"The myth is simple," Adam said, his eyes gleaming behind his spectacles. "A scuba diver, minding his own business in a lake, gets scooped up by a low-flying firefighting plane and dumped directly onto a forest fire."
"To be scooped up, you'd have to be a diver the size of a shrimp," Jamie concluded. "And even if you survived the trip up, the fall from a thousand feet into a flaming forest would definitely finish the job."
"Well," Adam said, peering into the grate. "He made it into the tank. But he’s currently in about fourteen different pieces. The intake grates on those planes are only a few inches wide." The Verdict
Back at the shop, surrounded by twisted metal and damp neoprene, the duo delivered the news.
To test the "Car Cap" theory—the idea that a car hitting water could create a vacuum or a physical 'cap' that traps a diver—they built a rig. They submerged a crash test dummy, "Buster," in full scuba gear ten feet below the surface. "Dropping the car!" Adam shouted into his radio.
The crane released. Two tons of steel plummeted, hitting the water with a thunderous crack . The car didn't just sink; it pancaked, sending a geyser of white foam fifty feet into the air. When the silt cleared, they dove down to find Buster. He wasn't trapped under a "cap"; he was flattened against the lake bed.
Watch Mythbusters S03e02 Scuba Diver And Car Ca... May 2026
"The myth is simple," Adam said, his eyes gleaming behind his spectacles. "A scuba diver, minding his own business in a lake, gets scooped up by a low-flying firefighting plane and dumped directly onto a forest fire."
"To be scooped up, you'd have to be a diver the size of a shrimp," Jamie concluded. "And even if you survived the trip up, the fall from a thousand feet into a flaming forest would definitely finish the job." Watch Mythbusters S03e02 Scuba Diver And Car Ca...
"Well," Adam said, peering into the grate. "He made it into the tank. But he’s currently in about fourteen different pieces. The intake grates on those planes are only a few inches wide." The Verdict "The myth is simple," Adam said, his eyes
Back at the shop, surrounded by twisted metal and damp neoprene, the duo delivered the news. "He made it into the tank
To test the "Car Cap" theory—the idea that a car hitting water could create a vacuum or a physical 'cap' that traps a diver—they built a rig. They submerged a crash test dummy, "Buster," in full scuba gear ten feet below the surface. "Dropping the car!" Adam shouted into his radio.
The crane released. Two tons of steel plummeted, hitting the water with a thunderous crack . The car didn't just sink; it pancaked, sending a geyser of white foam fifty feet into the air. When the silt cleared, they dove down to find Buster. He wasn't trapped under a "cap"; he was flattened against the lake bed.
