Ian France

Ian France is one of the UK’s top and most respected, technical diving Instructor Trainers with thousands of hours underground  and underwater. Ian specializes in Advanced Cave and Mine diving but is also been involved in nautical archaeology, commercial diving operations, safety and support diving, scientific diving and TV diving documentaries for the BBC and other broadcast networks. Currently most active in the North East UK’s ‘Graveyard’ project helping locate and identify shipwrecks, working with the Underwater Filming & Research (UFR) unit documenting wrecks in the Aegean Sea, and with Heritage Archeology projects in Greece.

Ian provides OC & CCR Cave, Mine and Technical diver training at diver and instructor level throughout the world, and when not teaching – is a very active diver, exploring caves, mines, wrecks, and the ocean. Ian has been responsible for exploring, and mapping, virgin cave and un-dived mines.

A member of the Nordic Explorers (https://www.facebook.com/NordicExplorers), the British Cave Diving Group (CDG, https://cavedivinggroup.org.uk/), a founding member of the UK Mine/Cave Diving & Exploration Group (UKMC, www.ukmine-cave.com), and a regular instructor, and speaker, at Tekcamp (www.tekcamp.co.uk), Cave Camp (www.cavecamp.com), and BalticTech (www.baltictech.com).

Title of the presentation: Vickers Wellington Project: the hidden gem of the Aegean Sea

While most of World War Two wrecks are a reminder of how fragile human life can be, the Vickers Wellington on the contrary captures an incredible survival story. The crew skillfully ditched the aircraft after being shot down and were rescued by the locals. The wreck now rests at 74m in gin clear waters of Sifnos.