Topic: Recovery Made with 1197

[doo600]

1st time out with the new boat and the 1197. They have me checking an area not near the last seen point. Finally they move divers out of the way and I get a chance to do a quick pass. I sweep through the area and located the victim on the side imager. It couldn't have been a better picture. Reported it to command and for some reason they didn't want to believe me. After screwing around for awhile they gave me divers. I told the divers "You're victim is 20 feet away, you're gonna find him in no time" they gave me a look like, yeah right. Not even 30 seconds into the pull I heard the divers thru the wireless headset "We have a victim" Victim recovered. Showed the side scan sonar team and they were amazed at the quality picture. I think we made believers out of a lot of firefighters and command staff yesterday.

I'd post the pictures but I'd be afraid these would get circulated. Gotta try and protect the family.

Article in paper "Around 7:35 p.m., boats began converging around a point just short of a no-swimming barrier. Lewis said crews were led to the area of recovery by a sonar hit, and the victim's body was pulled from the water at 7:40 p.m."

[RGecy]

doo600,

Congratulations!  We are slowly making believers out of the SAR community.

As for the pictures we have just started a private SAR Forum for SAR members only to post and review images like this for educational and training purposes only.

We ask that no personal or geographic information is provided to keep the source or identity confidential.  It sounds like you captured a great image and we would certainly like to share this with other SAR members.

Robert

[doo600]

Deleted photo

[pmburesh]

Congrats, Doo600.
We use the 1197 here in Kentucky and have great success even in shallow water. Personally I think our 1197 works as good or better than the high priced units out there.
Thanks for the job that you do and as a fellow SAR team mate, Good Show

[sonar2000]

Great find.  Do you have any run with the side distance set to 25 or 30 feet since you are in 8 feet of water?
also nice that the bottom was clear.  Can you imagine if the bottom was littered with trees, debris and other objects? 

Great start on the long road of sonar.......

Chuck

[doo600]

The area was littered with Coast Guard, Sheriff and FD rescue boats so getting near the last seen point required patience. Command doesn't really understand this technology yet and I had to fight to get a clean pass without divers in the water doing shore based patterns. I would have liked to get multiple close up views but I did want to do the recovery quick. I was sent to the outside perimeter when I reported the hit until they finally assigned me divers. Put the divers on my tow bar and found him in 30 seconds. Able to bring an end to a horrific day for the family pretty quick.

[Rickard]

doo600,

What frequency did you use, 455 or 800 kHz?

Rickard

[doo600]

I used 455. I haven't been a big fan of 800 but then again I haven't used it much.

 I can tell you that we have a side scan sonar team with a $40,000 plus tow fish. They did a sweep after me, the powers at be have more confidence in there abilities then my little $3,000 unit. I showed the SSS team the pictures I had and they were very impressed. They said my picture was actually better than what they had. They could tell something was there but could not make out the victim. I think everyone is sold on this unit.

[calli1]

Such a great story.  I have told our local rescue folks that if needed...I would lend a hand with my 898 SI.