Spirit of Miami

The Spirit of Miami is a 727 jet commissioned in 1965 under Northwest Airlines, later flying with National and Pan Am. She was sunk in the Key Biscayne Artificial Reef Site by DERM (Department of Environmental Resource Management) on September 8, 1993, in 82 feet of water. The GPS coordinates for this site are Latitude 25 41' 52.8" and Longitude 80 5' 13.32" In contrat to the ususal explosive technique of sinking ships, she was simply placed on the sandy bottom with a crane.

During 1995, Tropical Storm Gordon caused the 727 to break in half, separating the forward fuselage, nose and wings from the tail section, which now sits in 110 feet of water.

Funded by ECOSAT, the Education Council for Space Technology, the Spirit of Miami was utilized as a vehicle to support education and the exploration of inner space by Dade County school children through the MAST Academy, a Dade County Magnet School. 109 experiments designed by school children were mounted on top of and inside the airliner. The experiments addressed a wide range of relevant and interesting issues including, "The effect of phosphates and other materials on the growth of algae." In addition to the experiments, a fifty year time capsule was placed in a secret location inside the 727.