Phoenix International News

Phoenix International Holdings, under the direction of the U.S. Navy’s Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV), have recovered the remaining debris of the Titan submersible from the North Atlantic seafloor near the RMS Titanic shipwreck.Work was performed using Phoenix’s Remora remotely operated vehicle (ROV). This 20,000 ft rated vehicle, designed and built by Phoenix, was used to map, locate, and recover Titan submersible debris at a depth of 12,500 feet. This was a follow…

Commercial divers recently helped a tanker return to service after suffering major propeller damage in the Port of Corpus Christi.Phoenix International Holdings, Inc. said its commercial ship husbandry division recently responded to a call from the stricken 330-meter vessel in 60-feet of water in Corpus Christi, Texas.Upon mobilizing a fly away dive spread and dive team, the project manager Errol Gritten performed the complex mathematics involved in calculating the mass loss of the damage to restore hydrodynamic balance.

Phoenix International Holdings Inc. announced it has been awarded a $112 million cost-plus-award-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for worldwide undersea deep ocean search and recovery operations and engineering and technical support to the U.S. Navy Director of Ocean Engineering, Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV). Work will be performed worldwide and is expected to be completed in September 2027.Commenting on the award, Phoenix President Patrick Keenan stated, “Phoenix has a long history of providing undersea operations services to the U.S.

The U.S. Navy said it has retrieved a fighter jet that was lost from an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea last month.The F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft, which blew off the deck of the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) in "unexpected heavy weather" on July 8, was recovered by a team from Task Force (CTF) 68, Naval Sea Systems Command's Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV), Harry S. Truman, Naval Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic, and U.S. Sixth Fleet embarked on the multi-purpose…

Subsea marine services company Phoenix International Holdings, Inc. announced that Michael Sonnenberg has joined the company as general manager of its Norfolk, Va. office.As a U.S. Navy Master Diver, Master Chief, and Master Training Specialist-Instructor, Sonnenberg brings to Phoenix 29 years of experience in air and mixed gas diving, salvage and underwater ship husbandry. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Organizational Leadership from Thomas Edison State University.Patrick Keenan…

Salvors have started removing fuel from the tanks of a lift boat that capsized in the Gulf of Mexico last month, the U.S. Coast Guard said.The 234-foot Seacor Power could have been carrying up to 35,000 gallons of fuel, lube oil, hydraulic and waste oil when it overturned in rough weather on April 13, about eight miles south of Port Fourchon, La., according to the Coast Guard. No spills have been reported.Salvage crews arrived at the wreck site over the weekend and began lightering operations on Monday using a method called hot tapping…

The U.S. Navy uses unmanned and robotic underwater vehicles for a multitude of functions, including environmental sensing, mine hunting, and salvage. The Navy plans to evolve an unmanned systems operating concept that is platform agnostic and capable of operating in highly complex contested environments with minimal operator interaction.The most recent edition of the Navy’s Unmanned Systems (UxS) Roadmap was issued in 2018, and a new version is expected in the near future. The 2018 document states that UxS will operate in every domain…

Greensea recently added key personnel to its engineering team in its Plymouth, Mass., office to support their hull robotics program. James Truman, Senior Robotics Engineer, is leading the development of Greensea’s latest technology, a hull crawling robot with precise hull-relative navigation and autonomy capabilities. Assisting James on the hull robotics program is Sam Fladung, Robotics Engineer.“James is one of the best engineers I know. I first met him at graduate school and then worked with him at Phoenix International,” said Greensea CEO, Ben Kinnaman.

U.S.-based marine services contractor Phoenix International Holdings, Inc. announced that Matthew Long has been promoted to Corporate Vice President. Long will retain his current duties as General Manager of Phoenix’s Largo, Md. operations, and in his additional role as Corporate VP will assume responsibilities for company-wide financial forecasting, reporting and budgeting.A retired U.S. Navy Engineering Duty Officer and diver, Long has decades of experience managing technically challenging marine engineering projects worldwide.

Malaysian integrated oil and gas services company Sapura Energy Berhad has been awarded five new contracts valued at approximately RM1.3 billion ($US311 million).All five contracts have been awarded to the Sapura’s wholly owned subsidiaries, with works to take place in Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and the Gulf of Suez."The contract wins demonstrate Sapura Energy’s continued pursuit to deepen its presence in existing core markets, break into new markets and expand its scope of services," said a press release.The growing orderbook is expected to increase asset utilisation for the Group and contribute to improving its financial performance.

As a result of a collision with an underwater obstruction in the Mississippi river, a down-bound fully laden bulk carrier suffered a flooded forepeak tank and was unable to trim to a shallow enough draft to continue her transit. Stuck at anchor in the middle of the river, her owners contacted an independent marine surveyor for assistance. Because Phoenix International had performed previous successful operations for the selected survey company, the vessel was immediately referred to Phoenix for assessment and resolution of the problem.

The voyage data recorder (VDR) from El Faro, a U.S. flagged cargo ship that sank during Hurricane Joaquin in October 2015, has been recovered from the ocean floor late Monday evening, the U.S. National Transportation Board (NTSB) said. The recovery of the capsule caps a 10-month-long effort to retrieve the recorder, which was designed to record navigational data and communications between crewmembers on the ship’s bridge. Investigators hope the recorder will reveal information about the final hours of El Faro’s voyage and the circumstances leading up to the sinking.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will launch its third mission to the wreckage of the El Faro on Friday from Virginia Beach, Virginia. The mission’s primary objective is to retrieve the sunken cargo ship’s voyage data recorder. The Military Sealift Command’s fleet ocean tug USNS Apache is expected to arrive at the accident site around August 9. Along with the NTSB, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy, and Phoenix International are joining the recovery effort, using CURV-21…

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it is set to launch a mission to recover the voyage data recorder (VDR) of sunken cargo ship El Faro. The VDR, belonging to U.S. flagged El Faro which sank during Hurricane Joaquin last October, was located April 26 in about 15,000 feet of water near the Bahamas. The El Faro wreckage was positively identified on November 1, 2015, during the NTSB’s initial mission to locate the wreckage. Video gained from remotely operated…

Vesper Marine, a manufacturer of marine safety products and virtual Aids to Navigation (ATON), announced that its Virtual AIS Beacons are employed in the search for lost Malaysian airliner MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. The international search team is a closely coordinated effort between United States-based Phoenix International, Dutch engineering company Fugro and the governments of Australia and Malaysia. After an exhaustive period of mapping the ocean floor, the on-the-water search is focused on an area of ocean roughly twice the size of Massachusetts.

US Department of Defense inform that Phoenix International Holdings Inc., Largo, Maryland, is being awarded a $75,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-award fee contract for worldwide undersea deep ocean search and recovery operations and associated services to support the Director of Ocean Engineering, Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV). DoD explains that this contract allows the Navy to meet its responsibility for deep ocean search and recovery established under the Salvage Facilities Act. In addition to providing support for a wide variety of search, recovery, and rescue operations, the contract includes services to warehouse, maintain, deploy and operate a wide variety of Navy-owned equipment.

American Worldwide Agencies (AWA) is adding to its global network of freight forwarders and agents with a new office in Houston, the company announced today. The Houston office is part of AWA's global expansion plans and will handle the company's growing business in the region for project freight, oil and gas, breakbulk and containerized cargo moves. "Houston is the number one U.S. port in foreign tonnage and is the largest Gulf Coast container port," says Andrew Scott, AWA's CEO. "It also is in major growth mode, with both imports and exports on the rise. "We take a team approach to handling cargo and we have many vendors in the region who are experts at managing containerized, ocean, air, oil & gas and oversized shipments," says Scott. Reagan Jones has been tapped to head the new office.

Heeding the call to join “An Ocean in Common,” authors flooded the Oceans ‘13 MTS/IEEE San Diego technical program committee with a record number of abstracts in a single day. Special topics include an Ultra-deep track discussing current and prospective robotic technologies, plus a panel of scientists to consider research questions. Oceans2013 Chair Bob Wernli, and Co-Chair Kevin Hardy, developer of the unmanned landers for James Cameron’s DeepSea Challenge Expedition, will be the session conveners. “James’ intention is to be certain the door remains open to other explorers,” Hardy said.

C.H. Robinson Worldwide to acquire Phoenix International for $571.5 million in cash & about $63.5 million in newly-issued C.H. Robinson stock. Founded in 1905, C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc., is a global provider of multimodal transportation services and logistics solutions, serving over 37,000 customers through a network of 234 offices in North America, Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia. Phoenix,  headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, is a privately-held international freight forwarder. In its most recently completed fiscal year, as of June 30, 2012, Phoenix generated gross revenues of approximately $807 million, net revenues of approximately $161 million and adjusted operating income of approximately $48 million.

Following the discovery of a potential debris field at Amelia Earhart’s proposed crash site offshore Nikumaroro Island in the Western Pacific, Sonardyne International Ltd is now able to reveal that it’s Ranger 2 USBL tracking system together with a Lodestar GyroUSBL was the acoustic positioning technology of choice for the mission. Provided to Phoenix International, the expedition contractor, Ranger 2 was used to position both the ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) and AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) used in the underwater searches. The U.S.

Acoustic positioning technology from Sonardyne Inc, Houston, was selected to play a key role in a recent expedition aiming to solve one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century. A Bluefin Robotics AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) was equipped with a Sonardyne Ranger 2 underwater target tracking system which was used by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) to search for the remains of the Lockhead Electra aircraft flown by Amelia Earhart during her failed circumnavigation attempt in 1937.

1 Engineering & Manufacturing (1EM) is an engineering and manufacturing company in the United States specializing in the provision of advanced manned and unmanned intervention systems for the sub-sea oil and gas industry. After acquiring and-renaming the large-scale fabrication and engineering unit previously owned by France-based Veolia Environmental Services, the new U.S.-based owners of 1 Engineering & Manufacturing (1EM) say they have moved quickly to triple their operating capacity as demand for energy production and transportation equipment grows. Business partners Mark Berge and Todd Marohl launched 1 Engineering & Manufacturing…

Naval Sea System Command's (NAVSEA) Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV) conducted the recovery of the engines and other components of an EA-6B "Prowler" Aug. 17-20. The plane crashed near Feb. 12. The recovery utilized the Navy's remotely operated vehicle (ROV) "Deep Drone" operating from the Military Sealift Command's USNS Salvor (T-ARS 52). The EA-6B crashed into the in 6,500 feet of water while conducting night landing qualifications. The recovery operation was performed in order to assist the crash investigation in determining the cause of the accident and the possible implication it may have on the rest of the EA-6B inventory. Deep Drone is the Navy's workhorse ROV designed to meet the Navy's mid-water salvage requirements down to a maximum depth of 8,000 feet of seawater.