Site Type: | Aircraft Wreck |
Depth: | Top: 14M Median: 14M Bottom: 14M |
Location: | West of Kimbe Bay very close to the coast |
The Zero Wreck was only discovered in 2000, and is still almost completely intact. It is though the pilot was coming in to land, but didn’t quite make it and so ditched within swimming distance of the shore.
Sitting in fine sand, good buoyancy control is essential.
There’s plenty to admire from the top: lots of juveniles and even an anemone just behind the cockpit.
There’s also a small reef in the shallows to the immediate south of the wreck, again with juveniles.
As well as nudibranchs, pipefish and the almost mandatory clownfish.
Interesting all the flat areas of the plane are covered in exactly the same coating coral or sponge, as that of the nearby reefs, but with an uncharacteristically evenly spaced geometrical pattern.
The plane itself has strange attraction: this once powerful, fast and noisy killing machine that belongs high in the sky, is now grounded, sitting stationary and silent on the sea floor.