In 2013, a fisherman on the east coast of Sri Lanka named Wasantha Kumara from Kalkudah discovered strange metal wreckage when he pulled up his fishing net. He suspected that it could be a part of an aircraft fuselage. After establishing contact with Wasantha, he indicated the location where he found the wreckage.
.On the 21st of November 2014, amidst a strong current, I descended the anchor line towards the unknown, where a sonar echo scan indicated the presence of a subterranean object 42m below. Previous expert explorations have ended up finding a rocky reef many times, sometimes with excellent marine life around it.
After an hour of echo scanning the sea bed and finding nothing of interest, I had almost given up, and the boat, too, was drifting idle in the currents. Suddenly the visual display of the sonar started spiking. Right below me was something on the sea bed. Thinking it was a rocky reef, suspiciously, I threw the anchor. In just a few seconds, wasn't I surprised! The anchor hooked, and the boat held position.
The depth here was 42m, and fortunately, I was prepared for a Tec Dive with three tanks. I quickly don up and dive. With little expectations, I continue the descent down when suddenly, at 38 meters, I see a shadow form, an unnaturally straight line where nature rarely produces straight lines. I left the anchor line and swam suspiciously towards it, and it took me to a wind of an aircraft.
It is an aircraft, indeed. Wasantha had been right!
But this was just one wing of the aircraft; one long wing perhaps, about 12m long. I soon grabbed my camera and started snapping all evidence that I saw and continued to swim the length of the wing; in the vicinity soon discovered a debris field consisting of a large wheel and parts of the undercarriage. To the left of it, I was stunned to see a piece of what looked like a part of an engine. Then a propeller! And further away to the right, another wheel!
I wasn't surprised that the site was full of stunning Blue Striped Snappers. It is challenging to study the features of the wing because of the profusion of fish. Two large groups of blue-stripped snappers study me intently. Where one group was more extensive than the other, unlike other sites I've been to, they aren't afraid of me. It could also be that it isn't the first time they are seeing a human being.
Moving my attention towards the aircraft wing
At first, I immediately thought that this was one of the Japanese VAL bombers shot down by the valiant gunner of the British Sergeant who was at his post until the very end. Also, the wreck of the British Sergeant lies about 15KM to the north. That seems a long distance, but how could there be any other plane? While exploring the site, I found another propeller and engine nearby. It confirms to me that the site had a crash of a plane with twin engines.
So I ended my dive there and swam back up to the boat. So curious to solve a mysterious story.According to my knowledge, VAL's, Kate's and Zeros were single-engine aircraft. For weeks I read many articles and records about aircraft crashes, including losses from the 1960s. None of the aircraft types matched the features of the wreck. So Frustrated, I posted all pictures I snapped during my dive on Facebook, seeking help and answers, only hoping that it would pay off. A person who sees my post suggests that it could be a Catalina, and suddenly everything falls into place!
Amazingly, every feature is accounted for and matches the Consolidated Catalina PBY-5A model. These features include the wheels, details on the propeller hub, the engine type, what seems to be the engineer's window and a structure beneath the wing. This structure turns out to be Catalina's Metric Wave Radar with Dipole Antennas. In fact, the Catalina was one of the first US aircraft to carry these types of Radar. Further in my research, I find that a PBY-5A from a World War II Dutch RAF Squadron crashed precisely in the location of the Catalina crash site. It had been on a night mission on the 9th of December 1943 when an engine failure caused it to abort the mission 1.5 hours into the flight and crash into the sea. The entire crew of 11 survived in one of the dinghies, where they had managed to salvage from the plane before it sank within an hour. The survivors reached shore 80KM from the China Bay Air force base. The line of sight distance from China bay to the crash site is about 85KM.
The story was a mystery, but our investigation continued.
On the 13th of January 2015, Dive Sri Lanka's investigation was successfully confirmed by an expert panel set up at the request of the Dutch Ambassador to Sri Lanka. The panel included Catalina expert Prudent Staal at the Lelystad Airport in the Netherlands and former commander Anne van Dijk, chairman of the Foundation "Friends of the Historic Chamber of the Netherlands Naval Air Service".The critical pieces of evidence are,
a) The type of aircraft found b) The location c) The nature of the damage and a final key detail d) Before the plane crashed, the port side engine had a loss of oil pressure, and the propeller position was "feathered" (i.e. set parallel to the airflow) to reduce resistance. e)At the wreck site - one of the propellers was in a "feathered" position and the other in a "normal" position consistent with the crash account issued by the crew. Further, here are my images during my dive.
.jpg)
