We were determined to find a sunken plane in Aruba. The Renaissance airplane search was a complete bust, so we decided to find the Arashi airplane wreck near the NW point of the island.
The world wide web provided limited information on the Arashi plane wreck. The internet “said” that there used to be two airplanes at this dive site. A small Lockheed LoneStar and a twin engine Beechcraft. Evidently the LoneStar has disintegrated and is no longer visible, but the Beechcraft is supposed to be sitting in 10 meters of water. The web also stated that the “basic Beechcraft airplane” is supposed to be in tact, but its propellers had fallen off. And you know the that “everything on the web is the truth.”
Loaded with excitement we headed to the dive site. At this point we were going to burn the rest of air no matter what, airplane siteing or not. Surely there is something to see.
I jumped in with my mask and to my utter surprise I saw an airplane propeller so I declared, “this is it, we found the Arashi plane!” We quickly suited up and headed toward the two propellers that were strewn across the ocean floor. They were fairly close to each other, covered in sea life with a few fish swimming around.
Airplane Propeller
Another airplane propeller
Airplane wheel and tire
A little further away was a third propeller still attached to the engine. Not sure whose prop this was as a twin engine Beechcraft would only have two, not three. Perhaps it belonged to the other airplane that disintegrated, but then why would the propeller still be here? Strange.
We swam around the area in search of the rest of the plane wreck and to our disappointment there was nothing else there except the 3 propellers. Shooooot! How do you count 3 propellers as a plane wreck dive? Maybe it should be called the Arashi propeller dive?
Something else to see?
We took some fun photos of the sea life, which was not abundant, but pretty none the less.
This reminded me of Charlie Brown
Sorry about the coloring, but this was pretty in real life
A few fish hanging out by the propeller
Same two played to the camera.
This beautiful bubbly purple stuff grew all over the coral in Aruba. We did not see it in Bonaire.
Starting this dive with less than a half of tank of air (Matt had 1800 and I had 1500), we knew it needed to be short. After 35 minutes, at 800 PSI, we decided to head back to the dinghy. On the ascention, I was looking around and what did I see – an 8′ green moray eel swimming around!
During the day, moray eels are utually hidden in a rock with just their head sticking out giving menacing looks. I had never seen one swimming around and certainly not one this big. Matt went after him to get some photos and he quickly hid under a rock. We hung out for awhile and decided to go up. As Matt was stowing his gear in the dinghy I took one last look below and saw him swimming away on the hunt for some lunch.
