The 1948 wreckage of a U.S. bomber at the bottom of Lake Mead has been called a "submerged cultural resource" by the National Park Service. Others say it's evidence of Park Service gross mismanagement.
The B-29 Superfortress crashed during a secret mission and lay unseen until five years ago, when it was found by expert divers who had gone in search of the wreckage. But instead of allowing the dive team to make a television special about the discovery and then salvage it for public display, the Park Service asserted ownership and won its case in court.
Then the Park Service did something that divers say all but guaranteed that treasure hunters would strip the wreckage. The agency put buoys on the surface near the airplane, which had remained hidden for a half-century under 210 feet of water. The buoys included a warning: "No anchoring, mooring or diving permitted."
Park Service spokeswoman Roxanne Dey said the agency wanted to alert boaters to call the Park Service if they spotted suspicious activity within the marked area. The purpose was to try to prevent pilfering.
The buoys have the opposite effect, said Gregg Mikolasek, the diver who found the plane and lost his fight to raise it.
"For an organization that supposedly wanted to keep this location closely guarded to prevent unauthorized access, this seems an odd method to use to achieve that outcome," Mikolasek, a former Henderson resident who now lives in Florida, said in an e-mail to the Sun.
Mikolasek and other expert divers say that the condition of the aircraft deteriorated after the Park Service took control. Portions of the aircraft show signs of damage from boat anchors near the cockpit, and the manufacturer's engine plate from the only surviving engine is missing.
The condition of the aircraft will be the subject of much discussion this week because the Park Service is hosting a media day to allow photography of the wreckage and to update the public on its condition. The agency also will announce plans to allow qualified divers to begin making authorized dives to the wreckage later this year.
Mikalosek said that as long as the buoys remain, the aircraft will be easy for vandals to find. "It's probably only a matter of time until items like yokes and gauges start disappearing, as it is obvious that at least some divers will descend on that bird with hammer and chisel in hand, now that the site has been marked for all to see."
Expert diver Peter Hess, a Delaware attorney for Historic Aircraft Recovery Corp, agreed that the aircraft's condition has changed.
"Clearly there has been additional damage to the wreckage since it was discovered," Hess said. "It hasn't been protected very well. Ultimately, the Park Service is supposed to manage its resources so they've fallen down on the job."
Diver Bill Gornet of the equipment and supply shop Dive Las Vegas said the buoys are easy to spot in the Overton Arm section of the lake.
When he joined Mikolasek and others on a dive to the B-29 last May, Gornet said he saw evidence of anchor damage to the starboard side of the plane, 20 to 30 feet behind the cockpit. Gornet said the damage likely was caused by divers who are trained in technical dives -- dives that require more elaborate equipment, training and planning than recreational dives because of the deeper depths involved.
Dey said the Park Service is aware that items have been taken from the plane and that it has suffered other damage since 2002. The agency is conducting an investigation and will not disclose details about the vandalism until the review is complete.
Dey, however, said that the buoys do not pinpoint the wreckage. "Some people have charged that we put a bull's-eye on the location of the plane but that's not true," Dey said. "It is an area of at least four square acres so it's not an 'X' marks the spot."
Divers counter that anyone capable of going deep enough to see the wreckage have the determination and equipment to find it within those buoys.
"The people who would go to the B-29 would have to be technical divers," Gornet said. "Recreational divers usually don't go down more than 100 feet."
Dey lamented that theft and damage is commonplace throughout the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and is not confined to the B-29. A major problem for the Park Service, she said, is that it has fewer than 40 rangers to patrol the 1.5-million-acre recreation area.
"We have such a huge area to cover," Dey said. "We can't be at every place around the park at all times, especially on the water. It is impossible for us to have rangers stay at the B-29 site. We don't have that luxury."
Mikolasek led a team of divers who first pinpointed the location of the aircraft through underwater scanning equipment in December 2000. He and his team first made a dive to the aircraft in September 2001.
Although Mikolasek's intent was to preserve the aircraft from possible abuse by other divers - the Park Service didn't learn of the find until a week before it was reported by the media in 2002 - the discovery became mired in litigation.
Mikolasek's company, In Depth International Inc., had struck a deal with Historic Aircraft to produce a television documentary of the wreckage and then salvage the aircraft for public display.
But the Park Service stepped into the picture as soon as it learned of the find, and beginning in August 2002 prohibited any diving at the site other than its own.
Then, in December 2004, the Park Service began instituting diving restrictions for the Overton Arm, requiring special scuba diving permits for that area of the lake.
In reality, though, the only divers who have been permitted to enter the Overton Arm have been Park Service employees or consultants to the agency. Mikolasek was permitted to dive last May in connection with the litigation.
That dive was the last time that any individuals other than Park Service employees or their consultants have been permitted to visit the wreckage, Dey said.
Rumors have abounded -- none of them confirmed -- that the precise coordinates of the wreckage were somehow publicized or leaked to divers responsible for the theft that has occurred.
AAI Neptune Divers owner Steve Castle of Las Vegas said he believes the Park Service is trying hard to make the plane accessible to divers "but the problem is trying to protect it."
One idea he has is for the Park Service to develop a list of trained tour guides who could be hired to escort divers to the wreckage.
"I don't believe anyone should be allowed to dive to the B-29 without a certified tour guide," Castle said.
Steve Kanigher can be reached at 259-4075 or at [email protected].
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