A scuba diver was filming octopus in Saanich Inlet in 2022 when he stumbled upon what looked like parts of a plane.
The diver sent a description of his discovery — two engines, landing gear and a bladed prop in about 70 feet of water — to the Underwater Archaeological Society of B.C., which got to work trying to identify where the wreck came from.
“The first question was, you know, so what is it? Because it’s not a complete plane,” said Jacques Marc, the society’s explorations director.
Members of the society, an advocacy group that documents wrecks across the province, dove the site twice in December 2022 to get a closer look, Marc said.
The landing gear was distinctive, and Marc was able to compare it with planes that were based on the peninsula during the Second World War, eventually identifying the items as part of a Handley-Page Hampden P5433.
Two Canadians and two Australians were onboard the Hampden P5433 when it crashed into the inlet on March 14, 1943. The bomber had taken off from Patricia Bay airport on a routine training flight to practise flying low over the sea and to conduct a test flight at night.
The plane was observed going into a spin from about 1,500 feet in the air, then diving vertically into the inlet.
Allan Hunt, 27, Reginald Manttan, 23, Grant Hall, 21, and Howard Piercy, 22, were killed in the crash.
To commemorate the men lost and identify the site for other divers, the society plans to install a 200-pound plaque by the wreck on Saturday, just ahead of Remembrance Day.
The plaque explains the details of the crash and asks divers to respect the site by leaving everything in place.
Wrecks older than two years that have been abandoned by their owners become the property of the government, and they’re protected from people removing items, Marc said.
Weather-permitting, a team of divers will head out Saturday morning to place the plaque, which consists of laminated cardstock sandwiched between plexiglass and sealed with silicone. The whole thing is embedded in concrete to ensure it’s heavy enough to remain at the bottom of the ocean.
The group will head out by boat from Deep Cove to the site, about 500 metres offshore, said Marc. They’ll drop a line with a weight and a group of divers will position it near the propeller, he said.
They’ll then lower the plaque while two divers help direct it to the correct spot, using lift bags if necessary to reposition it.
The society has placed 24 plaques in the province, the majority around Vancouver Island. Most are simply educational, because no lives were lost, Marc said.
“It’s kind of a little bit of a mystique. People seem to think that every shipwreck there was hundreds of people lost. Well, no, there weren’t. Many people were rescued,” he said.
There are about 4,000 shipwrecks in the province and 198 have been documented in a government database, Marc said.
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