Somewhere off the coast of Kuşadası, a resort town in western Turkey, a 177-foot Airbus A300 has been sitting on the seafloor since June 2016. Nobody crashed it. Local officials sank it on purpose. It may sound strange, but it fits a pattern researchers have tracked for years. According to a 2022 study on Turkey’s wreck-reef projects by fisheries researchers Aytaç Özgül and Altan Lök, sinking retired vehicles to create diving spots has become an established strategy along the Turkish coast, and the Kuşadası Airbus is one of the boldest examples of it.
Why sink a perfectly good plane?
