WWII Plane wreck dive sites in the Pacific?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

At least four aircraft wrecks in Subic Bay, Philippines.

L2D Tabby, Japanese copy of the C47 at 42m
Skyraider at 35m
F4 Phantom at 40m
AJ2 Savage at 70m

The latter two are just at the outside of the bay and need decent weather to dive, which unfortunately during my visit a few years ago I was unable to do. The Tabby and Skyraider though are nice dives.

Edited to add:

Sorry all but one are post WWII
 
 
Astounding resolution in the 3D Dauntless model, had fun rotating and zooming... thanks for posting @bakodiver391!
Do you think it better to dive the aircraft graveyard from Kwajalein Dive Center or as part of a Bikini Atoll liveaboard trip?
 
Several trips since 1972. Never saw any aircraft underwater. I dove with Kimeo Isaak, maybe he didn’t know of aircraft in the start of dive travel there? We were heliox, interested in the i169 and so we spent limited BTs? Never saw an aircraft.

Terrestrial yes, overgrown in dense vegetation, a few that were destroyed or abandioned while parked. I hear they are now guided stops on ground tours.

In PNG and Bouganville, Hebrides, islets along “the Slot”, yes, many but lying very shallow in 1972 observable and identifiable as aircraft i doubt many remain due to ground swell over the many storms.

We are now in the historical era of metalurgy coalescing with salt water imersion and the passage of time. This is disspperaing from the corporeal world.

Your experience will be very different than mine, but no less valuable and i hope no less emotional than feeling for a moment that physical instant in time when lives were altered.
Not sure how you have visited several times and do not know about the aircraft there. There are a couple of Zeros, a Betty bomber and an Emily flying boat. See below to links on my website about planes there and the others I will mention below.

In Palau there is a Zero, in PNG there are a B-17, a Havoc, a Catalina, a Thunderbolt, a B-25, a Jake, a Pete and a Kate. In the Solomons there are a few Mavis flying boats, a B-17, a Hellcat, a Zero and a Catalina. In Vanuatu there is a Qantas Sandringham (not WWII but same as Sunderland).

I have dived all the above except the PNG B-17 and my website page has links to articles about all of them. See Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving Web Site
 
Astounding resolution in the 3D Dauntless model, had fun rotating and zooming... thanks for posting @bakodiver391!
Do you think it better to dive the aircraft graveyard from Kwajalein Dive Center or as part of a Bikini Atoll liveaboard trip?
It is very difficult to dive based from the land. Kwajalein Army base is a high-tech missile test range, and of course they are very concerned about security. There is a dive club on Roi-Namur island that is only a few miles from the aircraft graveyard, but the security issues are the same. You could get a couple of dives in on the way to Bikini on the liveaboard. Back when i was working on a Bikini liveaboard, we had a group book an entire week at the Aircraft graveyard, and had a very productive trip. That would be a dream trip, get a dozen like-minded divers together and book the entire liveaboard for a week at the graveyard.
BTW, do a search on the construkted reality website, there are more Kwajalein aircraft models.
 
Not sure how you have visited several times and do not know about the aircraft there.

51 additional years of exploration (and technology) tends to allow for discoveries. Explorers who come before merely mark the path while furtively looking over their shoulders. I am envious of your aircraft encounters. I do know you can no longer follow my, nor Kimeo’s bubbles, inside the i169. The last i saw her, fresh welds were on the hatches of this war grave. I am told that she has collapsed to the extent that this former entry is encrusted and unrecognizable.

You’re young? Blaze yet another path, show the next generation what they may see.

Fortune favors the brave.
 
51 additional years of exploration (and technology) tends to allow for discoveries. Explorers who come before merely mark the path while furtively looking over their shoulders. I am envious of your aircraft encounters. I do know you can no longer follow my, nor Kimeo’s bubbles, inside the i169. The last i saw her, fresh welds were on the hatches of this war grave. I am told that she has collapsed to the extent that this former entry is encrusted and unrecognizable.

You’re young? Blaze yet another path, show the next generation what they may see.

Fortune favors the brave.
Not sure that anyone would consider me young. First dived Chuuk in 1991 and went back five times. I think I would be disappointed with the diving now, saw it at its best.
 
I'm currently in Luganville, Vanuatu diving the Coolidge and the various airplane wrecks with Aore Adventures. So far we have dived a PBY Catalina, a Grumman Duck (I understand these two were only located quite recently by Sealark Exploration supported by Aore Adventures), and a Dauntless. Will be diving a Corsair and a Wildcat as well this week. While it may not be a premier airplane diving destination like Kwaj or Truk, on the plus side virtually all the wrecks are within a couple minutes of the resort. Plus getting to Luganville is far less expensive/a chore that some other destinations. And obviously you have the Coolidge and Tucker right there as well, nuff said!
 
New technology
New discoveries

Now in its 12th season, Expedition Unknown has been a popular show on the Discovery Channel hosted by historian Josh Gates. An exciting watch is the season premiere episode, “Missing Heroes of World War II,” which aired on Wednesday, November 15 at 9 PM ET/PT on Discovery Channel.

 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

Back
Top Bottom