When an airplane goes down to a watery grave, it slowly transforms into something other-worldly and astonishingly beautiful. Just like sunken ships, underwater plane wrecks become a playground for creatures of the deep and slowly corrode into something fantastic-looking. See for yourself!
Top image: crashed WW2 Corsair plane by Sphinx Wang/Shutterstock.
Lady of the Lake, a partially submerged WB-29, which is a variant of the iconic B-29 Superfortress, used for weather monitoring missions and to test radiation levels after nuclear weapon tests. It rests in a water-filled gravel pit on Eielson Air Force Base, 26 miles southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska.
(via United States Air Force, lns1122 and USAF/Wikimedia Commons)
A B-17F named "Black Jack", ditched close to the beach near Boga-Boga, Papua New Guinea after the crew was unable to reach Port Moresby after a succesful bombing mission. The bomber had two malfunctioning engines and running low on fuel. Sunk on June 10, 1943, rediscovered in 1986.
(via Indo Pacific Images and USAF/Wikimedia Commons)
An F6F Hellcat in the Pacific Ocean near Gizo, Solomon Islands
(via DiveGizo and U.S. Navy/Wikimedia Commons)
A Vought F4U Corsair fighter plane at Maunalua Bay, Hawaii. Sank in 1946 during a training exercise when it ran out of fuel.
(via Matt Kiefer, Mike Miller, Wikimedia Commons and Sphinx Wang/Shutterstock)
A wreck of a P-38 Lightning in Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea
(via Rhinopias and U.S. Air Force/Wikimedia Commons)
A Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero in Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea
(via Steve Jones and Kogo/Wikimedia Commons)
"Maid of Harlech", the oldest surviving P-38 Lightning (and the only intact P-38F), crash landed in Wales, 1942, resurfaced in 2007.
(via Warbirds News and U.S. Air Force)
A Grumman F6F Hellcat, rests upside-down, discovered near Miami Beach, Florida in 2012
(via OceanGate and U.S. Navy/Wikimedia Commons)
The F-4 Phantom of Subic Bay, Philippines. It was damaged beyond repair during Vietnam War and pushed off a US aircraft carrier.
(via Anders Poulsen and U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation/Wikimedia Commons)
Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 "Sparviero" (means Sparrowhawk), sunk near Kas, Turkey
(via ozancokdeger and Wikimedia Commons)
A Douglas DC-3, sunk to film Into The Blue (2005), Nassau, Bahamas
(via Marc AuMarc and Wikimedia Commons)
A Shorts 330-200 off Great Dog Island, Tasmania. The plane ran off the end of the runway into a bay in 1993. Later it was raised, but sunk again without wings as a part of an artificial reef.
(via Wikimedia Commons and Les Fruits de Mer)
A Swiss Sud Aviation Super Caravelle, sank off Porto Novo, Madeira, in December 1977, found in October 2011
(via Eduard Marmet/Airliners/Wikimedia Commons)
A Douglas C-47 Skytrain, the military version of the Douglas DC-3, off the coast of Antalya, Turkey
(via DiveAdvisor)
Bonus: A Hawker Siddley HS-748 in the Capernwray Diving Centre, Carnforth, Lancashire, England
(via Sportdiver 1 - 2 and Wikimedia Commons)