Lake Washington is one of the Puget Sound region's wreck diving hot spots partially due to the Naval Air Station which existed at Sand Point (now Magnusen Park and a NOAA facility). There are numerous aircraft in the lake, mostly in technical depths. One of the more significant ones is PB4Y number 59695, which was a naval version of a B24. This PB4Y gently crashed in 1956 after accidentally conducting a no-flap take off. The navy salvaged her but broke a shackle while she was on the surface again. This broke off her 2 inboard engines and she sank back into 150ffw. At that point the navy abandoned salvage operations, although they still own the plane and salvage is prohibited.
She's been dove for many years by boat. During the winter of 2008, Ben McGeever and James Novares laid a line to her from shore and since that time she's been seasonally divable from shore. The entry is very close to a boat ramp and with summer boat traffic most divers wisely avoid scootering her from shore in the summertime.
The PB4Y was my first deco dive ever in 2005 (a GUE Tech1 experience dive), my first scooter dive ever in 2008 (borrowing prototype X-scooter number 000 aka "the silver bullet"), and now I've done her as an after work (deco) dive.
She's taken a few hits over the past 5+ years. There are a few more holes in the elevators (which are thin fabric) from poor anchoring/shot line practices (I use 6lbs of soft ankle weights). The port side outboard engine has fallen off its mounts and is laying prop down in the silt now. There's a line attached one of the 50cal guns on the nose which should probably be removed and/or rerouted.
She's in 150ffw, as you can see vis is generally poor, its silty. We use 21/35 trimix and EAN50 for this dive. The initial picture in the video is not this actual plane, I cannot find a pic of this plane in her native 1956 condition. The picture is one of her 738 sister planes. The most significant difference is that PB4Y 59695 has no top gun turrets, the port and starboard tail blister guns were removed by 1956, and as mentioned the inboard engines broke off in the salvage attempt. She's still a huge aircraft, originally having 11 crew, with a length of 75ft and a wingspan of 110ft.
Several PB4Ys are modified and still flying as forest fire fighting tankers. There are also a few in various states of restoration to WW2 fighting specifications.
My video is done with a CSI scooter cam which is basically a point of view camera on my scooter, a bit hard to hand-hold and lighting for it is challenging. Nevertheless I think this video turned out pretty well. The music is the 1990s LA grunge band, Social Distortion. "Ball & Chain" made me imagine having to man the gun turrets for hours and hours.
PB4Y-2 on Vimeo
She's been dove for many years by boat. During the winter of 2008, Ben McGeever and James Novares laid a line to her from shore and since that time she's been seasonally divable from shore. The entry is very close to a boat ramp and with summer boat traffic most divers wisely avoid scootering her from shore in the summertime.
The PB4Y was my first deco dive ever in 2005 (a GUE Tech1 experience dive), my first scooter dive ever in 2008 (borrowing prototype X-scooter number 000 aka "the silver bullet"), and now I've done her as an after work (deco) dive.
She's taken a few hits over the past 5+ years. There are a few more holes in the elevators (which are thin fabric) from poor anchoring/shot line practices (I use 6lbs of soft ankle weights). The port side outboard engine has fallen off its mounts and is laying prop down in the silt now. There's a line attached one of the 50cal guns on the nose which should probably be removed and/or rerouted.
She's in 150ffw, as you can see vis is generally poor, its silty. We use 21/35 trimix and EAN50 for this dive. The initial picture in the video is not this actual plane, I cannot find a pic of this plane in her native 1956 condition. The picture is one of her 738 sister planes. The most significant difference is that PB4Y 59695 has no top gun turrets, the port and starboard tail blister guns were removed by 1956, and as mentioned the inboard engines broke off in the salvage attempt. She's still a huge aircraft, originally having 11 crew, with a length of 75ft and a wingspan of 110ft.
Several PB4Ys are modified and still flying as forest fire fighting tankers. There are also a few in various states of restoration to WW2 fighting specifications.
My video is done with a CSI scooter cam which is basically a point of view camera on my scooter, a bit hard to hand-hold and lighting for it is challenging. Nevertheless I think this video turned out pretty well. The music is the 1990s LA grunge band, Social Distortion. "Ball & Chain" made me imagine having to man the gun turrets for hours and hours.
PB4Y-2 on Vimeo
Last edited:
