Topic: Assistance in victim location NC

[sonar2000]

Hi group....does anyone have (that is in the vicinity of Kerr Lake in North Carolina) an ROV..  We have a side image of great interest but have not found divers who can get to the depth.  (20 meters).  We would like now to try ROV to look at target...

Any help greatly appreciated by family and of course our team..


Chuck 

[sonar2000]

still looking.....
chuck

[Bob B]

Chuck....Can't do anything but pray for the family and SAR on this one.

[nediver]

As a very experienced diver myself I can say 60 feet is no big deal-none at all unless it's thru the ice, or in a heavy current etc. or in "black" water; How is it there are no divers anywhere to check it out? No fire or fish & game divers? State Police? Are they not taking you seriously?

Get a fix on it with your GPS in the H-Bird-lock it in for future reference and write them down (make sure you record the map datum you are using-should be WGS84 and also know where in the unit to retrieve the Lat/Lon of the TARGET with the crosshairs on it-the Lat/Lon on the image is NOT the Lat/Lon of the target you mark with the cursor); I get frustrated hearing these stories-so frustrated I'm tempted to come down from New Hampshire and dive it myself; I've looked for bodies, guns, boats, cars, rolex watches-all sorts of things-let me know; Call me if you like at home/603-778-8939.
HH

[sonar2000]

What happens these days is that dive teams are not trained to do what they say they can.  60 feet is no big deal until you add in the 1 foot or less vis, dark, cold, and in trees.  Then it sorts out the men from the boys...

We have an interesting target in the tree tops but would like to confirm with camera before sending divers down.

Yes there are all kinds of teams here but few that can deliver the service. 

And tools such as ROV are hard to budget...


Chuck

[Bobby J]

If you can convince local Emergency Management that you have a find they have the power and resources to do what is needed.

[sonar2000]

Local and regional EM were there.
Chuck

[Bobby J]

Has this one been found yet? I contacted another K-9 team and they have two water HRD k-9 and can use them, they are contacting a local dive team for there stats and dive ability if needed. i am trying to contact another, team i have worked with and see what they can dive too.

[sonar2000]

Not located yet.  Have put several dogs in the area and they are mildy interested.
 No specific location so no divers until we can pinpoint a location of 25 foot circle. 
Our possible area is probably 3500 feet by 5000 feet.  60 to 80 feet deep..
sonar is not showing anything of particular interest. However much logs and big boulders with tree stands of 18 to 27 feet tall.  Logs or debris in the tree tops...
Because of the depths we really need an ROV and the Marine biology may be helping with this.
Chuck

[Bobby J]

Ok if i can help let me know. We have great K-9. May work better. Still no word from the divers.

[sonar2000]

Thanks, what we really need now is an ROV.  Dogs do indicate a slight interest in a large area but that point varies based on current and wind conditions.

Sonar is confused because of the tree stands and logs littering the tree tops and bottom.

We are really leaning on an ROV to spot check the deep places where sonar may produce a likeable target.

We only want to splash divers when we have the definate target due largely to the depth and entanglement opportunities. Safety first..

Thanks, chuck

[Bobby J]

Any updated  info on the search?

[sonar2000]

Bobby, sorry I should have updated this earlier..Thanks for the reminder..
The victim floated 28 days after submerging.
While dogs alterted in the general area, sonar did not produce any targets of interest. This is both surface and towed fish units, (side Scan and side imageing)....
We were finall able to obtain a small rov but the depths and area proved a challange to the operator.
Due in large to the underwater terrain and the depths (we saw 990 feet as the max with average of 70 feet) (coupled with no viz) divers were unable to spend any time at depth. Sequential dives were also governed by surface intervals.
Due largely to depth and bottom debris drags were not viable in this operation.
I think we were in a rock and a hard place on this one.
We were using the MST 900 for tow.....Dont know if the 1200 would have been any better..
Maybe a larger more expensive ROV might have helped. But without the availability we will only be guessing...
While the float time was normal, it was still exhausting on the resources. A lot of man hours were consumed.
Thanks for your interest and we have added your org to our resource list for future incidents..
Chuck