Wreckage Recovery from 900 feet

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Fzaheer

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Hi All,

I would request an explanatory answer to my question and this is not a theoratical question.

What is the possibility to recover a body and a plane wreckage from around 900 feet under sea. I would appreciate a response with little bit of explanation and any hope. Plus are there any people out there who are equipped to do this kind of dive and recovery, what kind of costs are involved etc.

Many Thanks
FZ
 
It most likely would be done with an ROV, not a diver. The hard part is finding it, not the recovery. There are firms that can do this, like Oceaneering. it is not cheap; offhand, I'd guess maybe $200-500k plus transit time and search time.
 
This is a two-part question. Phase One is locating and surveying the site and Phase Two is salvage. You really have to know the condition of the aircraft before you can be formulate a recovery plan. A plane could be in small pieces strewn over miles or a nearly intact fuselage. The capabilities exist in dozens of companies that service the offshore oil industry.

What part of the world is the plane in and how long has it been underwater? Also, what size is the plane and do you have any idea how it hit the water (angle and speed)? Is the main objective the plane and body or just the remains? Plane recovery can often be a delicate enough job that Saturation Divers are required instead of a much less expensive ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle).

The cost would be in the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.
 
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A salvage in 900FSW is not your problem, Getting the right equipment to the location of the wreck is. I'm guessing this the the same small aircraft were thinking about,
a small Beechcraft went down a couple of days ago off Samoa, Broke up on impact one body recovered on surface with some debris, Not much point to salvage even less as there is nothing capable in that part of the world.

I should add questions on sports divers forum is not going to get you far but if this VIP recovery is contemplated I would suggest you take a look at http://www.seabotix.com Its run by an old colleague of mine Don Rodocker ex development Engineering, Mara, Divex. He would be my first port of call, he has a very suitable small portable tool ROV very capable and experienced, and If I'm not mistaken he even made the hat Akinbo is wearing on his post.
 
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Great way to kill yourself ask Dave shaw. I'm not sure why you would ever need to send a human that deep anyway? What exactly can a person in full dry suit and pressurized to the limits of human anatomy do that a robot or exosuit cant? Or sub?
 
… I'm not sure why you would ever need to send a human that deep anyway? What exactly can a person in full dry suit and pressurized to the limits of human anatomy do that a robot or exosuit cant? Or sub?

Divers can still do a great deal of work that ROVs and one-atmosphere suits can't, especially on complex operations like large object recovery. Even large ROVs with force-feedback manipulators and tool pods can't come close to what a diver can do. Of course ROVs can work much deeper with far less support.

Look at this link. Saturation divers have never used dry suits, have been deeper than 900' decades ago, and have been operating 24/7 around the world since the mid-1970s. Saturation diving also has an impressive safety record considering the man-hours in the water and the majority of accidents have been industrial in nature. 900' is less than half the current known "limits of human anatomy".
 
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2Cold4

Not quite, the response I expected but allow me to tie up the loose ends for you with a bit of our diving history and why I made my original suggestion before you ridicule us further.

For this recovery no one advocated scuba diving, for my part the suggestion was to move it off a scuba forum and save all the chaff. But I am happy to follow up my original post to the OP with some hard fact and experience.

1. Below is a YouTube link to Acergy Diving working happily at 278MSW (912FSW) in 2009 from the DSV Acergy Harrier. Being that 278 MSW is around the OP's target 900 foot depth it is one option but at a huge unrealistic cost.

2. Also note the yellow SLS system and the Gas Services sticker for reference later.

3. Acergy Diving have now been taken over by SubSea7 but before that Acergy Diving were originally formed from a company called Stolt Nielsen ( I was a diver back then on the Seaway Swan 1980's) Stolt also took over Comex and became Stolt Comex Seaway.

Prior to this 1979 another company I worked for was Sub Sea International they were using a divers reclaim system I also worked on designed by Al Krasberg on the vessel MV Oil Endevour in 408FSW in the North Sea BP Forties Bravo. Back then Don Rodocker who I suggested to the OP worked for Krasberg.

Don left and developed his own reclaim system together with a company called Development Engineering a secondary support system or SLS the company back then was called Gas Services, the self same name as the sticker you see at 912 feet seawater in the video below. Prior to this he and Chris Delucci with a company called Saturation Systems built the stainless diving helmet I commented on Akimbo's avatar. (Unless its the Siebe Gorman Sea Crown prototype LOL)

Although it is said we learn nothing from history at least do us old timers the grace to hear our feeble comments. Besides as you say "pressurised to the limits of human anatomy what we can still do that a robot or exosuit or sub can't do is
If nothing else enjoy the music. All the best Iain Middlebrook


Deep Saturation Diving - YouTube
 
2Cold4

Not quite, the response I expected but allow me to tie up the loose ends for you with a bit of our diving history and why I made my original suggestion before you ridicule us further.

For this recovery no one advocated scuba diving, for my part the suggestion was to move it off a scuba forum and save all the chaff. But I am happy to follow up my original post to the OP with some hard fact and experience.

1. Below is a YouTube link to Acergy Diving working happily at 278MSW (912FSW) in 2009 from the DSV Acergy Harrier. Being that 278 MSW is around the OP's target 900 foot depth it is one option but at a huge unrealistic cost.

2. Also note the yellow SLS system and the Gas Services sticker for reference later.

3. Acergy Diving have now been taken over by SubSea7 but before that Acergy Diving were originally formed from a company called Stolt Nielsen ( I was a diver back then on the Seaway Swan 1980's) Stolt also took over Comex and became Stolt Comex Seaway.

Prior to this 1979 another company I worked for was Sub Sea Services they were using a divers reclaim system I also worked on designed by Al Krasberg on the vessel MV Oil Endevour in 408FSW in the North Sea BP Forties Bravo. Back then Don Rodocker who I suggested to the OP worked for Krasberg.

Don left and developed his own reclaim system together with a company called Development Engineering a secondary support system or SLS the company back then was called Gas Services, the self same name as the sticker you see at 912 feet seawater in the video below. Prior to this he and Chris Delucci with a company called Saturation Systems built the stainless diving helmet I commented on Akimbo's avatar. (Unless its the Siebe Gorman Sea Crown prototype LOL)

Although it is said we learn nothing from history at least do us old timers the grace to hear our feeble comments. Besides as you say "pressurised to the limits of human anatomy what we can still do that a robot or exosuit or sub can't do is
If nothing else enjoy the music. All the best Iain Middlebrook


Deep Saturation Diving - YouTube

I don't mean to ridicule you and I am aware that there are many things that a diver can do that a robot can't at 900fsw, body recovery is not one of those things. Even if it was, I don't think the risk posed by putting a diver, however well trained, into 900fsw is worth a body. Very few things are worth putting a diver into that much danger for. And please don't kid yourself, I would venture to guess that only a handful of people on this board, if that, have gone that deep.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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