Airplane crashes - Black sea

Here is the foto whit the "topogan" taken in Mamaia, i am seacing the recent foto right now i hope i can find it.




Anyway it loks just like this, all the buildings in the back still exists, only the "topogan" is in ruin.

Sorry. The airplane I was referring to is IAR-80A no. 55 flown by adj. av. DUmitru Apolzan of the 59th Fighter Squadron. It crashed in that position (2 km off the the shore from Mamaia airfield) on 2 August 1941.

Sorry. The airplane I was referring to is IAR-80A no. 55 flown by adj. av. DUmitru Apolzan of the 59th Fighter Squadron. It crashed in that position (2 km off the the shore from Mamaia airfield) on 2 August 1941.

Great! then U260diver has another dive location on the list, maby

This post has been edited by cipiamon on September 27, 2005 05:02 pm

The exact location of no. 149 is not known. At least not yet.

Hello U260; may I ask u please; what are your dive capabilities? I presume SCUBA...at what depths are u planning to work/have worked? Do you anticipate greater/less visibility problems in the Black Sea than u may have experienced in the North Atlantic? How much weather "window" do u anticapate available in the BS?

What sort of rig are u planning to use? (i.e. diving from small O/B engine craft or something with larger afterdeck and more support gear? Maybe a big RIB? Are u doing this professionally?

Do u/anyone know of locations of any B25's out there? (They are highly sought after here (U.S.) as u probably know.)

Sorry for the 60 questions routine..but I must say your project sounds fascinating, indeed.

For what it's worth, there's a sunken German U Boat near my area (East Coast, U.S.) that's become a popular dive spot, but is kind of risky because of strong currents and low viz. Thus, the site has claimed a few amateur divers now R.I.P. (figuratively speaking) with the U boat sailors down there.....

cheers, and good luck to u!

Hello list,

Cipiamon, Victor and cnflyboy many thanks for the reactions!
On the moment im very busy with my finall movement to Romania so sometimes i will be a lit slow in some reactions, im sorry for that.

Great the old photo from the topogan, i was standing for some months ago on it and indeed it seems that the shore line is.. let say, the same then and now.

Its great to have the corect info about the IAR80, in time i start to invest for the exact crash location. Is there maybe a photo available from plane and pilot?
And im curios from wich airfield this plane came and the reason of crash?

Victor, the first IAR80 were you was mention about, does it mean that that one also crashed in the Black sea?

cnflyboy2000, diving i do on Proffesional and in this case on hobby base. I'm used to dive in the North sea with extreme strong current and very low visibility (min. 30cm). The depths i was used to dive on the North sea was not that deep max 34m and with Nitrox very good to dive. For the deeper dives i prefere Trimix and the time that i was diving to 50m on air is history (a bullet in your head is cheeper and more quick ).
The Black sea is comparing with the North sea not that bad, but unfortunaly diving is not good possible for whole the year. best period is April - May and after October. Visibility arround the wrecks can be 8 - 10 m. so let say, clear water!!
In the beginning the dives will be made from a small boat.

We have one B25 still flying in Holland.
I dived the German U260 in Ireland - 47m

Thanks again for all the reactions and keep up the good work...

The IAR-80A of adj. av. Dumitru Apolzan was damaged in air combat and he didn't make it to the airfield. The 59th Squadron was operating from the Mamaia airfield in that period.

As far as I know, three IAR-80s crashed into the sea in the vicinity of Mamaia airfield. The other two were no. 149 mentioned previously and no. 401 flown by lt. av. Petre Oanta that crashed on 12 June 1948. However, the crash locations of these other two aren't known exactly now.

This sounds really interesting. Hope u will post future developements!

Do u need an occasional (volunteer) recon pilot or boat/support crew man? I do both, I'm free, and could be in Ro at some of time periods you mention. ... lol

In any case, best of luck to u, thanks for info & interesting post. cheers.

Hi list,

cnflyboy2000, thanks for the reaction! If i need assistance be sure i will ask you!
When there is news, i will post it np.

In Holland we have from every aircraft what came down during the second world war in our municipality archives documents about the crash with in most cases a lot of interesting information. Can somebody tell me how this work in Romania, were to go and if this is also for public use?

And same question for naval archive(s)?

thanks again...

Hi U260diver,

I have a question for you regarding Black Sea crash places. Do you know the ucrainian guys ( amateur divers) who found the wrecks of a IAR80 C in Black Sea. We try to contact them to recover the pieces ( Victor lost the e-mail adress of one of them). See the link below with all details of the plane crash history.

Cheers.

http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=421&st=0

Hi Cantacuzino,

Thanks for your reaction and sorry for my late answer, i'm very bussy on the moment with the finall things to move finally to Romania but it goes as it must be.
I dont know the guys from the Ucraine, should be great when we can trace who they are and were exact they found that plane.
I hope to get the papers ready over 2 weeks and start with the dive activities in the beginning of next year and hopefully to discover some airplane wrecks. Again when there is more information i stay open to receive and when i get some i will tell also.


Many thanks...

http://www.aquarius-diving.ro

Hi List,

A while ago but I'm still working on some airplane crashes in the Black Sea.

Does somebody know if there was a Bf 109 crash in the Black Sea near Mamaia?
Somebody told me about, but i have my doubt.
I think it's the location of the IAR 80A No.55 if so I'm close near the location and in the next coming weeks I will try to find it. I hope that i can give to this forum some underwater pictures from this wreck, at least also some contribution from my side instead of only questions...
Is it possible that the No.55 was carrying a bomb? And if so - what type of bomb?

Thanks in advance for reactions...

U260diver

IAR 80 no 55 had no bomb device. Only IAR 81 types were able to carry bombs.

Thx Cantacuzino about the Bomb information according IAR 80A.

My source mentioned, that a bomb was still visible on the wreck. Is it possible that it can be a Bf 109 ? Or have somebody other information about planes what came down in the Black Sea Mamaia area?

The wreck could be from an BF-109 ( the bomb could be a belly fuel tank) but also could be a russian plane too.
We waiting for your under water pictures to better I.D.