Advice for diving Plane Wreck in Cyprus

About the Plane:

Lots of unconfirmed stories about this site, everyone will tell you a different version of the tale. Most common one is depicting a British craft, which is suspected to be either a WELLINGTON or BRISTOL BEAUFORT an WW2 twin-engine bomber.

Why it is crashed landed is another tale by itself: According to the stories this craft was either an active plane in WW2 or was doing some sort of training just after the WW2. All known certain thing is there was a RAF base just 13 miles inland where the plane crashed. There is still live ammunition and bomb at this site and some caution will require.

Engines are dug into the sandy bottom which suggests that they were still rotating after crash landing. Plane hasn’t been identified so far and none of the stories confirmed either, so if you like tales and history this might be a good spot for you.

Needless to say that it is not allowed to take any souvenirs off this site!

Dive site:

This site is very easy to spot from shore; there is a lonely rock roughly 500m north of a beach close to Esentepe village in district of Kyrenia. If you are passing by on the main road there is no way that you can miss it. Dive site is located approx. 100 meters East of the rock. You have a choice to get there either by a boat or swim. Watch out for Northerly wind, since it may bring big swells.

Dive Conditions

Water temperature may vary between 18 to 30 degrees depending on the season. Visibility is very good and most of the time exceeds 20 meters easily. Normally wind is westerly at this site hence expect some current, which is very much depends on the wind speed. Bottom is covered with grass areas and mostly sandy patches. If you decide to do a beach entry and exit, make sure to check the weather updates, area is known to have moderate to high surf during windy weather.

Dive it self

If you reach to the rock and advance 100 meter you will most likely will be welcomed by the Engine number 1 which lies about 12 meter water. If you head for east from here you will see Engine number 2 not far off. Both engines are dug into the sand and very stable, many small fish as well as small groupers are took refuge on these. So head north from Engine number 2 about 40-80 meters and you will reach to 18-20 meters or so, you will see some sort of fuel/oil tank on the way and parts of fuselage. Once you cannot identify any more wreckage take a westerly direction and cover about 40-50 meters and turn back to south. This should be putting you back to in line with Engine number 1. Try to make your way back Engine number 1, along the way you will see a bomb lying in the sandy bottom, most of the time accompanied by small fish. In my opinion ideal way of visiting this site is making a very big circle and going around east, north, west and south starting from Engine number 1.

Dive Site Map