Midway Expedition (May 2-16, 2017)

[Russ Matthews]

Next month, a scientific team will spend two weeks scouring the lagoon at Midway Atoll in search of historic aircraft wrecks. This mission is a joint effort of NOAA, the National Park Service's Submerged Resources Center, East Carolina University and the Fish and Wildlife Service. The primary aim is to locate, identify, and document aviation heritage sites related to the pivotal June 1942 Battle of Midway in advance of the 75th anniversary. Their focus will be strictly centered on shallow water areas accessible to SCUBA divers. For more information and periodic updates throughout the expedition, click on the link below ...

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/17midway/welcome.html

[Pat Carry]

Sounds kool!!

[Chris Brame]

Weren't some vestiges of a Brewster F2A in there somewhere?

[airnutz]

Weren't some vestiges of a Brewster F2A in there somewhere?

Yes, Lt. Somers' Buff remains are in 10' of water in the lagoon where it came up short during an attempted landing. There were photos a few years back. Nothing recognizeable as an airframe tho. There is another F2A that has been reported intermittenly by divers offshore of the entrance to the lagoon. That area drops off to the deep and due to occasional strong upwelling currents, the Buffalo comes up to the shelf. That's how a diver reported it years back.(IIRC, diver Larry Lassise?)
EDIT

[airnutz]

Here's a link to the Sanctuary history and photos of Somers' Buffalo. At the end of the article is a link to a large page of photos...
http://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/mariti ... ffalo.html

[lucky52]

They ought to recover some of that stuff.It won't be there forever.