F-18 wreck off San Diego, CA?

[SoCalAngel]

Hey there,
My dive buddy was checking out a Franko's map of San Diego and noticed a
wreck site named "F-18" off Carmel Beach/ Del Mar. I don't have the map, but my buddy says the map makes it look to be in 100 ft of water and accessible from the beach. Does anyone have coordinates or more info on this?

Laurel

 

[DFC5343]

It isn't a F-18 fighter. We recover all that fall.

 

[SoCalAngel]

What do you mean by "we recover all." Does that mean the Navy salvages the entire plane? I've dove the P-38 (still has guns and shells) off Torrey Pines in 135 ft. and an F4U Corsair (a couple of ordinance boxes around it, but no engine) in 75 ft off Crystal Cove. I've also heard rumors of an F-4 Phantom, a B-36, and several others. It doesn't seem the Navy is too hot to recover these.

It does make sense that the Navy would recover, but how would one find out?

Laurel

 

[rjens]

What do you mean by "we recover all." Does that mean the Navy salvages the entire plane?

I would assume he was referring to all military aircraft with advanced avionics, e-warfare, ordinance built into the Navy's current inventory of Hornets, Prowlers, etc.

I've dove the P-38 (still has guns and shells) off Torrey Pines in 135 ft. and an F4U Corsair (a couple of ordinance boxes around it, but no engine) in 75 ft off Crystal Cove. I've also heard rumors of an F-4 Phantom, a B-36, and several others.

While these were cool planes for their time, the didn't have the same air-supremacy that the current planes have.

This does make me wonder... I remember that back in 1981 a Prowler (the EA6B Prowler is an electronic warfare jet) pilot (a marine with under 100 landings) blew his landing on the Nimitz and crashed into several other planes. If I remember the story right a missle went off killing and/or injuring more than a few sailors, in the process of fighting the fire they ended up pushing the Prowler and 2 other aircraft (about $120 million worth of prime military assets) off the flight deck into the ocean.

DFC5343, do you (or anyone else) remember this, and do you know if they were able to recover these jets. I would assume they did, because at one point the Prowler was so classified you couldn't even take a picture of the cockpit. OTOH, after the fire, there may not have been much to recover.

I was just wondering, as I read about this accident while preparing to head to Quantico with a Pilot slot (NPQ 8th week -- life goes on) and was reading anything and everything about Marine Aviation -- this was not one of their finer moments.

Thanks,
RJ

 

[Knavey]

We lost a couple of planes over the side when I was sailing the big blue seas, and I recall one of them was about 60 million and change. EA-6B had a arresting cable break upon landing and ended up in the drink. Pilots got out, and I suspect one of the first things they looked at was how deep it was under the keel. If it was a couple thousand feet, I bet they let it go. If it was recoverable, you can bet your next breath that they had DFC or one of his buddies down there. WAY too much gear on that thing that too many bad guys would like to have.

BIG difference between your pre-Peacemaker planes and the ones that routinely go in the drink now. Not only in terms of $$ but also in terms of intel.

I sure would like to dive that B-36. There is one at Wright Patt AFB in Ohio. One of the biggest planes you ever saw. If memory serves, it had the largest tire ever made for a plane put on it...before they went to multiple tires on a landing gear. Anyone ever gets a chance to go through Dayton Ohio, DO NOT pass up the chance to see your tax dollars at work at Wright Patt. Its better than the Smithsonian, if you are interested in military aviation. Takes a couple of days to see it all, and then you realize that there is more inside the gate. They actually had a second museum that not many people went to, that had all of the old Air Force One planes, and a bunch of planes they were restoring.

Well worth the visit.

Oh well, got sidetracked.

 

[DFC5343]

You all are right. Back then weapons were the biggest worry. Now...technology. Our aircraft electronic technology of today falls into the wrong hands...and it has happened...it would be a diaster. We actually helped the chinese inadvertantly with their space program when one of our satellite carrying rockets went haywire. They picked up the pieces, studied all the chunks and wala...chinese space program success.

 

[Knavey]

Of course, it didn't help that we landed a P-3 intel plane on the doorstep of the Chinese also. I always wondered if the statememnt that they released to the media about the quality of the electronics in the plane being the newest stuff was BS.

One one side...you tell them they are now in possession of the latest and greatest electronics gear - and the plane has 5 year old stuff in it so they think you are not as advanced as you really are.

Or you tell them that its an older version of the gear even though the stuff is out of Star Trek, and that makes them wonder about what you are REALLY capapble of. Oh well, thats a question that we will probably never know the answer to. What we do know is that it was an intel coup for them no matter what version electronics was on that plane.

You can bet that if it would have gone down into the drink, it would have been a race to see who would have pulled it up first.

 

[rjens]

The Glomar Explorer is an ugly boat with an interesting history floating in the mothball fleet near Benicia. Figured a historical reference to this CIA effort fit in this thread.

Speaking of the mothball fleet, I wish the govt would sink a few of them in interesting places on the west coast.

RJ

 

[scubasean]

Speaking of the mothball fleet, I wish the govt would sink a few of them in interesting places on the west coast.

RJ

I don't care if the location is interesting, so long as it is diveable...

I'd definitely appreciate diving some of those "wrecks"...My wreck expoerience is a total of two dives long (dived the Yukon and the Ruby E in San diego a month ago.) but it was a blast....

 

[scubadude010]

If you are willing to travel a great distance, go to Island Bikini where the Atomic Bomb was set off, I believe, in 1946. Forgive me if I'm wrong with the date. But anyways, when it was set off, we destroyed a couple of subs, an aircraft carrier, and a few battleships. They were all U.S. and Japanese I think. If you don't know where Island Bikini is, it's in the Pacific Ocean in between the U.S. and Japan. I'd love to go wreck dive there, however; I would still be afraid of radioactivity in the water, even though some people have dived it. I'd definetly think about going there one day!