Turkey Sinks Airbus Jet to Attract Scuba Divers

What do you do with the shell of an A300 Airbus jet? You sink it to the bottom of the ocean invite divers to swim around it. 

That’s the plan for the country of Turkey, which recently sunk the airbus in the Aegean seaa off the resort of Kusadasi about 50 miles south of Izmir. 

RELATED: Watch Skydivers in Extreme Plane Crash Caught on Tape

The plane, about 177 feet long with a wingspan of about 135 feet, promises to be a popular attraction for scuba divers. It won’t take long before the natural environment takes over and consumes the wreck with underwater flora and fauna. 

Shipwrecks and aircraft have long been popular diving destinations. Some put there on purpose, others by tragic accidents. Once underwater they become magnets for sea creatures.

During the sinking of the airbus in Turkey over the weekend, hundreds of people watched from nearby boats.

“Our goal is to make Kuşadası a centre of diving tourism,” Aydin’s mayor, Özlem Çerçioğlu, said, according to The Guardian. “Our goal is to protect the underwater life. And with these goals in mind, we have witnessed one of the biggest wrecks in the world.”

This recent plane marks the fourth small plane sunk of Turkish resorts in recent years.

© Whitcomberd | Dreamstime.com – SCUBA divers explore the wreck of an aircraft