The wreck of a Japanese Aichi E13A 'Jake' seaplane that was missing for 50 years

@ElentirENG ES 3·28·2023 · 23:41 0

During World War II, the Pacific Ocean was a vast maritime battlefield between the United States and the Japanese Empire.

The Maid of Harlech: the P-38 fighter that was buried on a beach for 65 years
Kwajalein: a huge graveyard with about 160 World War II aircraft at the bottom of the sea

The Pacific Ocean still hides many remains of ships and planes that ended up buried in its waters. One of them is in Palau, an independent republic made up of more than 300 islands located in Micronesia. During World War II these islands were under Japanese rule. Near the largest island of the archipelago, Babelthuap, a short distance from its capital, Koror, an Imperial Japanese Navy Aichi E13A-1 'Jake' seaplane sank for unknown reasons during that war.

As also happened with many other aircraft during, the plane was missing for half a century, until it was found in 1994 by a fisherman, according to the web Fishnfins.com. It is 6 meters deep and today it has become an attraction for divers. Two months ago, a Chinese diver, Hermione Wu, posted an interesting video showing the remains of this plane:

You can see here some captures of the video. Here we see the starboard wing.

The front part of the cockpit , covered with molluscs.

The "Jake" was equipped with a Mitsubishi MK8 Kinsei 43 piston engine , with a power of 1,060 horsepower. Here we see that the engine has separated from the rest of the fuselage, perhaps due to its weight.

A side image of the seaplane, in which we see that the fuselage is split, with the tail section having separated.

An image of the port wing and the rear of the fuselage. It is unknown why the plane crashed, although it is speculated that the engine had died and it had had a forced ditching.

The seaplane's port skid. "Jakes" operated from seaplane carriers and heavy ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, serving as long-range reconnaissance aircraft. Each carried three crew members: a pilot, a radio operator, and a gunner for the Type 92 7.7mm machine gun that was mounted in the rear of the cockpit for defensive armament.