Scuttled Flying Boats

George thank you for introducing me to the excellent resource that is canmore.org. Many, many hours of late night/early morning browsing there. :eagerness:

A pilot as we were flying in a Puma from macrahanish past bass rock mentioned some were scuttled near there, whether true or not I do not know.

Here we go. Not the original site but you get the idea.

http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MDV71238&resourceID=104

Many years ago I read a report of aircraft hulks to be found in Bigbury Bay, Devon. This was on the old Divernet website. Not sure if anything is there. I would be interested to find out.

https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/diving-mission-to-locate-war-plane-1-1854971

“In August 1945 large contracts were cancelled, the last Sunderland coming from Belfast in June 1946, where as at Dumbarton, some dozens of new boats were packed with new military equipment and deliberately sunk shortly after the end of the war”

I have no idea where these boats were sunk, but I am assuming somewhere in the River Clyde area.

Stuart

I see the old bv222 thread mentions a bv222 scuttled not far from trondheim (supposedly near monks island which happens to briefly be in shot on the blue eye robotics film.. and that halifax in a nearby fjord IIRC. plenty to explore round Trondheim with those drones!

That would fit as I had it down as a mk III or V

I believe the Sunderland in the video by Blueye Robotics is EJ138 near Trondheim. It has featured in a couple of other videos by ROV’s and on a couple of wreck dive sites.

From the Old Man’s RAF log book; He was the WOM on Sunderland PP126, which they ferried from Koggala Creek to Wig bay. Departed Koggala 29/10/46, arrived Wig bay 06/11/46. On deplaning, he said it was towed out and scuttled……

Michel
I think clues in the video suggest it is a Sunderland, five port hole windows and flat panels for flight deck glazing are visible, Sandringham’s had curved flight deck screens and four port holes, it also appears to have a glazed tail turret, Sandringhams had a streamlined fairing where the turret had been.

Richard

Could it not be a Sunderland? Looks like this one

http://www.aussieairliners.org/shortfb/vh-bre/vhbre.html

or

http://traveloscopy.com/CMS/content/view/1172/28/

Superb Sunderland video Scotavia. The company is based in Norway so the Sunderland must be nearby. I think it must have been scuttled as the working platforms are extended and the engines were removed…

Thanks Gents,
That’s really interesting. The Sunderland in the Video looks in remarkable condition.
I suspect that there are many more around the Globe in similar condition.
Thanks for posting.

This one perhaps, I have no idea of location but there are above water views….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7MQ2vutw4U and a HE115 which is in Norway https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTtJIbk3-Xc

I remember seeing some underwater footage of a complete Sunderland in Norway some years ago in the German magazine FLugzeug Classic. After removal of useful parts it was sunk and very complete.
Cees

Salvage took place in many of the sheltered sites in regards to flying boats despite listings of losses. In the case of two off Invergordon they were demolished by explosives as they were obstructing a shipping channel. The sites of large ships and aircraft inland and inshore have been found and picked over.Well thats my view from looking at reports over the last 40 years. https://blogs.wessexarch.co.uk/aircraftcrashsitesatsea/about-the-project/