Country Looking To Attract Recreational SCUBA Divers To The Area

An Airbus A300 has been intentionally sunk off the coast of Turkey where it will become an attraction for coral, fish, and recreational SCUBA divers.

The U.K. newspaper The Guardian reports that the 31-year-old aircraft was purchased by the city of Aydin from a private aviation company for the equivalent of $92,480. It was scuttled off the Aegean coast off the resort of Kusadasi about 50 miles south of Izmir.

It reportedly took about two-and-a-half hours for the plane to submerge beneath the waves. Recreational boaters gathered to watch the sinking and give the Airbus a proper sendoff to the bottom of the ocean.

The Mayor of Aydin, Ozlem Cercioglu, said that goal is to attract more tourism to the area, which has been hurt by recent terrorist activity.

Three other, smaller airplanes have been put on the bottom of the ocean near Turkish resorts to form artificial reefs, but this is the largest airplane to be sunk in an effort to attract tourism.

FMI: www.tourismturkey.org