There are two dive sites with sunken airplanes in Aruba. The most famous one is the Renaissance Airplane dive site and the other one is called the Arashi Airplane dive site. Our following blog will be about our Arashi airplane dive-stay tuned.
We did not get to dive at Renaissance airplane site. But in the spirit of sharing information, I thought I would still post about it with the hopes that one of you can dive it in the future. Matt and I tried to find this dive spot, looked at 4 different mooring sites where we thought it could be and never discovered the actual airplane wrecks. The maps all show different locations for this site which does not help either. So frustrating!
But, evidently, just in front of the Renaissance Island are two submerged planes. Aruba has intentionally sunk two airplanes an YS-11 and a DC-3 to help create an artificial reef. Many of the wrecks we have explored in Aruba have been intentionally sunk and are located in relatively shallow waters.
The DC-3 is a small aircraft at about 23 meters long and holding 40 seats. In the late 1980’s this plane was confiscated during a drug bust and later sunk by authorities. Originally it was sunk in fairly shallow waters, but in 1999 hurricane Lenny decided to find a better place for it in deeper waters – 28 meters and cut the fuselage into two big pieces. Several other pieces of the plane have been scattered around the sandy bottom reef called Sonesta coral reef.
DC3 Airplane wreck Aruba. Photo courtesy of AquaViews Online Scuba Magazine.
DC3_wreck_dive_aruba. Photo credit star5112.
The second airplane belonged to Air Aruba who donated it to the Aruba Water Sports Association in 2004. This plane was a Japanese turboprop passenger airliner that was laid to rest on the Sonesta reef. She is about 20 meters long and weighed close to 13 tons. The cool thing about this plane is that she landed with its nose in 13 meters of water and its tail section resting at the 28 meters of water so it gives you the impression it is ready for take off. The cockpit is still intact and provides for great photo opportunity.
Fuselage. Photo courtesy of AquaViews Online Scuba Magazine
I cannot tell you how disappointed I am that we could not find the Renaissance airplane dive site. I am sure we could have paid to go out with a dive group, but that just seems silly when we have all the gear and have found over 50 dives on our own. This was the first elusive dive spot and it did not help that the dive maps are inconsistent and vague at best. But nonetheless, it is a cool blog story and I found some great photos online. Hope you enjoyed it!
Why we couldn’t find the dive site:
Several days later, we went to get our scuba tanks filled at Aruba Watersports and found out that the moorings for the Renaissance airplane site broke off and are no longer visible. You have to go with a local dive group to do a drift dive in order to see the airplanes. Phew, at least we weren’t totally off the mark.