Content area
Full Text
Organized, Equipped, Trained to React to Disasters; First Survey & Salvage Unit On Scene of Alaska Air Flight 261 Crash into Pacific Ocean
The U.S. Navy Deep Submergence Unit (DSU) provides submarine rescue services for the U.S. Navy and through mutual agreements to many nations around the world. DSU is located at a military airport, Naval Air Station North Island (Coronado, California) in order to allow access to the largest cargo plane in the U.S. military inventory, the U.S. Air Force C-5 Galaxy. All rescue equipment: submersibles, ROVs, and side-scan sonar systems can be loaded on a Galaxy and flown anywhere in the world. DSU's ability to quickly respond to a disaster is the foundation of the Navy's submarine rescue program.
A recent tragic event illustrates how rapidly DSU can respond. When Alaska Air Flight 261 crashed into the ocean off Port Hueneme, California, DSU was the first survey and salvage unit to respond to the scene with an ROV, side-scan sonar system, salvage gear and support ship. Within two hours of launching the ROV, the first of two "black" boxes, the cockpit voice recorder, was recovered from a depth of 640 feet. Within 24 hours of arriving on scene the flight-data recorder was recovered and an initial survey of the debris field was complete. The vehicle used for this operation was an AMETEK Super Scorpio.
DSU is organized into four seagoing divisions or detachments (Diving Systems Support Detachment, DSRV Avalon Detachment, DSRV Mystic Detachment, and Unmanned Vehicles Detachment) and a shore support organization. Three on-site contractors [Marine Systems of Lockheed Martin Services Inc., Oceaneering International (Houston, Texas), and Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc. (Cambridge, Massachussets)] which provide engineering, design and repair services.
Diving Systems Support Det. Diving Systems Support Detachment (DSSD) operates both the oldest and newest equipment at DSU. Currently, DSSD divers are in the initial phase of pier-testing their newest arrival, a 2,000-foot capable Hard Suit manufactured by Hard Suits Inc. (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) The Hard Suit 2000 and supporting launch and recovery system manufactured by Dynacon Inc. (Bryan, Texas) are part of the atmospheric diving system (ADS). Four hard suits are scheduled for delivery to DSU over the next couple of years. The ADS, a tethered, oneatmosphere, manned diving...