Posts Tagged ‘YAP Films’

Dive Detectives and the Flier Wreck

Memorial Ceremony | Posted by Rebekah
Jul 08 2010

I have an announcement about the Dive Detective show that everyone has been looking for in the US.

As most who have been following this show know, the documentary about the Flier’s discovery and wreck has been shown in Canada and the UK, but the distribution rights in the US are still being negotiated.

YAP Films, however, has graciously given one copy of the film to the Great Lakes Naval Memorial and Museum for our guests to see.  The paperwork we had to sign dictates that this film will be used for show only, we may not copy, sell, distribute, or otherwise use it except to show it in our theater.

So for those who have been desperate to see the documentary, literally, the only place to see it in the United States for the foreseeable future, is the museum, and we will not be able to accommodate those who cannot come to our grounds to see it.  Sorry.

Hopefully, the distribution rights for this film will be settled soon and the Flier documentary will be shown in the US along with the other five episodes the Dive Detectives did.  (Though I’m nearly desperate to see the Flier episode, I’m also very interested their show in the Edmund Fitzgerald and the 1812 warships in Lake Erie, and the one about the Atom Bomb assembly island.)

But on August 13, 2010, if you are in Muskegon Michigan, you can watch the “Submarine Graveyard” episode of Dive Detectes.

Whether Mike and Warren Fletcher, the divers who found and filmed the Flier, will be there too, is still up in the air.  I’ll keep you posted.

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BREAKING: Trailer released for Dive Detectives

The Book, The Exhibit | Posted by Rebekah
Mar 12 2010

I’ve noticed a lot of people have found this site looking for photos or images of the Flier wreck.  Those are all in the possession of the filmers, YAP Films and Mike and Warren Fletcher of Dive Detectives.  The search for the Flier will be featured in a future episode of “Dive Detectives” called “Submarine Graveyard” and they recently posted their trailer for this episode, and the first glimpses of the USS Flier at rest in Balabac Straits!

There’s no news yet on when this will air, but it will definitely be exciting when it does especially since it seems they are tracking not only the Flier, but her sister the Robalo, whose grave location is still unknown and the fate of the crew is still a mystery.

On another note, I was able to meet with someone today who was able to give me wonderful insights into my main character, Al, and will require quite a bit of work, but I think will really improve the book.  I’ll have to re-write a couple of scenes, that’s for sure!

And as for the exhibit, we’re still looking for funding, but hopefully, as more stuff about the Flier comes out, we may find sponsors or get interest from foundations.  I’ll keep everyone posted.

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BREAKING NEWS!!!!!

Uncategorized | Posted by Rebekah
Feb 04 2010

Originally Posted February 2, 2010

USS FLIER FOUND!!!!!
Flier flying away
BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!

The USS FLIER has been found!!!!!

In the sixty-six years after the war ended, only a handful of non-grounded submarines have ever been found.  Due to the secrecy of most of their missions, some of their fates have never been known, and some some simply disappeared in the depths.

Since the USS Flier had survivors, there was a good general idea of where the Flier might be located, but the water where she went down was near a deep channel.  The Flier could have been located in water only a couple of hundred feet deep to nearly one thousand feet deep.  In any case, the Navy, knowing the Flier was lost, announced her loss with most hands, and closed Balabac Channel to keep other submarines from Flier’s fate.

In 1998, Al Jacobson, the youngest officer who survived the sinking, traveled back to the Palawan archipelago with his younger son Steve,  to visit the places where he had “involuntarily visited”.  He asked to be taken to the place where Flier likely sunk.  The ocean was too cloudy that day, but native fishermen told them that on days when the water was crystal clear, they had seen a submarine down there, but it was too deep to dive on.  (Moreover, the wreck was “guarded” by two dangerous fish).

Al never gave up finding the Flier, and started to research where, precisely, she may have come to rest.  He died of brain cancer in 2008, but his family and two sons kept going.

In the spring of 2009, Steve and his son traveled to the Palawan group with YAP Films and found a submarine right were Al’s research indicated she would be.  As is normal, no one announced this find because, though it may be obvious that what has been found is a US submarine, only the Navy, looking a photographs and film of a wreck and comparing it to the last-known configurations and photographs of submarine, can confirm which one it is.  It takes several weeks to several years, which is why, though found last spring, it has taken this long to officially confirm that the wreck found last year is indeed the Flier!

No photographs as of yet, but here is the official press release!  http://www.ussflier.com/release.htm

I knew Al for close to three years, and this was his greatest wish was to find her to give the families of his friends the gift of knowing where their loved ones laid.    He always talked about wanting to see her again, and finding out if someone had opened the aft escape hatch, and just to see her one more time.  I’m sorry he wasn’t able to do so, but it is AMAZING that his dream has been fulfilled.

THIS certainly changes the floorplan and the exhibit!  I was going to post a bit about the exhibit floorplan in the next day or so, but now I have to re-write it to include this new development!

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