Originally Posted by
gulliBell
The forward float bag protrusions evident in #17 do not seem to be there in the underwater images. Which makes me wonder if they had been removed.
You aren't seeing the floats there in post #17. You're seeing OPTIONAL hard covers for the floats. They are made to tear off when the float inflates. The float bag cover underneath the hard covers is silver and is what you see on most 139's with floats as it is quite rare to see a machine with the hard covers fitted.
The underwater photos are not clear enough to ascertain if the floats are installed or not. The bags are flush (near enough) with the fuselage skin so it is hard to see.
Not surprised to see the tailboom off. Such a large lever hitting the water hard is going to break off. Looks like some serious crushing of the belly area on the right side too.