Intro
Tyler and I had been planning a trip to the Coronado Island with Lora at Marissa Charters for a very long time. It was deferred at least 2-3 times due to weather, unplanned trips, etc. We finally got down there in early February 2026. Tyler had a friend who had seen an airplane wreck on a towed side-scan system and we had the approximate location. The plan was to use the sidescan on the Marissa to see if we could find it. It was my first trip to the Coronado Islands.
The Trip
It takes about 2 hours each way to get from the slip at Mission Bay Sports Club down to the Coronado Islands (at least the most northern one where we would be). It is important to note that these islands are in Mexico territorial waters which means you need to pre-arrange the trip and fill out a bunch of paperwork and pay some fees. You also need to bring your passport. Luckily, Lora had researched all of that and had previously made a couple trips to the islands.
We had relatively flat surface conditions but there was a pretty stiff wind blowing with some 15+ knot gusts which makes scanning tough. The skies were overcast to start but cleared up.
Tyler had recently bought a drop camera so we had a good chance to test that out and it was very helpful in ruling out a few different spots we thought might be worth diving.
The Wreck
This wreck has been known for a while but since we couldn’t find the aircraft, I thought it would make sense to dive it and make a photogrammetry model. I had also not been on it before so it was new to me.
The wreck lies off the south side of North Coronado island so it is not sheltered. We dropped the line and I spent about 18 minutes on the wreck and a total dive time of 55 minutes (I did some extra deco as usual).
The wreck looks like a sport fishing boat with an open back deck and a cabin with a pilot / captain station on top. There is also a center door area on the transom reminiscent of a fishing boat. The construction appears to be a mixture of wood and fiberglass.
It has split apart similar to other wrecks of similar type boats that we have seen. In this case, the pieces are scattered more than some others. It isn’t clear whether that has been caused by swells and storms or if that is just how it sank. The wreck also appears to have been split open like a tin can — perhaps due to an explosion in the fuel tank? I didn’t see any anchor or rope which leads me to believe it was purposefully sank.
The wreck was abundant with sea life including the normal rock fish, quite a few large ling cod and some lobsters.
I was running out of run-time on my dive and I spent a few minutes trying to brush off the rear transom to see if I could find a name of the boat but didn’t have enough time to really work on it.
Photos
Below are a few photos of the wreck starting with one natural light photo on my way down on the lower right.
Photogrammetry Model
Below are some screenshots of the model and a link to the on-line version.
Top Down View
Other Views / Angles
Online “Live” 3D Model
Final Thoughts
It was a great trip down to the Coronados. We were really hoping to find the airplane but we will just need to book another trip and try again. Maybe somebody that reads the article will know the origin or history of this wreck and I can update the article. We did some preliminary searches and came up with a few possibilities, but nothing specific enough to publish.
