The “TriStar” wreck is a non-Jordanian commercial aero plane that has been out of service and parked at King Hussein International Airport for several years. In April 2019, photos of the former Luzair CS-TMP emerged with the aircraft laying with its wings clipped, near the waters of the Gulf of Aqaba. The iconic, medium-to-long-range, widebody trijet airliner was scuttled on the 26th of August 2019 with its wings and horizontal stabilizers re-attached.
It is located just a few meters from the shoreline, next to the Power
Station Reef dive site, adjacent to Aqaba Container Terminal.
The wreck sits on a sandy slope where the substrate composition
of the seabed has low complexity, and no growth of fringing
coral reefs is present. Diving the TriStar is very enjoyable, with
the cockpit at 15 meters which makes it accessible to open water
divers, while its tail drops to the depth of 30 meters. Inside the
plane divers can find complete interior including the seats and
see all of the instruments inside the cockpit. Divers can also drop
down into the cargo hold, and swim through the vent of the main
central engine.
It’s interesting interior makes it Unique dive site.
The intertidal zone is mainly sandy with the upper part consisting
of shell fragments and medium/large rocks. The lower intertidal is
an extensive sandy seabed with patches of gravel and flat boulders.
The sub-tidal zone is dominated by a sandy substrate that is either
bare or covered by a mixture of Halophila stipulacea and Halodule
uninervis seagrass species.
The seabed on the southern side of the plane is composed mainly
of a sandy substrate with small and medium scattered reef patches,
while the seabed on the northern side is covered either by sand
with some coral patches or by wide areas of seagrass meadows
down to 30 meters. The purpose of the wreck, which already has
become a new attraction for divers visiting Aqaba, is to create a
unique, artificial coral reef, and a healthy habitat for fish and other
marine organisms.
