Sunken bomber in Lake Mead opens for guided tours

Joel Silverstein dives at the remaining engine and propellor of a crashed World War II era B-29 Superfortress bomber on the bottom of Lake Mead on Jan. 2, 2008. The bomber, nicknamed "Beatle Bomber," crashed and sunk in the Overton Arm of Lake Mead on July 21, 1948, with all five crew members surviving the incident. The National Park Service selected Tech Diving Limited of Lake Havasu City, Ariz., to conduct guided tours of the wreckage under a two-year contract. (Photo by Mel Clark/Courtesy STT Inc.)

A National Park Service underwater archeologist examines the cowling and propeller of a crashed World War II era B-29 Superfortress bomber on the bottom of Lake Mead, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2006. The bomber, nicknamed "Beatle Bomber," crashed and sunk in the Overton Arm of Lake Mead on July 21, 1948, with all five crew members surviving the incident. The four engine heavy bomber, the largest of the World War II era, used 2,200 hp Wright Double Cyclone engines driving massive propellers with a diameter of over 16 feet. (Photo courtesy of the National Park Service)

A diver wearing a mixed-gas rig swims over the cockpit of a World War II era B-29 Superfortress bomber as it rests at a depth of 170 feet below the surface of Overton Arm of Lake Mead, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2006. The World War II era heavy bomber crashed into the lake on July 21, 1948 while engaged in top-secret research. Lake Mead National Recreation Area personnel, elite marine archaeologist divers from the National Park Service Submerged Resource Center and technical dive experts from NOAA, dove on the site to record the condition of the wreck and to provide images to the public. (Photo courtesy of the National Park Service)

Joel Silverstein dives at the remaining engine and propellor of a crashed World War II era B-29 Superfortress bomber on the bottom of Lake Mead on Jan. 2, 2008. The bomber, nicknamed "Beatle Bomber," crashed and sunk in the Overton Arm of Lake Mead on July 21, 1948, with all five crew members surviving the incident. The National Park Service selected Tech Diving Limited of Lake Havasu City, Ariz. to conduct guided tours of the wreckage under a two-year contract. (Photo by Mel Clark/Courtesy STT Inc.)

The pilot's seat showing parachute at the nose section of a crashed World War II era B-29 Superfortress bomber on the bottom of Lake Mead on Dec. 28, 2007. The bomber, nicknamed "Beatle Bomber," crashed and sunk in the Overton Arm of Lake Mead on July 21, 1948, with all five crew members surviving the incident. The National Park Service selected Tech Diving Limited of Lake Havasu City, Ariz. to conduct guided tours of the wreckage under a two-year contract. (Photo by Mel Clark/Courtesy STT Inc.)

A diver looks at the pilot's seat of a crashed World War II era B-29 Superfortress bomber on the bottom of Lake Mead on Dec. 28, 2007. The bomber, nicknamed "Beatle Bomber," crashed and sunk in the Overton Arm of Lake Mead on July 21, 1948, with all five crew members surviving the incident. The National Park Service selected Tech Diving Limited of Lake Havasu City, Ariz. to conduct guided tours of the wreckage under a two-year contract. (Photo by Mel Clark/Courtesy STT Inc.)

The pilot's steering controls at nose section of a crashed World War II era B-29 Superfortress bomber are shown on the bottom of Lake Mead on Jan. 2, 2008. The bomber, nicknamed "Beatle Bomber," crashed and sunk in the Overton Arm of Lake Mead on July 21, 1948, with all five crew members surviving the incident. The National Park Service selected Tech Diving Limited of Lake Havasu City, Ariz. to conduct guided tours of the wreckage under a two-year contract. (Photo by Mel Clark/Courtesy STT Inc.)

A diver looks under the tail wing section of a crashed World War II era B-29 Superfortress bomber on the bottom of Lake Mead on Dec. 28, 2007. The bomber, nicknamed "Beatle Bomber," crashed and sunk in the Overton Arm of Lake Mead on July 21, 1948, with all five crew members surviving the incident. The National Park Service selected Tech Diving Limited of Lake Havasu City, Ariz. to conduct guided tours of the wreckage under a two-year contract. (Photo by Mel Clark/Courtesy STT Inc.)

Joel Silverstein dives at the tail observation port of a crashed World War II era B-29 Superfortress bomber on the bottom of Lake Mead on Jan. 2, 2008. The bomber, nicknamed "Beatle Bomber," crashed and sunk in the Overton Arm of Lake Mead on July 21, 1948, with all five crew members surviving the incident. The National Park Service selected Tech Diving Limited of Lake Havasu City, Ariz. to conduct guided tours of the wreckage under a two-year contract. (Photo by Mel Clark/Courtesy STT Inc.)

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By HENRY BREAN LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

April 23, 2015 - 6:30 am

A World War II-era bomber at the bottom of Lake Mead is about to welcome its first tourists in seven years.

A Lake Havasu City, Ariz., dive company is slated to take its first paying clients down to the sunken B-29 Superfortress on Friday.

The National Park Service selected Tech Diving Limited earlier this month to conduct guided tours of the wreckage under a two-year contract.

During that period, Tech Diving will be allowed to take no more than 200 divers to the B-29, which rests at a depth of about 115 feet thanks to near-record low conditions in the lake.

The same company was involved the last time the Park Service allowed guided tours of the site in 2007 and 2008.

“It’s an adventure that very few people get to have,” said Joel Silverstein, vice president and chief operating officer for the dive company. “Rarely do you get to see an intact airplane.”

Tours are being offered for $300 for a half-day outing or $450 for a full day that includes two dives on the mostly intact aircraft. Discounts are available on Tech Diving’s website. Only divers with the right equipment and a high enough certification will be allowed.

The B-29 crashed in Lake Mead’s Overton Arm on July 21, 1948, during a mission to test a secret ballistic missile guidance system. All five crew members survived, but the bomber was lost until August 2001, when local divers discovered it sitting upright and mostly intact on the lake bottom.

Archaeologists from the Park Service’s Submerged Resources Center later documented the wreck, and one-year permits were awarded in 2007 and 2008 to two companies for guided technical dives at the site, then at a depth of roughly 160 feet.

Those permits were not renewed in 2009, partly because the “purveyors of underwater adventure” struggled to turn a profit on the expensive, technical outings in the midst of an economic downturn that saw spending on dives, well, take a dive, Silverstein said.

He’s more hopeful this time around.

“We’re half-booked already” through October,” he said.

The tours will be launched out of Lake Mead’s Echo Bay, about 60 miles east of Las Vegas. They will be intimate affairs, with no more than one guide and one or two tourists making the trip.

Tech Diving Limited’s two-year, commercial-use permit allows up to 100 divers a year at the B-29 wreck and unlimited scuba instruction and charter dives to other “submerged resources” in Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

“The point is to limit the impact on the site itself,” Silverstein said.

Depending on the type of breathing equipment used, divers will spend between 40 and 90 minutes at the bottom — enough time to circle the massive bomber, look through the windows at the crew’s seats and flight controls and snap pictures, all while avoiding making contact with the almost 67-year-old wreck.

Conditions at the site are dark and cold but relatively clear, with water temperatures in 50s and 30 to 50 feet of visibility. With the lake as low as it is, Silverstein said, “there is a fair amount of ambient light penetrating the water,” but those who make the dive will carry multiple flashlights.