Wreckage of a Korean War-era plane found

In the waters surrounding San Diego, near the place called Mission Beach, two friends found the wreckage of an aircraft while diving. It turned out to be the remains of an American Douglas A-1 Skyraider from the Korean War, a conflict that took place between 1950 and 1953.

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During a recreational dive, Dennis Burns and Dr. Ruth Yu came across the wreckage of an aircraft at a depth of about 18m, which, after careful investigation, turned out to be an American AD-4L machine, designed for winter fighting during the Korean War. It was the distinctive armament of this version (4 x 20mm, 2 on each wing), that helped in the rapid identification.

“Dennis and I have dived in many places around the world and found only rubbish and tins. We didn’t expect that the biggest treasure we would find was almost in our backyard!” – Dr Ruth Yu explained.

As for the wreck itself, it has been established that this is the craft that crashed during a landing attempt in 1963 and has spent the last 52 years at the bottom. The situation seems to be all the more unusual, as the place where it was found is one of the most popular training locations. So it is hard to imagine that no one has come across the wreck in the last half century. As for the pilot of the unlucky AD-4L, he emerged from the accident unscathed and returned to duty the same day.

“I spoke on the phone with the daughter of the pilot who was driving the machine on the day of the crash. It turned out that her mother was 8 months pregnant with her when the accident occurred, while her father was flying planes over the ocean. After the accident, he was taken to hospital, but tests showed no ill health and he returned to his unit the same day. As if nothing had happened! We are going to meet soon and dive on the wreck together,” reports Dennis Burns.

The Skyrider itself was quite an interesting craft. Very well armed, piloted by a one-man crew, it was one of the last propeller-driven, piston combat aircraft used in the world. Assault machines of this type remained in service with the US Air Force from 1946 until the late 1970s. A total of 3180 were produced in several versions.

The exact position of the wreck has not been disclosed. Authorities are asking the diving community to temporarily refrain from exploring the wreck until all activities have been carried out to document and secure the find.

Source: fox5sandiego.com