Corsica · France · Wreck
P-51 Mustang wreck
A 1944 P-51 Mustang fuselage on sand at 19 m
Area photo: Myrabella · CC BY-SA 3.0
A USAAF P-51 Mustang fighter that ditched off the Isolella peninsula on 5 July 1944 after its engine failed on take-off from Ajaccio, now on a sandy bottom at 19 m on the southern shore of the Gulf of Ajaccio. The wings are silted in but the whole fuselage is clearly visible, and the depth puts a wartime aircraft wreck within Open Water reach on a boat dive from Porticcio.
Also known as E Sette Nave P51, Causeire, P-51 de l'Isolella.
Where it is and how deep
41.8304° N, 8.7797° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The wreck lies off the Isolella peninsula on the southern shore of the Gulf of Ajaccio, on a sandy bottom at 19 m (the divers who documented it give 20 m), so the dive is a descent onto sand rather than a search along rock. At that depth an Open Water diver has a comfortable no-decompression window, and the sand around the aircraft is the reference: land beside the fuselage, settle, and take the wreck in as a whole before moving around it.
What you find is a fighter with its wings silted into the sand and the fuselage standing clear and complete, so the shape of the aircraft reads from nose to tail even though the wings are mostly buried. An aircraft is a compact wreck, so there is time to go round it more than once on a single tank, and the silt is the thing to respect: fin carefully near the wings or the visibility around the fuselage goes with your first pass. The ascent is straight up from 19 m or back up the boat's line.
The wreck
- Vessel
- P-51 Mustang WZ-I, 309th Fighter Squadron, 31st Fighter Group
- Type
- Fighter aircraft
- Sunk
- 1944
- Cause
- Engine failure at 122 m (400 ft) after take-off from Ajaccio; ditched off the Isolella peninsula on 5 July 1944
- Lies
- On a sandy bottom at 19 m off the Isolella peninsula, wings silted in, fuselage clearly visible
On 5 July 1944 Second Lieutenant Donald "Don" Taylor of the 309th Fighter Squadron, 31st Fighter Group, was flying P-51 WZ-I on his fourth mission, escorting B-24 Liberators to the Béziers marshalling yards, when the formation refuelled at Ajaccio's Campo dell'Oro airfield. On take-off the engine failed at 122 m (400 ft): too low to bail out and with full tanks, he dropped the tanks and canopy and ditched off the Isolella peninsula. Injured in the head, he got into his dinghy and was rescued off Ruppione beach by a French soldier; he was back on operations a week later and finished the war as a flight leader after 57 sorties. The aircraft now lies on the sand at about 20 m.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Off-season | Off-season | Off-season | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Off-season |
Season follows Corsica: West-coast centres run roughly April to November; the sea is above 20 °C from June to October and averages under 14 °C in February.
Know before you go
- Silt around the buried wings: keep fins off the sand so the fuselage stays visible for the rest of the group.
Questions divers ask
How deep is the P-51 Mustang wreck?+
The aircraft rests on a sandy bottom at 19 m, which puts the whole dive within Open Water limits.
What happened to the P-51 Mustang off Isolella?+
Its engine failed at 122 m (400 ft) on take-off from Ajaccio on 5 July 1944 and the pilot, Lt Donald Taylor of the 31st Fighter Group, ditched it off the Isolella peninsula and survived.
Sources
- P51 "Mustang", wreck - Scubago dive site catalogue — Scubago
- Le P-51 Mustang de l'Isolella, histoire d'un crash en mer — Corse Images Sous-Marines
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