Dictator's airplane becomes diving attraction

Diving aficionados tired of searching for the wrecks of medieval vessels have a novel, and decidedly unconventional attraction to contemplate off the Bulgarian coast.

Authorities in Sofia have allowed for a jetliner that once belonged to dictator Todor Zhivkov to be sunk in the Black Sea, not far from the port city of Varna.

Before the craft was lowered into the waters, it was stripped of its engines and cables. Otherwise, the plane, which was built in 1971 and in use until the regime collapsed in 1989, is intact.

Bulgaria's tourist industry hopes that the unusual object will help to draw more divers to the region.

Todor Zhivkov's shaky grasp of grammar and rough and ready manners made him the butt of countless jokes amongst intelligentsia circles in Sofia.

However, it is reported that the long-serving dictator, who made a habit of promoting his children to top state positions, collected all the jokes about himself, and refrained from hunting down the jesters.

Although put on trial after the fall of the Iron Curtain, he escaped the more grisly fate of his Romanian counterpart, Nikolae Ceaucescu.

He died in August 1998, aged 86.