Every scuba diver and photographer that works beneath the waters dreams of making an interesting discovery beneath the seas. It was the same for Brandi Mueller who encountered several astonishing locations but not any sunken treasures or ruins. As the years rolled By, the lady began to believe that she was not destined to make a discovery of such importance.
Tag it destiny or fate or whatever but the story took a different turn during a supposedly mundane vacation to the Marshall Islands. When she was on a dive, one of the days, Mueller’s attention was drawn to a weird object embedded on the seabed. On moving closer, the photographer made a fascinating life-changing discovery! She had been itching to find something iconic but this was not what she envisaged at all.
Dream Of A Lifetime. A Lifelong Goal
Brandi Mueller grew an obsession with two things; the seas and photography – right from her childhood days in Cameron, Wisconsin. At a much younger age, she always got her family to vacation on islands surrounded By seas and when she turned 15, she already had the makings of an excellent diver. In recent times, she stated that she had learnt scuba diving as a 15-year old foreign exchange student in New Zealand.
The enthusiastic sea diver had a dream of discovering something ground-breaking; something so big it would go down in history. If only she knew that such a day was closer than anticipated…
Bravely Serving Her Country. A Brave Patriotic Citizen.
To quell her growing hunger for the waters, Mueller joined the U.S. Coast Guard immediately after high school. As a member of the Coast Guard, she visited some of the world’s greatest ports. According to her, she’s been quite fortunate with her trips. She said that as a diver, she went to the Caribbean, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, Turks and Caicos including numerous other places.
Afterwards, Mueller offered diving classes and brought others in on her passion for the seas. She also learnt the rudiments of piloting a boat. She stated that she grew t become Divemaster while in college and began giving diving instruction lessons as soon as she graduated. She revealed that she just happened to learn how to captain a boat while working as an instructor and guide. But these experiences combined together couldn’t have prepared the young woman for what she would find deep in the Pacific Ocean.
An Amazing Photographer
Although, it seems Mueller developed a passion for diving out of the blue, her interest in and love for photography was impacted By her parents. Actually, she made a hobBy out of it By taking photos of nature with her parents’ camera. At age 15, her eyes had become trained to catch details. Her amazing diving skills in combination with her ability to skillfully handle a camera would make her into a maven amongst nature photographers.
Mueller counts herself fortunate to be one of those whose careers align with their passion having received multiple awards and recognition from the National Geographic as well as the Smithsonian. However, she still had a desire to make a historic feat.
Mind-Blowing Dive Spots. Incredible Diving Locations.
Mueller does not lack amazing spots to visit over and over, thanks to the many experiences she has in her arsenal. She revealed that she has a special liking for diving through wrecks and ruins. She continued, saying that the Chuuk Micronesia which was known as the Truk Lagoon where a big WW II battle held is home to several crashed planes, wrecked ships and other war items. According to her, those war ships have become reefs underneath the healthy Micronesian waters an they are brimming outgrown soft corals as well as fish and other sea.
But Mueller wouldn’t make her greatest discovery at any of these awe-inspiring places. She bumped into her huge finding someplace distant from any regular vacation spot.
Off to Vacation
After a decade of tutoring and working with the Coast Guard, Brandi Mueller who was 31 at the time took some time off to travel. Rather than going off to one of the diving locations she fancies the most, she chose to revisit a lovely location she had been to just once – The Marshall Islands. For those who haven’t heard, the Marshall Islands consist of a long, lean stretch of islands somewhere in the middle of Hawaii and the Philippines.
The first couple of days had Mueller doing the usual dives on the islands. Afterwards, she went with a friend to visit a new diving spot she heard about. It was located five miles away from the Roi-Namu island, not known By many divers.
A place Charted By Few Divers
If the Marshall Islands is not on your list of visited places, know that its beauty is enchanting. Asides that, it’s a place filled with some of the most charming sites for a dive in the whole world with many shipwrecks and reefs abounding in sea life. It’s not surprising Mueller grew fond of taking a dive there.
But on that fateful day, Mueller was delving into an area only few divers had ever ventured into. Initially, things were looking regular. But then, a huge strange-looking form appeared before Mueller in the water underneath her.
Something Down Below
As you could picture, Mueller felt a rush of fear and keen anticipation when she noticed the huge forms below. This could be the diver’s dream discovery. Then again, thoughts of horrors lurking beneath the seas flooded her as inspired By the movies; Jaws or The AByss. Yet, she dove to get a closer look at what she’d found.
On getting closer to the objects, they began to forma definite shape before Mueller. She saw huge, flat metal pieces hanging off bigger steel tubes. What sort of strange objects were these?
Going Up-close
On getting closer to the unknown object, Mueller paused. In all her excitement, she didn’t remember to prep her camera!. It took a minute and she was ready to take shots of her discovery before moving along. While her fingers took the shots, her heart raced wildly and her breathing intensified, expressing her excitement about her latest find.
On getting to the object, she observed that the areas made of metal were not plain, rather, they appeared to be painted with a few colorful symbols. These symbols were the key to uncovering her finding undeath the ocean.
An Astonishing Discovery.
As Brandi Mueller got closer and observed the symbols painted on the metal, it hit her that she was in fact looking at an airplane! A close-up view of the plane revealed that it had been there for a long time. But just how long? Mueller couldn’t tell. Other questions surfaced in her mind. She wondered why someone had abandoned a plane there and why it had not been found By anyone.
Although Mueller was aware that she had made a historic discovery, she didn’t know that that was just the beginning of her findings. On combing through the wreck, she kept uncovering more and more things.
A Graveyard About 70 Years Old?
A swim around the plane brought Mueller face to face with another object, just By the side. it was a second plane! As she dove towards it, another came into sight! The planes were hundreds in number. Her heartbeat quickened again. Although, she had always wished to find a wreck that had not been discovered, never had she dreamed of finding a whole graveyard with with hundreds of them.
Mueller was perplexed to make such a discovery bearing in mind that such things ever rarely happened twice in one lifetime. With that in mind, her hands flew to her camera and she started taking photos. She later told MailOnline that it was named the Airplane Graveyard. As she went on with her exploration, the mysterious nature of the airplanes dawned on her.