rotornut
14th Jan 2006, 20:09
Junked jet prepares for its final descent By TOM HAWTHORN
Saturday, January 14, 2006 Posted at 3:05 AM EST
Globe and Mail Update
Victoria — Just after noon today, if all goes according to plan, a Boeing 737 passenger jet will sink in the waters off Vancouver Island.
The aircraft's final descent is expected to be greeted by cheers, not tears.
After more than three years of planning, a jet that once flew regularly to sunny Miami will come to rest on the cold seabed off Chemainus on the east coast of Vancouver Island.
Stripped of pollutants and scrubbed clean of grease, the airframe will become an artificial reef on the bottom of Stuart Channel.
“Looks like it's good to go,” said Peter Luckham of Thetis Island, a diver who is organizing the sinking.
The artificial reef is expected to lure recreational divers to the North Cowichan area, making the airframe the latest attraction at Chemainus. The forestry town diversified its economy to become a tourist destination in the 1980s by painting historic murals on downtown buildings.
The jet has been resting on a beach at a Thetis Island farm for the past year. At 5:30 a.m. today, a giant crane aboard a barge is scheduled to lift the plane. Tugs will then position the barge above the sinking site at low tide.
“We're going to lower it slowly to let the air gurgle out,” Mr. Luckham said. “It should bubble and gurgle quite a bit. After a while, we'll see just the tail and then she'll be gone.”
A crowd is expected to gather at the waterfront at Kin Beach in Chemainus, while MV Kahloke of BC Ferries will cancel a regular sailing to the islands of Thetis and Kuper to serve as a viewing platform.
As well, a film crew from the popular Discovery Channel program Megabuilders will be on hand for the scuttling. The event is to be broadcast later this year.
“This is a little community,” Mr. Luckham said. “We're a bunch of volunteers and midsize companies and we're building our own megaproject.”
The budget for the sinking of the artificial reef is $66,000. The provincial government kicked in $15,000, while money has been raised at community events such as an auction and dinner dance to cover some of the costs.
The 130-seat passenger jet, built by Boeing in 1975, completed its final flight to Vancouver on Sept. 4, 2001, just a week before terrorist attacks shook the industry.
The plane had recorded 73,522 flying hours — more than eight years in the air — and needed a major rework of its damaged frame to remain airworthy. Instead, Air Canada sold it to Qwest Air Parts, a company based in Memphis, Tenn. A dozen stock keepers and two dozen mechanics at the Vancouver airport removed, packaged and shipped more than 1,000 valuable parts, including engines, landing gear, navigational devices and even flotation cushions.
Air Canada then donated the body of the decommissioned plane to the Artificial Reef Society of British Columbia.
Volunteers stripped the fuselage of insulation and scraped away thick gobs of grease before scrubbing the interior and exterior of the 737.
The jet still boasts the faded red-and-blue colours of Canadian Airlines, which Air Canada bought in 1999.
While on the beach at Thetis, four aluminum pedestals were attached to the jet, two below the fuselage and one below each wing. The water at the sinking site is about 27 metres deep. Divers will be able to enter the airframe at about 21 metres below the surface, an accessible depth even for novices.
The supports will also limit the damage to the seabed, which has only limited marine life, a legacy of years of dumping by the forest industry.
The jet has wound up in the North Cowichan after earlier efforts failed at Sechelt and Comox.
Mr. Luckham, a 48-year-old information systems analyst, has been a diver for six years. He also operates 49th Parallel Dive Charters.
He has received permits from Environment Canada and has completed negotiations with local aboriginal groups for permission to create the reef in what are regarded as territorial waters.
The site is being named Xihuw Reef after the red sea urchin once abundant in the area. As well, a cedar mask of a sea urchin has been placed on the truncated nose of the jet. A plaque thanking the Hul'qumi'num Mustimuhw people and their ancestors has been placed on the plane.
The jet will be the seventh underwater playground for divers in Canadian waters created by the Vancouver-based Artificial Reef Society.
The society bought HMCS Chaudiere from the Department of National Defence for $1.15 (including provincial sales tax and GST). The destroyer escort was sunk in 1992 off Kunechin Point on Porpoise Bay near Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast.
It was followed by the Mackenzie off Gooch Island near Sidney in 1995; Columbia off Maude Island near Campbell River the next year; Saskatchewan off Snake Island near Nanaimo in 1997; and Cape Breton, a Victory ship, off Snake Island in 2001.
The society's first project was the scuttling of MV G. B. Church, an English-built coastal freighter, in 1991 within Princess Margaret Marine Park off Portland Island, near Sidney.
The destroyer Yukon, which the society's volunteers had prepared for sinking off San Diego in 2000, sank on its own a day early after winds and high seas seeped in through the hull.
At the request of the local Legion, the jet's site is also a memorial to two pilot officers killed in action during the Second World War.
Harold O. Rae, who died on June 25, 1944, and Leslie E. Rae, who was killed on March 16, 1945, were brothers from Chemainus. Both were serving aboard Lancaster bombers at the time of their deaths.
Special to The Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060114.wxbcjet0114/BNStory/National/
Saturday, January 14, 2006 Posted at 3:05 AM EST
Globe and Mail Update
Victoria — Just after noon today, if all goes according to plan, a Boeing 737 passenger jet will sink in the waters off Vancouver Island.
The aircraft's final descent is expected to be greeted by cheers, not tears.
After more than three years of planning, a jet that once flew regularly to sunny Miami will come to rest on the cold seabed off Chemainus on the east coast of Vancouver Island.
Stripped of pollutants and scrubbed clean of grease, the airframe will become an artificial reef on the bottom of Stuart Channel.
“Looks like it's good to go,” said Peter Luckham of Thetis Island, a diver who is organizing the sinking.
The artificial reef is expected to lure recreational divers to the North Cowichan area, making the airframe the latest attraction at Chemainus. The forestry town diversified its economy to become a tourist destination in the 1980s by painting historic murals on downtown buildings.
The jet has been resting on a beach at a Thetis Island farm for the past year. At 5:30 a.m. today, a giant crane aboard a barge is scheduled to lift the plane. Tugs will then position the barge above the sinking site at low tide.
“We're going to lower it slowly to let the air gurgle out,” Mr. Luckham said. “It should bubble and gurgle quite a bit. After a while, we'll see just the tail and then she'll be gone.”
A crowd is expected to gather at the waterfront at Kin Beach in Chemainus, while MV Kahloke of BC Ferries will cancel a regular sailing to the islands of Thetis and Kuper to serve as a viewing platform.
As well, a film crew from the popular Discovery Channel program Megabuilders will be on hand for the scuttling. The event is to be broadcast later this year.
“This is a little community,” Mr. Luckham said. “We're a bunch of volunteers and midsize companies and we're building our own megaproject.”
The budget for the sinking of the artificial reef is $66,000. The provincial government kicked in $15,000, while money has been raised at community events such as an auction and dinner dance to cover some of the costs.
The 130-seat passenger jet, built by Boeing in 1975, completed its final flight to Vancouver on Sept. 4, 2001, just a week before terrorist attacks shook the industry.
The plane had recorded 73,522 flying hours — more than eight years in the air — and needed a major rework of its damaged frame to remain airworthy. Instead, Air Canada sold it to Qwest Air Parts, a company based in Memphis, Tenn. A dozen stock keepers and two dozen mechanics at the Vancouver airport removed, packaged and shipped more than 1,000 valuable parts, including engines, landing gear, navigational devices and even flotation cushions.
Air Canada then donated the body of the decommissioned plane to the Artificial Reef Society of British Columbia.
Volunteers stripped the fuselage of insulation and scraped away thick gobs of grease before scrubbing the interior and exterior of the 737.
The jet still boasts the faded red-and-blue colours of Canadian Airlines, which Air Canada bought in 1999.
While on the beach at Thetis, four aluminum pedestals were attached to the jet, two below the fuselage and one below each wing. The water at the sinking site is about 27 metres deep. Divers will be able to enter the airframe at about 21 metres below the surface, an accessible depth even for novices.
The supports will also limit the damage to the seabed, which has only limited marine life, a legacy of years of dumping by the forest industry.
The jet has wound up in the North Cowichan after earlier efforts failed at Sechelt and Comox.
Mr. Luckham, a 48-year-old information systems analyst, has been a diver for six years. He also operates 49th Parallel Dive Charters.
He has received permits from Environment Canada and has completed negotiations with local aboriginal groups for permission to create the reef in what are regarded as territorial waters.
The site is being named Xihuw Reef after the red sea urchin once abundant in the area. As well, a cedar mask of a sea urchin has been placed on the truncated nose of the jet. A plaque thanking the Hul'qumi'num Mustimuhw people and their ancestors has been placed on the plane.
The jet will be the seventh underwater playground for divers in Canadian waters created by the Vancouver-based Artificial Reef Society.
The society bought HMCS Chaudiere from the Department of National Defence for $1.15 (including provincial sales tax and GST). The destroyer escort was sunk in 1992 off Kunechin Point on Porpoise Bay near Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast.
It was followed by the Mackenzie off Gooch Island near Sidney in 1995; Columbia off Maude Island near Campbell River the next year; Saskatchewan off Snake Island near Nanaimo in 1997; and Cape Breton, a Victory ship, off Snake Island in 2001.
The society's first project was the scuttling of MV G. B. Church, an English-built coastal freighter, in 1991 within Princess Margaret Marine Park off Portland Island, near Sidney.
The destroyer Yukon, which the society's volunteers had prepared for sinking off San Diego in 2000, sank on its own a day early after winds and high seas seeped in through the hull.
At the request of the local Legion, the jet's site is also a memorial to two pilot officers killed in action during the Second World War.
Harold O. Rae, who died on June 25, 1944, and Leslie E. Rae, who was killed on March 16, 1945, were brothers from Chemainus. Both were serving aboard Lancaster bombers at the time of their deaths.
Special to The Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060114.wxbcjet0114/BNStory/National/