Menorca · Spain · Wreck
Junkers Ju 88
A Second World War Ju 88 on open sand at 45 to 47 metres
Area photo: Alejandro Muñoz Cabrisas · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Junkers Ju 88 lies on sand off the south-east coast at 45 to 47 metres, one of the two deep house wrecks S'Algar Diving keeps for qualified, experienced divers. The airframe is in good condition, but almost nothing has grown on it: this is a dive for the aircraft and the depth rather than for the marine life around it.
Also known as Junker 88.
Where it is and how deep
39.8250° N, 4.3244° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The descent goes straight to sand: S'Algar Diving puts both of its deep house wrecks on 47 metres, while Binibeca Diving gives 45 as the maximum depth for this dive. At that range the plan is a short bottom time on the airframe and a measured way back up, and both operators restrict it to expert or technical divers rather than treating it as a deep recreational dive.
The aircraft rests on the sandy bottom in good condition, and that is most of the appeal — the shape reads at a glance and there is nothing else on the bottom competing with it. Life has largely ignored the wreck: Scubago notes that despite the years since it sank the plane never drew much growth, though a school of small fish is often over it, so what you get is a clean airframe on open sand.
The wreck
- Vessel
- Junkers Ju 88
- Type
- Second World War bomber aircraft
- Cause
- Not established: the operators who dive it describe a Second World War loss, but no date, unit or airframe number is published
- Lies
- Intact on a sandy bottom at 45 to 47 m off the south-east coast
Scubago describes the aircraft as a Nazi plane that had bombed Algeria in the Second World War before it was wrecked in Menorcan waters, but no independent record of the loss — a date, a unit, an airframe number — has been found, so it is best treated as a Ju 88 known locally by that name rather than as a documented individual machine. Binibeca Diving calls it a recent discovery and says it was the sensation of the 2015 summer season on the island.
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 Menorca: Menorca's tourist season runs May to October; June to September holds the warmest water, near 25–27°C in August, while February and March fall to about 12–14°C.
Know before you go
- A 45 to 47 m bottom with no shallow feature to fall back on: gas planning, decompression and a hard turn time carry the whole dive, which is why both operators gate it on qualification.
Dive videos
Junker88 Dive - Menorca · Huw Owen on YouTube
Junkers 88 S'Algar-Menorca · Artquatic on YouTube
Sources
- Junkers Ju 88, wreck — Scubago
- Diving in Menorca's Marine Reserve - Dive Sites — S'Algar Diving
- Bucear en Menorca, nuestro top 10 de inmersiones en la isla — Binibeca Diving
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