Randy Jordan found WWII era airplane wreck off Jupiter

[Reef_Haven]

Randy and some tech diver friends have been investigating a WWII era airplane wreck they found earlier this week. It was discovered at 185' depth, about 4 miles East of Jupiter. Some are speculating it could be one of the 5 lost Avengers from Flight 19. Pretty cool discussions on Spearboard and on Emerald's Facebook page.
Randy's video[video=youtube;8Tm0dwIZlEQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tm0dwIZlEQ&feature=player_embedded[/video]
Here's another video of DumpsterDiver and his buddy taking measurements.
[video=youtube;uZJ0byuTVqU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZJ0byuTVqU[/video]

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Yea that was a great find for him and his buddy's.

 

[MRTdiver]

I couldn't help but notice all the Lionfish. I hope they dispatched them. :comeandgetsome:

 

[mselenaous]

Here's the local news article:
Scuba divers discover airplane submerged off coast of Palm Beach County

[h=1]Scuba divers discover airplane submerged off coast of Palm Beach County[/h]
[h=2]Divers say plane may be from WWII[/h]


Read more: Scuba divers discover airplane submerged off coast of Palm Beach County
​

• By: Dan Corcoran

JUPITER, Fla. - It was supposed to be a typical scuba dive. Randy Jordan, owner of Emerald Charters in Jupiter, grabbed his gear and ferried a small group of divers to a spot about four miles east of the Jupiter Inlet. "Completely random drop and the captain just dropped us right on it," said Jordan. "It was just totally by accident."

The group dove about 185 feet to the ocean floor.
"We get down to the bottom and I see some fish that are swimming over to the right and I followed them," said Jordan. "They swam right up to this airplane. It was the most amazing thing."
Right in front of them, Jordan said, were the remains of an aircraft. "When you backed up, you said 'that's an airplane,' " he said.
Underwater video taken by Jordan shows the aircraft upside-down on the ocean floor. "The wings were intact, the tail was intact and if you go to the front of it, the engine's there and the propellers," he said.

Jordan sent his images to the Warbird Information Exchange , an online source for historical aviation information. Experts there told Jordan that the submerged aircraft could be a Curtiss Helldiver SBC2. Some of those airplanes flew in the early 1940s during World War II.
"I thought, that's pretty cool. 'Helldiver' is the name of something a bunch of divers would find," said Jordan. "It's never been discovered before so somebody's looking for it."

No representatives from the U.S. Military have been out to examine the aircraft wreckage. The group of divers plans to be in talks with the military, in hopes that someone can provide answers about this discovery off the coast of Palm Beach County.
Copyright 2011 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.





Read more: Scuba divers discover airplane submerged off coast of Palm Beach County​

 

[Peter_C]

What an awesome find. Hopefully they are able to figure out the story behind the plane. Someone needs to run a magnetometer over the area and see if there are any other planes around. If it was the squadron they would all be pretty close together. Of course this plane could have also just been dumped off a ship to dispose of it.

The ropes on the prop, are they from fishing nets or something else?

Here's another video of the tech divers taking measurements.

Not to be too picky but I sure wouldn't use the term "tech diver" for a guy diving a single tank (Albeit with a pony) and I didn't see a stage bottle, to 185' with a snorkel? Split fins are not used by any tech divers I know either.

 

[aquaregia]

Is that tank setup common down there? At first I thought it was CCR but now it looks like a 15L steel and a pair of 40s? One perhaps with a rich mix?

 

[tflaris]

Congrats. By description anything over 130' by most dive agencies would be a technical dive.

Getting the popcorn ready now.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[tekkydiver]

Not to be too picky but I sure wouldn't use the term "tech diver" for a guy diving a single tank (Albeit with a pony) and I didn't see a stage bottle, to 185' with a snorkel? Split fins are not used by any tech divers I know either.

I'm going to thank you on behalf of all the "real" tech divers out there (of which I am not). Clearly this diver is out of uniform! Perhaps if he called it an expedition, called himself a master diver, brought along 10 other rebreather divers, a documentary channel film crew, discussed at length how they risked their lives..... and came up empty handed.... then maybe.....

 

[VooDooGasMan]

The tech dive was to find a deeper ledge and they run across the plane then, and then randy went back with his friends to measure.

Regardless what randy and his friends are wearing they are spearos that dive deep and are more than qualified in the diving they do.

Randy say's if you are qualified to dive 185' he will take you out to it.

From what I remember from looking at boat with numbers on it, randy is a commercial spearfisherman.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

And I guess if there is to be a debate on tech diving I am sure schubasteve will be along as he was one of the divers.