A Catalina PBY being used in the filming of the Nicolas Cage movie “USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage” remains stranded off the shore of Orange Beach, Alabama, after taking on water Monday.
The WWII aircraft was performing touch and goes for cameras Monday when flooding began.
“It made a couple of turns and a couple of runs, and then we got a call that it was having a little trouble,” said John Rutger, dive operations coordinator for the film.
Scuba diving to inspect the plane, he saw no signs of major structural damage, but the seaplane continued flooding, so Rutger and his crew set up pumps and called a tow boat to drag the seaplane to shore.
“We couldn’t stay ahead of it, so we pulled him into the beach here and tried to keep the pumps going,” Rutger said.
Later that evening, a crew arrived with two tractors to pull the plane free from the sandbar with a cable — but it snapped, leaving the Catalina PBY stranded.
Although there are plans to move the plane, it remains lodged offshore, where it’s become a popular photo op for visitors of Orange Beach.
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