WHEN it comes to scuba diving, it goes without saying that one way to create adventures that attract divers to nature parks would be to create artificial reefs using old vehicles such as ships or aircraft.
Over the years, it has been claimed that a retired Jumbo Jet – a Boeing 747 – was turned into an artificial reef at an offshore dive park in Bahrain, and it has also been claimed online that this 747 began its service life as an airliner plying the skies for Malaysia Airlines.
Is this true?
VERDICT:
TRUE
Yes, this is in fact true; a Boeing 747 sits underwater in the Dive Bahrain nature park located near Diyar Al Muharraq, a city located close to Bahrain International Airport; and this 747's first owner was in fact Malaysia Airlines, according to the aviation news website Simple Flying.
This data is confirmed by information on the aviation database website airfleets.net, which states that Malaysia Airlines operated the 747 under the registry of 9M-MHJ from April 1982 until it was stored in March 2005.
It was then owned and operated by Focus Air Cargo from August 2005 with the US registration of N361FC until it was stored at the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California in March 2008.
The aircraft then took on the Icelandic registry of TF-AAA when it entered the fleet of Air Atlanta Icelandic before finally being stored for good in 2013 and then scrapped and sunk off Bahrain in 2019.
So yes, those who make it to Dive Bahrain can swim through a Boeing 747 that once took to the skies as part of the Malaysia Airlines fleet in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.
SOURCES
https://www.airfleets.net/
https://simpleflying.com/
https://www.newsofbahrain.com/
https://airwaysmag.com/scuba-
