WWII Lost B26 found

[CBulla]

Thanks for the props! I try to share the cool stuff as it relates to diving and things we can enjoy. I'll see what can be learned about this location as a dive spot.

There are more planes and wrecks in the Gulf, supposedly even a German Sub off Sanibel or Captiva area.. until its found, its all rumor. There is evidence of Germans having come ashore and traded, however, and that is well documented.

 

[sglake]

I love all these little tidbits of history and personal stories, especially when it is local and starts jogging peoples memories with more stories! Keep it up and keep sharing.

 

[sporket]

Great story, thanks for sharing.

 

[Likes2Cruise]

I want to dive this also! My father flew as top turret gunner for 40 missions over southern Italy during WW II. He also did some of his training at Ft. Meyers. Would be a very interesting piece of history to get to dive that.

 

[Faust]

Its funny , when I saw this story in the News press Saturday , I thought man they found something cool down in the Keys. As I read I realized 2 things , first was that I had , had a number of conversations with the gentleman who funded this little adventure . And Second that we have been diving/spearing this wreck for at least 15 years, it nothing new . dude spent a lot of time , money and effort on an ollllllldddd rumor that some one screwed up (will come back to that ). Dont get me wrong its cool that some one has IDed the wreck but I find it highly suspect that there was any remains on the wreck or documented deaths here . Now for the Cuban gold story, some of the training for the Invasion for the Bay Of Pigs took place in this area ( we know this to be true, can find doc's ect.) I have been told that due to the covert nature of this operation there were odd flights , coming from Miami and Cuba over to the Out Islands around Sanibel / Captiva some (2 that I know of / one of which I have dove) went down . The second of the 2 was found just before Andrew hit , by a guy named Don Johnson but he was never able to secure the funding to keep up the operations. I think this was the origination for the 'Cuba Gold ". One of the local stories that had been substantiated was that during the Civil War a payroll ship had to put in to Boca Grand carrying a full load. This supposedly went down within site of Boca grand but nothing has ever been recovered. Moral Of the story is that if you find something really cool , do your research first before you call the press ;-)

 

[CBulla]

Sooo Faust - how many aviation wrecks around here have you dove on? Would you be willing to share? I think it would be very neat to do a 'aviation wrecks tour' of our local wet landings.

 

[jldodd]

Faust, I'd be up for exploring some of your hidden dive sites too

I'll give you a call when I get back from vacation next week!

 

[Faust]

We have the numbers of this one , the scecond one , I'd have to go back to some of the ooollld numbers from like 1992 . The one published in the newspress if memory serves is out near the Blue Hole . So your looking at about 30ish miles off shore. Will check with Capt Sammy since the numbers are in his GPS. Bulla there are only 2 that I know of and had heard a rumor of a 3rd small plane but that one was more of a recent wreck, and personally have not seen that one . Failing that Check with Jeff hunter , he might know of its location , we used to call it the bomber wing .

 

[Rekker]

To the Philippe Diole Quoting Aircraft Expert
Some interesting observations concerning possible confusion between the B-26 and A-26. I don't know enough aviation history to either confirm or deny your account. I can say, however, that the divers who discovered the B-26 wreckage off Fort Myers, Florida were entirely self-financed and never sought any investors. So there was never any scheme to defraud or misrepresent history or any other malfeasance that you attribute to these guys. Although they went searching in hopes of finding treasure, I believe that each of them feels even more enriched by the experience of discovering history and bringing closure to families who never knew what had become of their brother and uncle when his plane disappeared during WW II.

When the forensic study of the B-26 site has been completed, I expect that its coordinates will be made public. The goal of the ongoing research is to try to determine precisely how and why this fatal crash occured.

 

[CBulla]

WOW.. I had this in mind to pull up and share with Jaime and here it is posted to!

Thanks for the informaion and sharing.