Independent Scuba

The Bristol Beaufighter

Diving the wreck of an airplane is rather strange the first time. These are machines who were never intended to be under water – rather the opposite and yet they lie on the bottom under the sea. They are also considerably smaller than ship wrecks which makes the dives very different and much more focused on details.

The Bristol Beaufighter is located just of Exiles in Sliema, Malta on 37 metres depth. Visibility is often good and it is only a short boatride out to the wreck. Unfortunately she lies upside down but it is still an excellent dive. On a good day you can start to see the dark shadow of the wreck at 10 meters depth and the deeper you go the clearer the gets.

With only sand around her it is a natural meeting point for marine life and seems to be some sort of breeding station for morays. During one dive I spotted no less than 7 morays within one square metre!

The history around the sinking is rather straightforward:

“On 17th March 1943 at 1125 hours nine Beaufighters of No 272 squadron took off to escort nine Beauforts of No 39 Squadron on a shipping strike of Point Stelo. At 1138 hours Beau fighter ‘N,’ with Sgt Donald Frazee at the controls and Sgt  Sandery as observer, began to vibrate violently and lost speed rapidly. There was no option but to ditch the aircraft and this was accomplished at 100mph in a slight swell about 1000 yards off Dragonara Point, Sliema. As all this took place close to shore, persons watching informed Fighter Control but Maltese dghajsas reached the crew some five minutes before rescue launch HSL 166 arrived on the spot. The air crew was transferred to the launch.”

(Extract from the book ‘Call Out’, a wartime diary of air/sea rescue operations at Malta by Frederick R. Galea).

I personally find this dive very nice and it gets four stars in my books. Due to the depth and the fact that there are no options but to descend and ascend along a shotline a good level of experience is required.

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