They activated the pumps. The water roared. They released a simulated diver near the mouth of the scoop. There was a sickening thump-squelch .
The sun was a relentless hammer over the California hills as Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage stood at the edge of a sheer cliff, looking down at a shimmering reservoir. Beside them sat a pristine 1990s sedan and a professional scuba rig.
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...
Adam grinned, holding up a singed flipper. "Myth: . But man, we destroyed that car."
They headed to a specialized testing facility. Adam stood by a high-powered water intake pipe, holding a mannequin. "Okay, if the plane travels at 100 knots, the suction at the intake is immense." They activated the pumps
"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."
"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." There was a sickening thump-squelch
Jamie adjusted his beret. "It’s statistically improbable, physically grueling, and involves dropping things from great heights. Let's get to work." Phase 1: The Plunge