Beechcraft Hawker plunges into Athens Scuba Park

The Athens Scuba park was one of my old stomping grounds when I lived in Dallas, Texas. Athens is about an hour SE from Dallas. I first learned of Athen Scuba Park in 1995 while visiting Athens, Texas. Since then until my departure from Texas in 2004, I visited the park extensively to perform training. Here is an article on a new plane just placed in the park made by scuba divers for scuba divers.

Athens — It was a new experience in most localities for Memorial Day.

Athens Scuba Park plummeted a 14-passenger jet into its crystal clear lake, Saturday, May 28 at noon.

Calvin Wilcher, who owns the park with his wife, Shannon, said the plane  was transported  to the lake from an airplane salvage yard in Dallas.

He said the cost of the airplane was about $30,000.

“New ones are worth  $588,000 up to about $1 million,” he said.

The IST Proline printed on the hull is advertising, and stands for Irene, Stanley and Tony, members of a family that owns IST Sports Proline, a company headquartered in California,which sells scuba products to Athens Scuba Park.

The airplane is a Beechcraft Hawker 125-600.  Its length is 60 feet and has a 48-foot wingspan. From across the lake, two 30-ton wreckers manned by H&H and Harris Wrecker Service, connected to an ocean-mooring buoy rope with a 30,000-pound breaking strength pulling the giant wreck to-be into the spring fed waters.

Eleven highly-trained scuba divers were on board as the craft penetrated the lake’s surface.

The Beechcraft Hawker’s landing and collision lights are powered up by a Jet Start Pac (28 volt DC). These will be illuminated after dark so that the aircraft will appear to be flying underwater while divers night dive.

This vessel makes another great underwater attraction for scuba divers from all over to explore and dive on, day or night.  The size of this twin engine jet will also be an asset for doing Public Safety Dive training.

One of the purposes of the jet will be its use by first-responders. It will be used by firefighters and law enforcement agencies as they train their rescue personnel to be prepared in the event of an underwater rescue.

Instruction will also be available for salvage training, lift bag work and technical wreck dive training.

The Scuba Park already has a variety of wrecks below the surface of it’s 8-acre lake, including two other planes, a DART bus, a houseboat, three sailboats salvaged from Hurricane Katrina, and two cabin cruisers, just to name a few.

Since 1987, Athens Scuba Park has been a location for divers to spend a day or a weekend away from the city.

Athens Scuba Park is located at 500 N. Murchison St. in Athens. www.athensscubapark.com

Source: athensreview