted him to help solve an aviation mystery . Using the underwater pictures taken by Kistel 's dive team , Ryan determined the propeller was likely made on January 3 , 1968 and shipped to a Piper aircraft company in Pennsylvania . `` If 15911 is the correct factory number , the prop is an HC-E2YK-1RB/8465-7R . It 's an Aztec prop , and we sold it to Piper in Lock Haven , so it could be original equipment on the aircraft , '' Ryan said . `` We sent a truckload of propellers to Lock Haven where they bolted propellers to new planes , '' he said . But that 's about as far as he could go in determining who owned the plane . `` It 's like Nike sending shoes to Joe 's Shoe Store and then calling Nike and asking them who owns a certain pair of shoes , '' he explained . With the information provided by Ryan , Kistel has also reached out to the Piper Aircraft company as well as the National Transportation Safety Board . `` Having a definitive answer as to what may have happened in February of 1996 would answer a lot of questions in my mind and others , '' Malphrus said . `` Have I found peace ? Yes , '' she emailed . `` I even have asked myself what would closure be ? Is that something that happens and then you let go of the past ? I hope not . My Dad is a huge part of who I am . '' And so Malphrus is left pondering the same questions . Whose plane did Kistel 's team find and will the wreckage of her father 's plane ever be found ? How the journey began .
Pilot Stewart Dunbar disappeared off Florida coast in 1996 . Daughter had hoped wreckage would bring closure in father 's disappearance . The recovered evidence suggests the sunken plane was not Dunbar 's .