Grumman Avenger

Few dive sites in Scotland can evoke the feeling of seeing an almost intact WW2 aircraft for the first time.  A mile off shore from Aberdour, this TBF-1B torpedo-bomber lies in just 14m of water having lain untouched for over fifty years until discovered by the Dive Bunker.

The wreck today lies cushioned in the silt and covered in marine life, particularly large plumose anemones.The aluminum fusilage and wings are still in amazing condition.Two blades of the propellor point up to the surface with the third buried .The cylinder heads have rotted away revealing the piston heads on the strange radial engine.

More than 400 of these US-made three-seaters were used by the Royal Navy from 1943 and were predominately used aboard escort carriers on anti-submarine patrol in the Channel and North Sea. However, it was not active service that brought this plane down in the Forth on a freezing December night - on 17 December 1945, a young pilot on a training exercise from 785 Squadron in Crail, where pilots were trained to fly torpedo-bombers, ditched after suffering engine failure.