May 2025 - PLANE GRAVEYARD AND BIKINI - PHOTOTRIP

BIKINI & Plane Graveyard and Bikini Atoll PHOTOTRIP with Brandi Mueller and Tobias Friedrich.

This is a once in a lifetime to two locations that are superb for wreck diving:

29th to 9th of May 2025 on board of the Truk Master to the PLANE GRAVEYARD where we will dive in approximately 30 meters at fighter planes from the Second World War. These planes are absolutely rare to dive at, but Brandi Mueller has most of their GPS positions.

Directly following the Kwajalein Atoll trip is the possibility to stay on for a trip to Bikini Atoll.

10th to 18th of May on board of the Truk Muster to the deep wrecks of the BIKINI Atoll.

More details about the history:

Plane graveyard:

In 1945, after the end of WWII, around 150 airplanes were dumped into the lagoon of Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands. The planes did not crash and they had nothing wrong with them, they were simply unneeded machinery in a post-WWII future. They consist of seven types of American aircraft: Dauntless, Mitchells, Avengers, Wildcats, a Corsair, Helldiver and C-46. They sit in the sand from 20-40m with most around 32m. There are no commercial dive operations in Kwajalein Atoll other than the inaccessible US military base and these planes are rarely visited. This is a unique opportunity to dive the planes and some of the other wrecks of Kwajalein Atoll including Japanese ships sunk during Operation Flintlock and the Prinz Eugen which was used in the Bikini Atoll testing.

Divers will fly into Kwajalein (KWA) on United Airlines (the only airline available) and be escorted through the US Army Base and transported to the island of Ebeye where the Truk Master will meet us. Kwajalein Atoll encloses one of the world’s largest coral atoll lagoons and the location of a major WWII battle, Operation Flintlock, occurring January, 1944. Many ships and airplanes were left behind from the battle and this area is mostly inaccessible to divers. This will be a rare opportunity to visit these unique wrecks.

Bikini Atoll:

The Nuclear Fleet of Bikini Atoll is one of the world's most special wreck diving locations. In 1946 Operation Crossroads created a target of surplus military vessels including submarines, aircraft carriers, battleships and others to test the effects of nuclear weapons. Today, many of these ships rest at the bottom of the lagoon in depths averaging 55m and include the USS Saratoga aircraft carrier and the Japanese Battleship Nagato. This trip is best experienced as a technical diver due to depths and decompression requirements.

The Liveaboard:

The Truk Master is fully equipped for tech diving. It’s fitted with steel and aluminum tanks, manifold twinsets, right-hand and left-hand valves for sidemount divers, rebreather cylinders, and plenty of stage bottles. The crew is very experienced in dealing with tech divers and is happy to blend your gas mix exactly as desired—including helium mixes. There are even scooters available to rent, which makes seeing these massive ships easier in the limited time at depth. Bikini trips have a slightly different schedule than most other Master Liveaboard itineraries, so there are just two dives a day.

Brandi Mueller is an award-winning underwater photographer and writer as well as scuba instructor and captain. She has a book called, "The Airplane Graveyard," discussing this area and the underwater planes. Brandi lived and worked in Kwajalein for three years and is familiar with the area.

 

Both trips can be booked separately. For the plane graveyard a tec certificate is recommended, but not mandatory. For the Bikini trip the tec or rebreather certificate is more than recommended.

 

Questions: tobias (at) below-surface.com

Bookings via MasterFleet directly. Please let them know that you want to join this specific trip.

*Disclaimer at the bottom of this page.