Introduction
A while ago (Jan 2025), Danny Graham and I went out on the Triton in an attempt to find the tail section of a F6F Hellcat Drone that we had first dove back in 2024. I dropped in on that target and only found the original wreck debris that we had already found. Oh well.
For a second dive, there was a target that Danny had from somebody that was closer to his port and it was shallow. I decided to dive it to investigate and report back.
This is just a quick post to document what we found.
Photos & Photogrammetry
I spent some time swimming around trying to find the multiple debris areas and found two primary areas of the wreck. Both are in the model included below. We are not sure what this is but it is clearly some kind of aircraft given the shape and materials. Tyler thinks that it could be some kind of drone or missile which makes sense given the other wrecks we have found in the same general area.
In the screenshot above, you can see the anchor line to the top and left section of the wreck.
Below are a few more screenshots:
I’ve also included some photos below:
If anybody has thoughts or evidence for what this is, please get in touch with us!
Hey guys, could you possibly have found part of Alaska flight 261 that crashed in 2000? It did go down off Oxnard.
Thanks for reading and your comment!
Anything is possible, but I think it is unlikely. AS261 crashed 4.3km/2.3nm north of Anacapa in 650-700 feet of water. When it crashed, it was intact (i.e., pieces didn’t break up in the air). Given the location of that crash and where we found this debris, it is unlikely that it originated from AS261. Any debris that moved off of the original site due to currents and tides would face a pretty long ride and up the drop-off in between Oxnard & Anacapa. But, as I said, anything is possible. 🙂