Baltimore Accident Recovery
In March 2004, Tyco Telecommunications Inc. received a request from the Baltimore City Fire Department for assistance in locating three victims of a tragic water taxi accident. The TYCO DECISIVE maneuvered to the location of the accident and began a series of dives with her unmanned submersible vehicle.
With hundreds of potential targets on the bottom of the harbor, it was clear that a miracle would be required to find the victims. During the evening operational briefing, Tyco's head submersibles engineer, Phil Walker, described a device called a DIDSON Acoustic Sonar that was reported to provide a near video quality image in a zero visibility environment. Howard Bales of MagnaPatch Company in Houston, Texas quickly arrived with his DIDSON, and it was integrated onto the ROV.
Tyco brought in John DeMille from Marine Sonic Technology Ltd. who provided target data from a separate side scan sonar to prioritize the search areas and identify possible targets on the harbor bottom. Once the targets were identified and classified, the ROV was maneuvered closer to the target and the DIDSON unit was focused on the target. The DIDSON performed as advertised and provided the ROV crew with near video quality images of the seabed and positively pinpointed the location of the missing victims. With the DIDSON focused on a victim, the ROV was positioned about a meter away. The TYCO DECISIVE was maneuvered directly adjacent to the ROV umbilical which served as a down line for the Baltimore City Fire Department divers. This technique reduced dive time to a minimum and greatly assisted the divers who worked in the extremely cold and dark waters. The three victims were successfully located and recovered. Failure was never an option.
Text taken from Submarine Telecom Forum,
Issue 14, May 2004