For the retiring 20 years , divers have unsuccessfully tried to explore and photograph a PBY-5 Catalina seaplane photograph down during Japan ’s opening salvo of the Pearl Harbor attack . Now , some 74 years after that fateful day , archaeologists have at last accomplished the undertaking . Here ’s what they see at the bottom of Kāne‛ohe Bay ’s muddy waters .
Just minute before its devastating attack on the US military base stationed at Pearl Harbor , aircraft from the Japanese Imperial Navy bombed a nearby US Air Station on the east coast of Oahu .
A PBY-5 come in for a landing . ( Credit : USN )
The results were ruinous : 27Catalina PBY “ vaporize boats”were destroyed on the undercoat or while they were moored on Kāne‛ohe Bay , while another six were damage . It was a withering and sudden exit of airpower ; these longsighted - range patrol hero sandwich could have followed the Japanese plane back to their carrier . It ’s for this reason that the Japanese chose to move here first on December 7 , 1941 — an attack that ensue in the United States ’ entry into the Second World War .
The starboard railway locomotive nacelle , or housing , extending into the silt .
Back in 1994 , a squad of archeologist break to shoot the wreck of one of these Catalina PBY-5 planes . A second feat in 2008 reach limited results . But this preceding June , a team of archaeologist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Hawaii returned to the wreck and finagle to lead a detailed survey . The squad , lead by Hans Van Tilburg of the NOAA , was assisted by meliorate visibility and camera equipment .
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“ The new range and site plan assistant tell the account of a largely forgotten casualty of the attack , ” noted Van Tilburg in astatement . “ The sink PBY planing machine is a very crucial monitor of the “ Day of Infamy , ’ just like the USS Arizona and USS Utah . They are all unmediated fatal accident of December 7 . ”
The PBY lynchpin in its backbone well , and the cockpit ( upper right ) .
The exact identity of the plane , which rests 30 feet below the surface , is still unnamed , but it ’s possible the crew died while strain to take off during the attack . The plane is protected by the Sunken Military Craft Act of 2004 , which rigorously proscribe the meddling of military vessel or planer have by the US government , as well as deep-set military wiliness belong to to those of other Carry Nation .
A rent in the port Kingston-upon Hull and mid - fuselage break .
“ This deep-set flying boat is a window into the effect of the tone-beginning , a moment in time that reshape the Pacific realm , ” added June Cleghorn , senior archaeologist at Marine Corps Base Hawaii . “ understand this site spill light on the mystery of the lost PBYs and honors the legacy of the Navy and Marine Corps Base in Hawaii . ”
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[ NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries ]
AircraftArchaeologyHistorySciencesecond world war
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