Salvage

[Cablava]

Here a few pics of a P3 Orion which crashed of Oman, we picked it up just over week later after the fancy bits were removed by the Military.
It lost the out board starboard prop which raked the underside of the aircraft managing to stop the other three engines. The pilot ditched on the water perfectly, not much damage and the crew unharmed, they promply climebed onto the wing and were picked up by a local scuba diving club who had watched the crash from the beach bar. When the Helicopter's arrived the crew were at the bar waiting.
Any one who wants to see the remains, they are at Fujeriah Airport where it is used as the fire practice aircraft.

[Cablava]

Heres another one

[Cablava]

And another one

[Cablava]

This ship we did as a joint venture with Titan from Ft Lauderdale.

[Cablava]

Its sitting on a 10,000 ton rock barge we chartered for the job, we cut it up into bits on the sea bed, not more than 1000 tons per piece, as the Crane barge was only a 1200 ton shear leg and not to reliable.

[Siegfried Schlagrule]

I was granted a courtesy tour of a P-3 Orion at Cam Ranh Bay in 1971. The Army bought the P-2 Neptunes that the Navy replaced with the P-3. It cured most of the problems we had with the P-2 such as recessed wing beams so that you could walk from the nose to the galley. It also didn't slice the crew in half with the "cheese slicer" antenna wires. We usually threw out a heavy tool box and then the biggest crew member to bust those wires in the event of a parachute departure. I flew on the last combat mission of the last P-2 owned by the Army. It now resides in the Army Aviation Museum. siegfried schlagrule

[Darren in NC]

Very nice, Mike. Thanks for the pics. I wish I had half your salvage knowledge - it would come in handy one day

Siegfried, what can I say,man? You're..well..mature

[badbrains]

Remarkable