The Airbus A300 cargo plane with a length of 54 meters, a wingspan of 44 meters, and a weight of 47 tons, sunk in 2016 off the coast of Kuşadası after 36 years of service in an airline company by Aydın Metropolitan Municipality, is among the important points of diving tourism in Turkey.
Volunteer divers noticed that most of the plane, which also constitutes an important reef area for fish, was covered with nets that fishermen left in the water because they got stuck during the hunt. Divers worked hard to clean the nets called “ghost nets”, which also distort the appearance of the underwater plane.
Diving instructor Tağmaç Saraçoğlu, who is the Kuşadası AKUT Representative, said that they are cleaning as volunteer divers and the AKUT team.
Arguing that fishing is carried out in the vicinity of the aircraft, although it is prohibited, Saraçoğlu said, “These ghost nets negatively affect underwater life. They tried to fish around the plane. Then it was netted and torn apart. These attached nets harm underwater creatures. It can become attached to divers underwater, causing them to experience dangerous situations. It could also cause our plane to break apart.”
Dangerous for divers
Noting that they cleaned the nets they detected with 4 divers, Saraçoğlu stated that they brought them to the water surface with waste lead.
Explaining that they separated the bullets and destroyed the net, Saraçoğlu concluded his words as follows:
“The Kuşadası region is one of our countries that earns its income from tourism. We have popular dive spots. We have done our part to ensure safe diving into one of these, the world’s largest plane wreck.”