New images surface of Navy seaplane sunk in attack

Associated Press

HONOLULU

New images of a large U.S. Navy seaplane that sank in Hawaii waters during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor show a coral-encrusted engine and reef fish swimming in and out of a hull.

The video and photos are the clearest images taken of the Catalina PBY-5 wreckage to date, said Hans Van Tilburg, a maritime archaeologist with the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.

The seaplane had a wing span of 100 feet, comparable to a modern-era Boeing 727 commercial jet. It now sits in pieces 30 feet below the surface in Kaneohe Bay next to a Marine Corps base, about 20 miles east of Pearl Harbor on the other side of Oahu.

There were an estimated six of these planes – also called “flying boats” – in the bay at the time of the attack, but Van Tilburg said nobody is sure what happened to the others.

The base, which was then a naval air station, was among several Oahu military installations attacked by Japanese planes on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941.

Van Tilburg said a mooring cable is still attached to the plane, but there are signs someone started the port engine before the plane sank. This indicates a crew may have died while attempting to take off as the aerial assault began.

The Catalina PBY-5 could hold an eight-man crew and four 500-pound bombs.

Standard practice was to keep someone on the seaplanes at night to make sure the aircraft didn’t drift off.