Travellers' Checks | Sunken Boeing 747 to be highlight of world’s largest underwater theme park in Bahrain

The world’s largest underwater theme park should open off the coast of Bahrain sometime in the next few months. The 100,000-square-metre “eco-friendly” facility will have as its unlikely centrepiece a submerged Boeing 747 – reportedly divested of all potentially harmful and hazardous contents.

Some might consider this a rather morbid attraction, and a promotional computer-rendered image of a Boeing 747 resting on the ocean floor is oddly reminiscent of the 1977 disaster film, Airport ’77. This third entry in the four-part Airport movie franchise featured a private Boeing 747 crash-landing in the sea during a hijack attempt, then sinking beneath the waves with passengers and crew, and divers attempting a rescue.

Soon after the film’s release, the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park, in Los Angeles, in the United States, began encouraging tourists of all ages to “Come survive the crash from Airport ’77!” Visitors to the live-action Screen Test Theatre were filmed playing out a number of scenes (“The terrifying crash! The underwater escape! The thrilling rescue!”) on several sound stages. They could then purchase the 3­½-minute finished product, edited and with sound added, on video cassette or an 8mm film reel, for home-viewing fun.

This went on for a few years and several people have uploaded their old copies to YouTube (search for “Airport 77 screen test” – they make for amusing viewing). There’s also a clever and unofficial four-minute “Airport 77 fantrailer” presenting the film in condensed form, which is worth watching first if you haven’t seen the original.