Posted on 01/06/2018 2:03:08 AM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
he U.S. Navy has located a transport aircraft deep on the Pacific Ocean floor where it crashed in November, killing three sailors on board.
The C-2A "Greyhound" aircraft, which was traveling to the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan when it crashed the day before Thanksgiving in the Philippine Sea, rests at a depth of about 18,500 feet (5,640 meters), the Japan-based 7th Fleet said in a statement Saturday.
Salvaging it will be the deepest recovery attempt of an aircraft to date, the Navy said.
The plane was located last week by a contracted salvage vessel that deployed a pinger locator that picked up the aircraft's emergency signal. After marking the location, the search team returned to port in Japan.
In the coming weeks, the team will return to the site with a side-scan sonar and remote operated vehicle to map the debris field and attach heavy lines for lifting the aircraft to the surface, the statement said.
It’s either that or leave classified cargo where any munchkin can recover it.
It’s a lot less challenging than picking up a submarine...
You think so? The plane is sitting at over twice the crush depth of a modern submarine, which means they would have to deploy a sumersible, a salvage ship and all of the associated support personnel. It's not cheap and not something anyone could do in secret.
A little hyperbole. Still, Russia or China might be able to do it. And depending on the cargo, they might be motivated enough to try.
For some reason this thing reminds me of the Caribou I used to get rides on.
This is mainly a remains and black box recovery effort. The remains for obvious humanitarian reasons and the black boxes for the information they will provide on the causes of the crash. If it was aboard and can be located in the debris field, recovery of classified material would be accomplished for accountability purposes. Beyond these, item recovery would have to yield something critical to understanding the accident (say, like a prop that had its blades reversed or a nacelle showing evidence of a turbine explosion).
According to the report, the Navy only really knows where the black box pingers are and their depth. How intact the aircraft is will determine what pieces if any are brought to the surface.
Could go either way.
During the 1980s, the fuselage of a USMC CH-53 was lifted relatively intact from the waters between mainland Japan and Okinawa to recover the bodies of the 20 or so Marines who died while making a logistics flight between MCAS Iwakuni and MCAS Futenma (sp). However, those waters were, relatively speaking, quite a bit shallower and it crashed at a relatively low speed and altitude. If the C-2 impacted at a higher speed and/or went in from a higher altitude, they are going to be searching for body parts, etc. among a lot of badly fragmented aircraft parts scattered on the bottom. If the bottom is mountainous (like that passenger jet crash in the mid-Atlantic some years ago), the search will be vertical as well as horizontal.
Reminds me of the Glomar Explorer, used drill casing to lower a huger underwater claw assembly to raise the bow of a Soviet sub.
I think they will use a combination of a petroleum filled tanker and lifting cable, tanker is filled completely with kerosene or even gasoline, no air pockets, has detachable ballast to sink it,ROV attaches slings to aircraft to tank, drop ballast, weight is greatly reduced, depends on how much lift they need, you can only wind so much heavy lift cable on a winch for that depth.
I’m not a salvage expert but my job involves boom trucks and rigging.
Good points all.
Not easy to do but very doable. The offshore oil business does this kind of thing at 10,000. It isn’t routine but nobody says, “That’s nuts.” They just do it.
Yep and the reason there were 20 was the other bird had the General's brass furniture. Didn't spread load the pax.
Crap! Sorry to learn that.
Toward the end of my 23 year career in the Marine Corps, I really did not like to ride in helicopters. I was hearing about way too many people I knew being involved in accidents or near accidents and, counting my own adventures in vertical take off and landing, I felt like a fugitive from the law of averages.
Service in the armed forces is dangerous enough even when you do everything correctly. But dying because of furniture; that just sucks.
To be fair, half would have died anyway. Tranny filter that shouldn’t have been able to be installed upside down; was. This crash made them fix that. Gen Peterson was rumored to ask if his furniture was on the down bird when the mishap was reported.
Since you seem to have inside knowledge regarding the accident, when they made the tranny filter fix, was there any feedback on how many other CH-53s also had the tranny filter installed upside down as well?
Was it a case of we had just been damn lucky previously and our luck finally ran out? Or was this really the first instance of upside down Installation and it cost us the lives of 20 Marines?
yep at 3 miles cable stretch just from the cables own weight on itself makes it nearly impossible. Many moons ago I logged wells in the oilfield at about a mile and the cable stretch for a 1” cable was ridiculous with only some electronic tools at the end.
I rescind my comment...I’m misremembering it wasn’t 1 mile it was 26kft...I know it was 20 years ago, but how could I forget that?
Had the pilots been able to spread loads their pax, their would have been fewer casualties.
Thanks.
My involvement with the accident came at the very end. I was S-4, H&S Bn, 3rd FSSG and got a call from the Camp Kinser Camp Commandant on a Friday afternoon (literally at 16:30) saying that he needed 4 5-ton trucks for an urgent mission that would last all weekend. He couldn’t give me any details but emphasized that the mission was RIGHT NOW urgent. Once I understood, I called the MTO to round up the needed drivers and get the trucks dispatched. Then I went to meet the Camp Commandant (a fellow Captain) at the Armed Forces Mortuary (also aboard Camp Kinser) so that he could fill me in. The MTO joined us there a little later.
The Camp Commandant was already there directing a working party from his office putting up GP tents behind the facility. He briefed me on the recovery of the CH-53 fuselage, the transport of the tarp covered fuselage aboard the flight deck of a Navy LPD to White Beach and that the trucks were needed to transport caskets, embalming fluids, and other supplies from warehouse storage to the tents outside the mortuary.
The director of the mortuary gave us a tour of the facility and an overview of how the Marine’s remains would be processed. The remains were still being removed from the fuselage and had not yet begun to arrive at the mortuary. Anticipating our question, she informed us that her staff would be the only persons dealing with the remains. All I and the Camp Commandant were responsible for was providing trucks and working parties to assist them in periodically drawing and transporting additional supplies from stores to replenish items being taken from the tents. The mortuary staff normally did everything themselves but, in this case, with so many remains to be processed quickly, they needed outside logistics help.
We, of course, were glad to help them - even in a small way - to perform this last duty for our fellow Marines.
Yeah, body recovery is the closest thing we have to sacredness. An honor and a sadness at the same time.
YOKOSUKA, Japan - The Navy says a mission to map the wreckage of a C-2A Greyhound aircraft that crashed last year in the Philippine Sea has revealed that the plane is sitting in two main sections on the ocean floor.
The C-2A Greyhound was on the way to the USS Ronald Reagan when it crashed on November 22, 2017.
Assigned to Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VRC 30) forward deployed to Japan, the C-2A was carrying 11 crew and passengers at the time.
Eight people were recovered immediately by Navy helicopters, while three others died.
A team of deep water salvage experts led by United States Navy's Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV) deployed from Washington, D.C. to find the plane.
They searched for the aircraft’s emergency relocation pinger with a Navy-owned towed pinger locator system. It uses passive sensors to “listen” for the pinger’s frequency.
Initially delayed by poor weather conditions, the team found the aircraft on December 29, 2017 and after marking the aircraft’s location, the search team returned to port.
From February 2-5, a research vessel side scan sonar and remote operated vehicle mapped the wreckage.
They determined the aircraft is in two main sections on the ocean floor: cockpit and fuselage.
They also determined the flight recorder, or black box, is still intact.
The Navy is still planning to salvage the wreckage, but warn the environmental challenges will be very difficult.
The plane is more than 18,000 feet below the surface, making it the deepest recovery ever attempted. The team will have to deal with deep water rigging and weather that could impact the recovery.
An investigation into the crash is ongoing.
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