Water Recovery

[ladylaw203]

I was contacted by the dept that I retired from this morning
referrence a drowning. I had to work tonight so I could not bring the dog
until tommorrow,however, they have the same new side scan sonar that I have.
They had many witnesses all indicating the same place in the river where he went
down. current @ 3.5knots,water temp 80degrees. I told them to get all those
goofs dragging outa there and put the sidescan right where he went down and
start slow spirals. I told them he had not moved and he was right where he
went down. Ship traffic had been shut down by the USCG
They just called me and he was right where I told them he would be. I make
more recoveries over the phone than I do in person. hahahaha

Seriously, hard to beat a side scan IF one knows how to read it. If there are reliable witnesses able to pinpoint where the subject went down,side scan is the tool. If we do not know where the subject went down,the dogs help get us to the area and then I run side scan to find him. Saves a lot of time and stress on divers. The hitch is getting everyone else out of the water dragging because it rolls them. Some positions are easier to see on side scan than others.

[jocoyn]

We had a find a few months ago where they swore the current "had to have carried him downstream" and they even shut off the dam to "keep him from moving". [big river with multiple dams]

Dogs said body was right where eyewitnesses said he fell out of boat. He was.

[ladylaw203]

Yep. Had every fed in the world out there dragging. I told the guys,he is right where went down. They let the others drag somewhere else,put the sonar there,and poof,there he was.
Sidescan sonar is a good investment. They have ordered a training dummy and we are going to get out into the water and put him everywhere. Interpretation of what you are seeing is very important with sidescan because they do not always look like a human laying there