WIX Archives

Great Barrier Reef wrecks, what is true?

Posted by Cees Broere on Thu Oct 17, 2002 02:35:07 AM

Hi all,

We all know that several years ago there was a lot of excitement about the hundreds of aircraft dumped in the sea off Australia such as Seafires, Spitfires, Mustangs, Hellcats etc you name them.

There were also rumours that several complete aircraft had been recovered such as a perfectly preserved Mustang in a crate which had been transported still in its crate by helicopter etc. Also that the Australian Navy had closed off the location to prevent anyone from recovering anything.

This topic has also been discussed before on this board but what has really been discovered/recovered?

AFAIK there were remains of an Avenger as well as a Corsair of which only the centresection was recognisable, so not much usable material. What was the role of Bootstrap Aviation. Are there any actions still being planned to recover airframes and what is still down there?

Does any of our Aussie contributors have any info on this or will this just slip into history as a legend/myth and be dreamed about for decades to come until we have all become sick of it?

A bit heavy for this time of the morning but let's get this board fired up today.

Cheers

Cees

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