Bahrain launches the world’s largest underwater diving park

Bahrain underwater theme park imageHE Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism highlighted that the launch of the world’s largest underwater diving park is currently underway. The park will be the largest diving park in the world spanning an area of 100,000 sqm, and is expected to open to divers and visitors in August 2019. According to sources, the largest ever plane is to be submerged in the ocean as the first phase of Dive Bahrain got under way. Local and international divers and a fleet of tugboats are working to relocate the decommissioned Boeing 747 jumbo jet to its new home in the Arabian Gulf. The 70-metre long plane was bought from a Dubai-based airline. It is expected to rest at a depth of around 24 metres and will be positioned nose up in the water to allow novice divers access to the aircraft at shallower depths.

In preparation for its submersion, the Dive Bahrain team worked for eight months to ensure the aircraft was environmentally friendly. “We could have just sunk it the way it was when it was transported here, but that’s not our intention. Every hazardous material has been removed; all plastic material has been removed. Even the bolts and the screws were removed so that we could clean any oil residue, before putting them back on,” said Hamad Al Mahmeed, project manager at Dive Bahrain.

HE Zayed bin Rashed Al Zayani, the Minister of Industry and Commerce revealed, “We are proud to launch this unique eco-friendly project in cooperation with the Supreme Council for Environment and the private sector.”