Tied to an orange buoy about 100 yards off the south side of the peninsula, the plane is easy to locate, even for inexperienced divers.
"To me it was extremely worth it. I think that from the standpoint of the diver's community it's just been very valuable. It creates something to talk about and dive on. It's amazing to me to this day, I'll be talking to someone who isn't even a diver at the grocery store or at the bank and they find out I'm a diver and they'll ask if I've ever dove the F-4. It's been tremendous!"
Hans Baumann, a diver from Truckee, said for him, the F-4 has a mysterious, magnetic quality. "It's hard to really explain other than that, I've done over 50 dives in the Marina now over the last year and a half," said the 39-year-old truck driver. "I'll take people out there at any time when I'm available to do it. I keep going back to it. To me, it's a challenge."
One diver says it's kind of eerie, initially. As you approach the plane, you can begin to make out the shadow and the shape. And once you're down on the airplane, you stay relatively close to it and you just swim around and explore.
Schwartz had bars installed over it so divers can't climb in the cockpit, but you can still see all the controls inside. As you swim underneath it you can see all the landing gear. And you can swim in the engine bay on the back end. It's got enough room in there for one to two divers.