Jeff George is a resident of Hawaii. One of his hobbies is spearfishing and he tends to do it quite often. However, he had no idea that one fateful day, while spending time doing this hobby, he’d make an amazing discovery.
George was about a quarter mile off the coast of the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Then, something strange caught his eye: some kind of wreckage was on the ocean floor.
Discovering the Wreckage
When he swam closer to the mysterious object, he couldn’t believe his eyes. He discovered what appeared to be a World War II era airplane wreck.
“I was just freaking out because every kid dreams of seeing a wreck in the water, you know, a shipwreck,” George recalled. He discovered the wreckage last April.
Reporting the Find
George attempted to report the wreckage to the proper officials last spring, but he didn’t find any luck with the investigation until recently.
Hans Van Tilburg, who is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s marine heritage coordinator, said, “Jeff George really helped the state and all of us by not just swimming by this plane, but by taking a serious interest in it and pursuing efforts to reach out.”
An Aviation Mystery
The plane’s wreckage is totally undocumented. No record of the plane crash occurring even exists.
Van Tilburg believes that the plane is a P-38 army plane. However, its identity has not yet been confirmed.
Other Underwater Planes Near Hawaii
The ocean around the Hawaiian islands is no stranger to underwater plane wrecks. There are estimated to be more than 1,000 aviation crashes that have yet to be found.
While happening upon these wrecks is rare, they are scattered across the region and must be out in the ocean somewhere. In 2014, a WWII aircraft wreck was similarly located off Windward Oahu.
Unfortunately Common
“By far the number of military plane water crashes (and land for that matter) are from training and normal operations, and the hazardous nature of aviation in the early days of its development,” Van Tilburg explained.
He continued, “High speed maneuvers, close formation flying, equipment failures, dive bombing targets and combat training, night flights over unfamiliar waters, botched carrier landings, etc. Pilots and airmen were trained to prepare for ocean ditching and in many cases successfully got out of the aircraft and were rescued…but not all.”
A Question of Investigation
Van Tilburg also explained that because the wreck is outside of NOAA’s marine sanctuary it is not standard protocol for the agency to investigate it.
Instead, the responsibility shifts to either the federal agency or the state to investigate. Should there be a possibility of human remains, the military’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency would take over the matter.
Looking Into the Discovery
A spokesperson from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency outlined their current involvement in this investigation.
“Our people in Hawaii are tracking the discovery and are currently looking into whether or not this wreck is connected with a missing service member,” they explained.
Connections to Pearl Harbor
Van Tilburg said that a connection to the Pearl Harbor attack is improbable, particularly if the aircraft in question is a P-38 (as he believes it to be).
He noted that the timing and usage of these planes does not align with the events of the attack. He explained, “P-38s were not fully deployed in the Pacific at that time.”
Future Further Investigation
There is almost certainly no connection to the Pearl Harbor attack, but this plane wreck is still an intriguing find. As the investigation continues, the focus remains on uncovering the full history and identity of the wreckage.
With the potential of multiple agencies being involved, there is hope that this discovery might eventually provide new insights into the numerous aircraft lost during World War II. It is unknown when the wreck might be fully investigated, so for now, this plane’s story remains a mystery.
